PSA: Sailing Americas Cup – NZ vs USA, pretty cool stuff

Where have oracle found 5 extra knots over team NZ ?

Looks like it is staying in America

I’d like a ski helmet like the NZ boat helmets 😳

Thank you Mr C

Booooooooooooo

Incredible racing and what a wicked comeback from Oracle, well played. I bet they cheated though 😉

Team USA my arse.
Team Ben Ainslie more like

Lance probably doped them all to the eyeballs

Howzabout that!

The ultimate comeback kings.

amazing!

Brilliant, exciting series of racing.
Well done Oracle (although I wanted NZ to win…)!

Great race!! To witness Oracle leave TNZ on the upwind leg, truly awesome boat speed.

Congrats Oracle

Commiseration’s TNZ

As usual the NZ press have immediately moved into maoning about budgets, the automatic foil trimmer, how we were hard done by etc etc Kiwis man, honestly, very poor losers. Racing is racing, that was boat speed and skill.

WoooooHooooo!! What a performance by Oracle Team USA.
Now for the Springboks sorting out the All Blacks at Ellis Park in a fortnight 8)

The Sum of Awe.

It’s all about the Ben. 😆

Aye, 10 Under the Ben !

Great racing overall even if like most cups it became one sided. Tough to take for NZ that they were 1000m ahead and nailed on to win the cup when the race was called off “time limit expired”.

Fantastic free live coverage online, it’s the way to go for all sports.

Congratulations to Oracle and Sir Ben has done himself a world of good, a reputation as a loner with limited communication skills that are required for big boat sailing has been truely buried.

Pretty poignant message from Ian Percy on his FB page.

@NZCol it certainly didn’t hurt Oracle having an unlimited budget, I think they outspent TNZ $200m vs $100m Where NZ really screwed up was not enforcing nationality rules for the crew back in the 95 when they won the cup.

At 8-1 they should’ve been able to make it stick, outspent or not.

As for the nationality stuff, I think the race is better without it.

Still better than the Team America commentator we got to hear on our coverage, as if they had just won a war or something. Would love to have seen it run in Auckland though was sat in an office overlooking the bay a couple of weeks ago in the sunshine.

Markie – Member
At 8-1 they should’ve been able to make it stick, outspent or not.

As for the nationality stuff, I think the race is better without it.
They were 1000m ahead 4 mins to the finish when it was called out of time.

There’s not many people in and around sailing who agree with that last point. The Americas Cup is supposed to be about a competition between nations. The “World Cup” in every sport you can me ton requires national qualification, sailings equivalent is just teams for hire. The Americas Cup is generally a whitewash, this one was exciting as the kiwi whitewash turned into a kiwi/ Australian whitewash

Bloody good coverage on the BBC news …

Bens a hero. 😉

First time the BBC have covered the AC – good for them. Frankly I thought the youtube streaming was pretty epic, although I think Larry Ellison paid for a lot of stuff.

You’d hope that the sponsors feel that they’ve got value for money.

Big question now is what’s going to be the format for the next AC? I’d be amazed if the format was changed hugely. 45 minute time limit would be a start 😉

There’s not many people in and around sailing who agree with that last point. The Americas Cup is supposed to be about a competition between nations. The “World Cup” in every sport you can me ton requires national qualification, sailings equivalent is just teams for hire. The Americas Cup is generally a whitewash, this one was exciting as the kiwi whitewash turned into a kiwi/ Australian whitewash

Where does it stop? Crew? Technical advisors? Boat designers? Manufacture of boat parts?

The kiwi influence goes a long way beyond the guys in the boats.

They were 1000m ahead 4 mins to the finish when it was called out of time.

There’s not many people in and around sailing who agree with that last point. The Americas Cup is supposed to be about a competition between nations. The “World Cup” in every sport you can me ton requires national qualification, sailings equivalent is just teams for hire. The Americas Cup is generally a whitewash, this one was exciting as the kiwi whitewash turned into a kiwi/ Australian whitewash

If the time limit was known about and in the rules prior to racing, then what of it?

Also, I think it’s meant to be a race between yacht clubs, not nations. If sailors want national competitions they’ve got the Olympics.

Whatever, awesomely exciting!

Too early to talk of the next format of the series ((AC45’s I reckon) lets just gloat in the fact that for 4 years USA had the wrong tactician on board..

