America's Cup

Went to a Land Rover road show at the Land Rover BAR HQ today. Some of the technology is incredible. The boat can do 60mph. I had a go on a winch grinding machine. 30 seconds. After 10 when the guy said ‘that’s 10 seconds done’ I tihough ‘oh hello, I’m in trouble ere’. 20 seconds later thought that was the end of me. The grinders apparently do it for 10 mins or so…. anyway, good luck to the team In a few weeks.

What about cycling WinchWenches?

Ben Ainslie has written a bit in one of today’s papers. The New Zealand boat use bike power instead of the more traditional hand/arm grinders. I guess more power with pedals, but, BA says, it’s not so easy to move around. Allstarts a two weeks.

Got free tickets from the Club but gave them to some rather excited 15yr olds, hope they had fun in Pompy.

Bens been around, with Ian, still great down to earth blokes on a world stage.

Looking forward to the competition, there’s an app that covers all races and live vid feeds too.

Enjoy.

IIRC Paul Elvstrom designed an earlier America’s cup 12 metre with the winches being pedal powered. An added bonus was that with the grinders below deck there was less windage. It never caught on then either 😀

All kicks off tomorrow. Chances of Ainslie and LR-BAR winning?

good article here about the rivalry between sir ben and the US team:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2017/05/24/sir-ben-ainslie-jimmy-spithill-forging-americas-cup-rivalry/

Why would you need to grind solidly for 10 minutes?

Tacks are supposed to be quick, so a 20-40 second blast should be enough?

Edit: Yay BAR FTW.

Goslings, ice, ginger beer and lime at the ready. I really hope BAR can make it through, or failing that Artemis. Nice to see a thread here – sailing anarchy is a tad vitriolic.

I believe the grinders also provide power for all the hydraulic systems to raise, lower and control the foils. Hence they have to be worked for more than tacking & gybing.
Anyone got a good link for following the racing when it starts? (I dont have BT sport).

Tacks are supposed to be quick, so a 20-40 second blast should be enough?

Yes, but if you are in a tacking duel, you’ll be doing multiple tacks for as long as the grinders can keep going.

We’ve got live feeds at the Club, I expect it’ll be rammed with BAR supporters.. 😀

Starts tomorrow night, just as the bar opens 😆

I believe the grinders also provide power for all the hydraulic systems to raise, lower and control the foils. Hence they have to be worked for more than tacking & gybing.

Wow, that sounds unpleasant.

Yes, but if you are in a tacking duel, you’ll be doing multiple tacks for as long as the grinders can keep going.

Good point, but you do get some rest between.

Tens of millions of pounds to go at 60mph!?

Stick a great big engine on it! 😀

10s of millions and still dependent on the weather too 🙂 looking a bit lively tomorrow.

Yeah, it’s just like an interval session, far easier.

Yep, all the boats hydralic systems (for boards/foils, wing etc) have to be driven by power generated on board, so in theory the ‘cyclors’ should give a significant advantage as they’ll be more hydraulics available (e.g. for ‘pumping’ the top sections of the wing, as has been discussed online somewhere).

For coverage, I think BT Sport have announced they will show it all free-to-air over a free view channel and on Sky and Virgin, without needing a BT Sport subscription. Yay!

Edit:
Looks like BT are showing some of it free, but not all:
http://sport.bt.com/more-sport-hub/more-sport/bt-sport-unveils-schedule-for-americas-cup-this-summer-S11364182779689

My understanding is that the Landrover BAR boat is just too slow in a straight line. It only won one race in the final practice races. The Japanese boat (Softbank?) was v quick

60mph my arse. Also considerably slower than a tiny kite surfer. No wonder they changed the rules to stop kite surfers being eligible for the sailing speed record. Thumbs up to top bloke Ben and BAR though.

60mph my arse. Also considerably slower than a tiny kite surfer. No wonder they changed the rules to stop kite surfers being eligible for the sailing speed record. Thumbs up to top bloke Ben and BAR though.

Yeah, but how much time does a kite surfer spend in contact with the water? I think there’s a bit of a clue in the name…
And they’re not ‘sailing’, either, it’s a board with a kite attached, not a boat, or a yacht.
It’s a yacht race, there’s a difference.

Now this is a racing yacht…

Happy days – I flippin loved it last time around and my minted mate who got interested when I showed him the youchoob channel ended up doing some of the Clipper.

From last time around – http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-sailing-americas-cup-nz-vs-usa-pretty-cool-stuff

Hey Count Z, notice the foils hanging of your boat? Not much of the boat spends time in the water. And kite surfers slow down in the air. They need rail contact to generate drive, otherwise they travel at wind speed at a max.

As is normal for the AC, the first days racing has been delayed due to strong winds. Races will resume on Saturday.

It’s a bit annoying these rules, but IIRC there is an upper wind limit in the rules that is set at something like 25knts..

I spent 9 weeks in Valencia in 09 watching the AC in the old IACC monohulls, whilst it was utterly amazebalz there were some very frustrating days spend ashore whilst the wind topped 25knts and yet the sea state was less choppy than the Solent..

Also, rumour has it the AC might return to Monohulls again…

Yep. There’s always been a lot of waiting.

I’d put money on these boats beating any kite around a course. There’s a huge difference between straight line speed and actually having to go somewhere. They’ll point both higher and deeper, vmg will be off the scale compared to kites.
Certainly a kite is quick on a broad reach, but this racing isn’t that.

