America's Cup

Yip, I got the 72’s from the last series, apologies.

The current boats are still 45ft.

Have heard more than one person say our boat is slow, hard to argue when you see how we are being beaten. The AC is brutal and GBR are o fhe receiving end of a tough lesson so far.

Having read the rules again it’s clear that all Jury decisions are On Water decisions and no recourse for protest room arguments.
And the Jury have re visited the Swedish/NZ incident and have admitted they should have called it a non infringement.

Gotta feel for Sweden, that’s not racing.

Ouch ! Having watched the rounding a few times it looked a very harsh call to me as a non-AC expert

Today’s schedule, wait for it..
NZ v Sweden !!
France v USA
Sweden v GBR

1 grudge match, 1 let’s see if we can keep this thing flying match and 1 local needle grudge match and a bit of “shit, we better win this one” (for both teams)

That was a better display by Ben.

Did we “win” it or were Artemis poor? Missed tonight’s races as Tuesday night is Ride Night with the lads.

Ben won the start very cleanly, he kept well clear upwind of Arte’ but pinned them to the right just enough to make them stall, then he bore off an accelerated to full speed (6 to 38knts) in a few hundred mtrs. By the time he hit the turning mark he was 200 mtrs ahead and the gap was consistent all the way around. Neither team put a hull in the water longer than a few seconds, 99% of the manoeuvres we all foiling.

I was disappointed for the French, beaten by USA who just came out, stuffed them up at the start and sailed off into the distance. Didn’t help the French when they hit the boundary during a gybe and had to slow down for 20secs or so before the penalty was called clear, but by this time USA were hitting the bottom mark 2.30 ahead.

Today it’s Japan v France, GBR v NZ (ohhhh, tough one) USA v Japan (could be a decent grudge match race) France v GBR, tomorrow no racing, back on Friday for the next series.

To my non expert eye, GB seemed to win it. Won the start, and according to the post race graphs they show, were faster on the first 2 legs, then matched the Swedes.
The Swedes did race twice, which may have been a factor.
(Seems odd how they plan the races. Only 3 yesterday, so why make one team race twice?)

I guess it gives them all a clear day off at some point for work on the boat?

They’re quite good, and mercifully short, but it’s not match racing as I know it. I can’t see anyone throwing 42 tacks in the final beat, there not long enough for one thing.

I imagine the original syndicate members spinning in their graves.

The original race was just a multi-boat race round the IOW. The original syndicate members might get quite excited by the current crash and burn format.

Frustrated that I can’t get feed to this – not a BT sport customer and freeview 115 does not seem to be a thing around these parts. A shame as ‘these parts’ includes where the BAR HQ is.

Anyway from the summaries it seems like a bit of a drag race from the start line with the lead only changing when one team makes a handling error. Have there been any races where the lead has changed multiple times or changes because of tactics rather than a handling error?

Also has the racing been more enthralling or impressive than when they were using the AC45Fs in the World Series? I guess from reading the reviews the main advantage of the ACCs is the tech is good enough that can be sailed on the foils all the way around the course including around the corners if done right.

https://www.youtube.com/user/AmericasCup

The original race was just a multi-boat race round the IOW. The original syndicate members might get quite excited by the current crash and burn format.

People forget the ‘original guys’ were people like Tom Sopwith who founded both Sopwith and Hawker, played ice hockey and had a keen interest in ‘big boys toys’, I think the idea of a flying sailing boat would be right up his street!

It’s on free BT for the first round.

It’s on free BT for the first round.

Yes, but that’s not much help if the freeview channel isn’t available everywhere….which it isn’t

convert – Member
Frustrated that I can’t get feed to this – not a BT sport customer and freeview 115 does not seem to be a thing around these parts. A shame as ‘these parts’ includes where the BAR HQ is.

Anyway from the summaries it seems like a bit of a drag race from the start line with the lead only changing when one team makes a handling error. Have there been any races where the lead has changed multiple times or changes because of tactics rather than a handling error?

Also has the racing been more enthralling or impressive than when they were using the AC45Fs in the World Series? I guess from reading the reviews the main advantage of the ACCs is the tech is good enough that can be sailed on the foils all the way around the course including around the corners if done right.

Coverage, does seem odd. The Mrs can’t get 115 in Harrogate either and that’s on a new Bravia.

