America's Cup

You are so very wrong.

In Jamanba’s defense (can’t believe I agree with him) LR is owned by TATA, so the potential for closer ties with India might not do them any harm.

Oh dear

Oh well, BAR have 5 more races to gather some data for the next cup in 4 years time.

Well, I got that wrong. Scratch that, 3.5 races of data. 😐

at least they looked almost competitive until another failure…

Massive dive from NZ.

men still in the water.

All accounted for.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll actually get some racing!

Will that NZ boat be badly damaged?

From the footage it looked remarkably intact so maybe not. Also with wind forevast to be even steonger they will likely have an extra day to fix it, even if they cannot make the start tomorrow they would still be 3-2 up and BAR look off the pace.

Happy to know eveyone was ok

#bringtheboathome

Outclassed in the light winds and outclassed in medium conditions. Ben play to his strengths in the stronger winds where the boat was optimised, sadly even though he won the vast majority of his starts the lack of time on the water in light airs unfolded.

Artemis however have a cracker, done a cracker and played a blinder. Fast boat, Outridges starts have been solid if not exactly enthralling, and Ian’s calls on the shifts have been damn near perfect. Superb showing, I’m routing for them to race the NZ team and actually try to get them into a match race instead of a drag race. This is where Artemis will score highly, strong deep covers and sailing them into the corners..
here’s to the next round…

am I right in saying that BAR were the only other boat except Oracle who took a race off TNZ? If they could have got more consistency around the racecourse, and made some better choices on the foils BAR would have been right up there.

Going to be following Artemis closely now. Go Ian!

BAR had a great boat, cracking team and Ben.. who would have thought light wind boat handling would be an issue? Not me, never would have thought that the main restriction. You can win all the starts you like, missing shifts and being unable to keep the boat foiling during manoeuvres is what did it.
I’m hoping the funding stream remains in place, as is it was a two year campaign based on getting to the finals, this they haven’t achieved but they have shown they can compete in heavy air (I say heavy, I mean 15knts +) so depending on LR staying committed and BAR (a big supporter of UK sailing for many years) remaining the 36th Cup could become a reality, certainly if the ACP brings in an AC challenge every 2 years (has been mooted)
Arte’ were always noted at being fast, now they’ve settled into a start win groove it’s theirs to lose, sad as I’ll be to be Dean out of the competition I will be overjoyed to see Ian and the boys finally get the recognition they deserve.

Job, jobbed.

Good result in strong winds..

We where miles off the pace from the beginning. NZ picked us as the weakest opponent.. Chapeau for the very good money the sailors / shore team pocketed but what a waste of £100-£150 million pounds. That’s 5 or 6 Volvo Ocean Race Campaigns and probably 6-8 Vendee Globes. 20 years worth of top level sponsorships

and made some better choices on the foils BAR would have been right up there.

This. Their foil tech just wasn’t as good as the others!

missing shifts and being unable to keep the boat foiling during manoeuvres is what did it.

If you’re struggling to get the boat foiling (which is #1 priority) they you’re not likely to tack any more than absolutely necessary.

oops

Nice to hear my mate Ken Read doing the commentary still (he asked me out to the US back in ’85 to stay with him and do foredeck on his J24, amongst other things, – best 6 months of my life!).
Top bloke and incredible racer.

Sharkbait, the pace of the things is blistering. Had a great curry with Mitch a couple of nights ago. Apparently, the media team can’t stop laughing at Ken drawing nowt but pubes with the telescribe…
The village is pretty cool. No Guinness stand, so the hord descended on the ‘French wine’ stand.
Pretty certain BAR have full backing for the next Cup. Rumour among the sailors is that if TNZ win, it’s likely to go back to 90′ monos.

If you’re struggling to get the boat foiling (which is #1 priority) they you’re not likely to tack any more than absolutely necessary.

BAR’s foiling wasn’t that bad, the race they won against NZ they had 100% air time. They just weren’t quick enough.

Christ I’m not sure mono’s would be a good idea – not very ‘televisual’ [is this a word?].
OT….. So does your other engineer still have a job?