😉

Plus, the rules are set by the holders of the cup. So if NZ had set nationality rules in 95, whoever won it next could have removed them.

Plus, as above, it is actually between yacht clubs, not nations. It became a national thing due to NZ sponsoring their team, and the Americans being American.

Yep it’s certainly not a nations thing – and to be honest I’m not sure it should be. If it were there would be hardly any boats (this time it was the cost that restricted the challengers).
The whole ‘Team USA’ thing is such a load of crap and I hated the way the commentators (apart from Ken Read) flag waving rose to a fever pitch near the end when the reality is that the Kiwi/Aussie/British crew in the (Kiwi Built) USA boat beat the Kiwi/Aussie/British crew in the(Kiwi Built) NZ boat.

A shop in Auckland was removing it’s TNZ embossed merchandise, apparently it was a choking hazard.

Wot?? No Red Socks??

Shokka. 😆

I am gutted for TNZ, A team funded on sweet buggerall yet gelled from a nation with sailing in thier blood, a team that most NZ’ers know almost by face/name in the street, where sailing’s so ingrained in the phsycie that it certainly feels like the country has lost (despite the multinational makeup of the team)
And, and well they’re such nice people, you clearly saw Dean in tears sailing back to the Quay… and Grant Dalton, well all of them gracious in defeat, total Gentlemen.. and that’s what sailing is..

A Gentlemans sport.

Sum of Awe.

😛

So the latest news/rumour is that Larry Ellison spent about $50m in 7 days developing new foils during the event.

He had a load of guys and equipment (inc ovens) flown over from NZ to SF and put boat #2 into a hired US Navy flow tank to conduct tests.
The result was that they sailed with mismatched foils, the port foil was a high speed foil for downwind (& start/finish) while the starboard foil was a low speed foil that popped the boat out of the water sooner and gave greater upwind speed when sailing on port.

They also devised a mechanical system that used stored hydraulic energy to change the pitch of the foils which worked quicker than the manual system NZ used.
They only developed it in time because of the cancelled races and lay-days.

Clever b*****s. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen but cheque book racing is not cool.

Sharkbait, well put…again!! 😀

I’m glad for sailing that it was such a spectacle, it’s good to see a few people on here who care about it, that’s good for the sport.

@sharbait I’m hearing that too.

I’m sure the Kiwis regret not changing the rules in 95 to nations only, had they done so I’m pretty sure they’d still be the holders having never lost to Alinghi. For me it should be nations only for sailors, designers and builders. It’s likethe difference between Rugby World Cup and Super 14/Heinekin – one is a club competition One is for National sides.

The AC45’s are too “cheap” Oracle have been given the fright if their lives and will make sure they have a bigger advantage next time. NZ won’t be back nor I think will Prada. Alinghi won’t race in an Ellison cup. GBR have zero chance of raising the money, likewise the French. Interest in sailing in China is growing but is focused on the Volvo. Artemis will probably challenge again and could be the CoR. I think there could be a big gap to the next cup and very few entries even then. A Volvo ocean race entry costs $20m and that will be in with a good chance of a win, $100m isn’t enough for the AC

sharkbait – Member
The whole ‘Team USA’ thing is such a load of crap and I hated the way the commentators (apart from Ken Read) flag waving rose to a fever pitch near the end when the reality is that the Kiwi/Aussie/British crew in the (Kiwi Built) USA boat beat the Kiwi/Aussie/British crew in the(Kiwi Built) NZ boat.

…had me thinking about the “English” cricket team!!

Jambalaya – when you told me to watch at 10:10 last night I forgot you were on French time!!! Still turned on at 9:45 UK time and saw the finish 😉

For me it should be nations only for sailors

I can’t see why it should but maybe there should be 30% (for example) of the sailing team from the challenging nation.
The olympics is the nations challenge – I’m not sure sailing needs another.
What out for the French – Franck Cammas is the multihull king and the AC could be right up his street.

cheque book racing is not cool.

Indeed not – you could argue that TNZ were complacent, but the question is whether they had the budget to improve their boat speed to keep up. The most unfortunate part of Oracle winning is that as jambalaya points out it’s not going to get cheaper, which is a big shame, as it could be an even more exciting contest if it was.