Racing, to be honest you are right .. well at the moment. It does seem to be passes occur most when the other team bins it or drags around a tack or a mark. There are a few splits at the leeward gate but less than I have expected. So, to some degree the passes are made when errors are made. In saying that the course is quite “thin” by that I mean the boundary lines are pinned in to keep the boats in the Sound, which mean you can’t bang a corner or sail a shift all the way.. bias seems irrelevant on the line because it’s a tight reach too.. also, hmmmm well, once over the line and to the first mark the margin for overtaking a leeward boat is very limited because the vector to both mark and boundary is quite tight.. so .. so far the first off the line is the first to the mark then they just sail to the boundary then gybe and that’s pretty much it, nobody has reached off the line yet then gybed at the first mark.. they’ve all sailed to the boundary then gone.
Of course, this all may change today who knows.

As is, keeping the boat on the foils at full chat all the time (including manoeuvres) is proving to be the only option to win, one mistake and that’s pretty much it.

Is it boring to watch ? That’s a question only the objective audience can decide.

I’ll watch the whole thing, BT sport subscription is cheap enough through Sky therefore I’m looking forward to see the whole series through to the end on TV for once (and not just the finals)

Watching a whole race almost certainly is. The highlights are quite interesting though, with the vastly increased penalty for a mistake compared to the old displacement boats. In a way I quite like it how you can pin your opponent and sail around the outside in the way the French did to BAR, or indeed in a very similar way what BAR did to the Swedish boat at the start. Such tactical manoeuvres didn’t used to work.

Yes, but that’s not much help if the freeview channel isn’t available everywhere….which it isn’t

But I assume, since you have access to the internet, you can go to:
bt sport

and click on the link.

Today’s racing looks like it’ll be postponed, hasn’t happened yet but the first 2 races have been so far…

But I assume, since you have access to the internet, you can go to:
bt sport

and click on the link.

All well and good if you live somewhere with internet access fast enough to stream TV….rural Wales isn’t that place (except on rare occurr)

The original race was just a multi-boat race round the IOW. The original syndicate members might get quite excited by the current crash and burn format

Not really, the syndicate that built America and came to the UK to race for money. The found no takers and eventually a cup was put up for a race around the Isle of Wight. America won it by virtue of what might be considered cheating. They went back to the USA gave the cup to the NYYC and it was put forward as a trophy to encourage international sport.

It was for match racing, not the drag strip style racing that is used today.

Not enough wind? What counts as not enough wind for these boats?

6 knots

Weather today is 29C and 19knts of wind !!

Christ… totally outclassed by the NZ team.
Manoeuvres, boat handling, speed.. everything Ben ain’t got.

And retired from the race, if they’d carried on they’d have been at least 7mins behind..

Bloody hell, that was stressful.

Not watched a single race [thankfully it seems] but it certainly seems that BAR are just well behind the pack in foil technology – which surprises me as the UK is pretty good at this stuff.

This campaign will be doing nothing for any future British sailing sponsorship requests.

It’s surprisng we are this much off the pace but we where never going to make it to the cup match anyway.

To be fair, in the recent feature online on the BBC, I don’t think Ainslie really expected to be competitive this time round…he was talking about a 20 year project

We’re definitely into the semis with the win over France though – I’m not sure where the idea that we’re well behind the pack comes from, we might well make the Challenger finals yet – it’s only NZ and USA who appear definitively faster.

Hmmm, rumour has it that the AC is planned for every Two years..

And a 20 year programme is flawed, events in the next 18mths will put paid to funding it.

Bikebouy give it a rest. There are many who have done very well out of the Referendum result and will likely do very well post Brexit.

You are so very wrong.
&
Do not tell me what to do.

Anyway, looks like the wind is around today and the overnight vids are a bit more than the general media sound bites so hoping the French come out with some tactics and tweaks ..

System failure on BAR against TNZ yesterday left them with no control of the dagger board, hence no foiling. Lots of gremlins to sort. But they have clocked the fastest of all boats in the stronger winds, so maybe the package is there, it just needs unlocking.

Hmmm, being selected by NZ as their preferred whipping boy does not bode well. Artemis won less races at the group stage but they would still fancy giving us a kicking. Oh well, BAR have 5 more races to gather some data for the next cup in 4 years time.

selected on the basis of low wind speed on the opening days, but the forecast (on the BBC) suggests good wind now, which BAR are fast in. lets see what happens this afternoon. (fingers crossed!)

double post sorry

There seems to me to be something about the way the british (particularly those who come through British Sailing) go about racing that makes it painful and exciting to watch in equal measure – always make it hard at the beginning and then thrive on the fight to keep the points down (or up?!) at the end. Here’s hoping this is what we’ve got with BAR… boat speed/handling perhaps not consistent enough though to beat THE CYCLORS…