Well after all the TV coverage stats and interest in SocMed the change back to Monohulls would be a step backwards IMO, mind I’ve never been a fan of Cats but these 50fters are damn well exciting to watch… and that’s the main reason for the change… changing to a two year competition is a terrible idea, keep the same protocol as is now because it’s just about perfect.

Sweden loose a man over board!

The AC50’s are literally too quick.At least for match racing.In fleet racing it’s spectacular (if not bloody dangerous) but when it’s boat on boat it means that one mistake/missed tack/wrong side of a shift loses a massive amount of ground and the race is for all intents and purpose over.
The whole point of match racing is the tactical side.It’s not about about being the fastest boat….only the first boat to cross the finish line.
There’s been quite a few races where despite sailing a better race tactically with better boat handling teams have lost out to raw boat speed (though Alinghi’s lunge inside at the mark was amazing!!)

Well Nathan went for a swim today, Arte’ are 2-1 down tonight because of the slip up.

Back tomorrow.. best of 9, first to 5.

Well I’ve managed to find a site that’s streaming the BT feed, only saw the important bit of the last race – I can easily imagine being hurled off the side in a turn! Close stuff though.

I watched a bit of the 2000 AC straight after…. god is was like watching grass grow 🙁
Foiling HAS to stay otherwise nobody will be watching.

The whole point of match racing is the tactical side.It’s about about being the fastest boat….only the first boat to cross the finish line.

Yeah, but it’s not supposed to be match racing is it…… never was, it’s just how it evolved due to the 12m boats being ‘pig slow’ [by comparison] because of the 12m rules.

Err it’s always been match racing.That was sort of the whole point tbh.

Back in 1851 there was no such thing as the match racing we know today – it developed as boats became so close in speed.
I guess that although today’s AC cats are pretty similar in speed they’re just to fast for much in the way of close quarters manouevering.

Anyway, watched to of today’s races and TNZ send to have a pretty complete package with very impressive VMG.
Going to be hard for Emirates now.

Looking tough for Arte’ the last tack/crash didn’t do much for their lead then the reach to the finish was sooooo tight…

All to play for today, hope the wind hold up at 15knts..

although any sailing on TV is good, I wanted the rule to follow something similar to the TP52 rule. Out and out planning in a big monohull. the circa 2000 AC boats were nice, but they should have evolved into something like the TP52 boats. Still good for TV, but not quite so bat shit crazy.

wish Artemis all the luck, but this was always going to be about TNZ and Oracle.

For the AC to remain good on TV it really needs to stay close to shore and I think that does rule out bigger mono’s.
Back in the early 90’s I used to race in the Ultra 30’s which were fairly bonkers and def needed good crew work, but I’d still prefer to watch the current boats even though most of the crew don’t even need to know how to sail (which is disappointing).
The last race last leg was pretty epic – I was shouting at the TV for Arty to get it on the line. 40 knts – amazing!

Well done to ETNZ….. very convincing today – lets hope they can do the same to Oracle!

Yip, that’s it. Best team won in the end.

This weekend is the Finals…

Oof, nice job ETNZ [claps].
It would have been unfair if Oracle had won that second race because of that huge wind shift.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the foiling cats, except for one thing…why do they always look “nose down”? I’m sure there’s a v good reason for it, but it looks wrong!

Looks well dodgy but apparently it’s more aero.

I assumed it was a function of manually controlling the main foils and fixed rudder foils and dipping a bow being less risky than getting airborne.

Dunno..dipping a bow could lead to pitchpoling…like NZ did the other day! Anyway, looks weird but they all do it (and did so during the last America’s Cup)..so must make some sense. It just looks wrong.

2-0 to the Kiwis 🙂 the very very best thing that could happen to the AC is a NZ win, fingers crossed.

Err it’s always been match racing.That was sort of the whole point tbh.

The first boats that raced for the cup were given a handicap. One boat would have to beat the other by a given margin. Match racing developed when rated boats were used. These are boats where the designers are given free range to design what they want but a series of measurements from the boat put into a complicated formula must give a set answer.

All thing being equal, waterline length and sail area are the deciding factors. Designers try to get an advantage by trying to beat the formula.

I prefer match racing rather than the drag races the filers tend to dish up.I guess it’s not exciting enough for the sound bite generation.

2-0 to the Kiwis

But only 1-0.