True dat. I do remember Robert Teriitehau beating a French 12m Cup boat on a windsurfer though. And that was on a normal triangle.

I had always thought waiting til the wind drops was just for wimps.

But earlier this week I was in Tarifa for a spot of windsurfing and some days it was blowing 55 knots plus. That’s a force 11. The biggest sail anybody was using was a 2.7m. At home, my most used sails are 8.4 and 7.2. And I think I’ve got a 3.4m which I have hardly used since I bought it in 1994.

I waited.

I went along to the appropriately named Hurricane Hotel where it is a bit more sheltered and went out on a 4m. Got tossed about like a rag doll.

Anybody think of a more appropriate activity for a fat 63yr old?

Nope, absolutely crack on 8)

Stop when you can no longer waterstart..

I’d like to see a kite surfer that qualified under the rules for craft entering the America’s Cup. 😀 Assuming that they’ve not changed them too much.

Mind you, I lost a lot of interest when they moved from 12 metre boats.

Progress, bah, humbug.

Why would you need to grind solidly for 10 minutes?

Tacks are supposed to be quick, so a 20-40 second blast should be enough?

Hydraulic accumulators, the power goes into those and then they use that to run the control systems.

That and rule 42 has been suspended so they can pump* the wingsail, it’ll be interesting to see if all the extra power ETNZ have will get them foiling sooner/longer.

*for anyone not familiar with sailing, watch windsurfing, pull the sail in and rock the boat to windward violently whilst rounding up into the wind, then bear away as the velocity header hits to keep speed, and repeat. It’s knackering, but adds a lot of speed to a light boat if you can keep it up for more than a few attempts. Rule 42 is the rule that bans it (“a boat shall compete by using only the wind and water to increase, maintain or decrease her speed. Her crew may adjust the trim of sails and hull, and perform other acts of seamanship, but shall not otherwise move their bodies to propel the boat”)

Also, rumour has it the AC might return to Monohulls again…

Cat’s out of the bag now, why would they go back to 12’s or IACC when a production gunboat could beat them whilst the helms wife supps a G&T on the foredeck.

I’d like to see less reliance on tech though, it get’s dull when one boat just wins race after race.

I never understood the IACC boats. They wanted a change from the Twelves as the boat were not used for anything else and then opted for a boat whose sole use is the competition.

At least the Twelves could be raced in classic events and were great sea boats.

IIRC they’d stop sailing the IACCs when the wind got above 20 knots, when a Twelve is just gathering her skirts and getting up to pace.

They are beautiful boats too, well above the waterline anyway.

Let’s see a return to the J class. 😀 Probably cheaper that the foilers and better for match racing.

Bring back, Conner, Blackaller, Turner, **** it, even Dixon.

The day I find I can no longer waterstart might be the day I stop doing quite a few things. (Gulp)

Kiwi big boats for all:

That was when Conner sailed a cat in the Cup, First ever multihull to take part .

The New Zealander’s claimed that the Deed of Gift had never been changed to allow a boat with shorter waterline length than the stated one of 90 feet if memory serves.

They built that monster of 120 feet overall. Conner responded with a 60 foot long catamaran 😀 Gotta love a lateral thinker.

i remember watching the racing, at times Connor was intentionally sailing badly so that the gap didn’t look so ridiculous. It wasn’t really in the spirit but Fay (the kiwi that put in the challenge) should really have checked his facts a bit more before stumping up the cash!

Conner was real character, I loved him and the era of the Twelves.

He was having a pop at Chris Dixon, accusing the Kiwis of cheating by building their boats in glass fibre when every other 12 metre had been in aluminium.

He reckoned it was so the could make the end of the boat thinner in construction, when the rules demand an equal skin thickness throughout the hull. Easy to check with aluminium, nigh on impossible with glass fibre except by drilling holes in it.

Dixon’s reply to the request was “over my dead body”. Conner, without batting an eyelid retorted ” I can live with that”. Even Dixon had to chuckle.

His time keeping at the start of a race was phenomenal, inch perfect on the line, every time.

First man to lose the America’s Cup, and the first to win it back.

It’s on live now, Freeview channel 115.

104.8kmh and in contact with the water all the time.

104.8kmh and in contact with the water all the time.

So? It ain’t a boat, it’s a ski with a wing or kite attached, it just happens to be on water, but it could be on snow, ice, sand, or Tarmac if you stuck itty bitty little wheels on it.
There’s only one environment that an America’s Cup boat can operate in because it’s a boat! 🙄

well if we’re going off topic – i’m having issues getting channel 115. Ive got a 3 year old samsung tv with i think freeview(don’t have sky or whatever) I’ve done a channel scan and still no 115. Suggestions before the 4th race starts welcomed.

So? It ain’t a boat, it’s a ski with a wing or kite attached, it just happens to be on water, but it could be on snow, ice, sand, or Tarmac if you stuck itty bitty little wheels on it.
There’s only one environment that an America’s Cup boat can operate in because it’s a boat!

In rebuttal of that comment; likewise yachts work perfectly well on land with itty bitty wheels, it’s called land yachting. They also work on ice whith skates.

Pointless comparrison though, as pointed out before a boat would be finished before the kite surfer made it to the windward mark.