The 36th Americas Cup

The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
P

Peter B

Guru
Site Team
Joined
Jun 25, 2008
Messages
10,104
Location
Australia
Vessel Name
Now boatless - sold 6/2018
Vessel Make
Had a Clipper (CHB) 34
For the benefit of those interested, the 36th A/C, in Auckland NZ, is quickly approaching. They have already held a pre-A/C regatta or series which Team NZ won. It was a four team event including the defender NZ, and the three challengers, which are Italy, UK, US. These foiling monster 75' monohulls are awesome..! If you thought those foiling cats were incredible last cup, these foiling monohulls are even faster, and even trickier to sail, so...watch and enjoy..!

Even now, if you have a streaming service, it is probably possible to replay those races. Certainly entertaining. :thumb:

Overall program from now here...
https://www.aucklandnz.com/36th-americas-cup
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reminder. I was captivated by the last cup. One of the. Most competitive series ever in sports. Absolutely incredible.
 
Peter B said:
For the benefit of those interested, the 36th A/C, in Auckland NZ, is quickly approaching. They have already held a pre-A/C regatta or series which Team NZ won. It was a four team event including the defender NZ, and the three challengers, which are Italy, UK, US. These foiling monster 75' monohulls are awesome..! If you thought those foiling cats were incredible last cup, these foiling monohulls are even faster, and even trickier to sail, so...watch and enjoy..!

Even now, if you have a streaming service, it is probably possible to replay those races. Certainly entertaining. :thumb:

Overall program from now here...
https://www.aucklandnz.com/36th-americas-cup
Click to expand...

Up front on the site Pete linked is a replay of the 4 races of Dec 17th. Awesome!
 
Watching the youtube day-by-day summaries of Prada races from a few days ago. Absolutely amazing. High art.

Thanks for posting Baker. I would have missed this..
Happy holidays.
 
I would love to see this first hand. Just doesn't seem possible. I would quarantine on bags of sails to see it!
 
mvweebles said:
Watching the youtube day-by-day summaries of Prada races from a few days ago. Absolutely amazing. High art.

Thanks for posting Baker. I would have missed this..
Happy holidays.
Click to expand...

Point of order Mr Veebles. My name is not Baker, (he's the other guy), nor is it Binklebonk, it's just Peter B or even better, just plain Pete...just sayin'... :)
 
koliver said:
Up front on the site Pete linked is a replay of the 4 races of Dec 17th. Awesome!
Click to expand...

Keith, for those interested, just where did you find the link to the replays of those races..? I must admit I cannot, and it was me put the website link up there. :confused:
 
Incredible skill/engineering.
But I would like to see the race return to Isle of Wight every 12 years or so, in a monohull. For old times sake.
 
Thanks Keith. Beggered if I could find that link from the original site. Still can't actually, but your link delivers the goods. :thumb:
 
Another contest between N.A.s and engineers. The sailors seem pretty irrelevant. Rather keep abreast of the ocean races where the human element of the sailors actually on the boat comes into play.
 
I get your point hippo (would highlight SW engineers) and my wife can't go 5 minutes without a "hurumph, not real sailing"comment." But keeping those boats on foil in 8 kts of wind takes impressive crew skills. The 2013 AC in San Francisco, where foiling first showed up in AC, was amazing to watch. At the beginning of the series, foiling downwind didn't happen. By the end of the series, both teams had cracked the code and were both foiling downwind. The most fascinating races were light wind races where crew skills are crucial. As I recall, NZ was about the clinch the AC in light air when the race was called due to time. US came back to run the table. Absolutely riveting competition.

But still, there appears to be classic match racing tactics, especially at the start.

If I can only turn off the volume of my wife and her Hurumphs.....
 
I dont do pay for view so I have not seen the Americas Cup race in years.
 
Hippocampus said:
Another contest between N.A.s and engineers. The sailors seem pretty irrelevant. Rather keep abreast of the ocean races where the human element of the sailors actually on the boat comes into play.
Click to expand...


Anything, from square riggers to foiling dinghies, that gets people excited about sailing I'm all in favor of.
 
Now the ocean racing boats foil as well. So you have the endurance, strength and skill of the crew, decision making of the afterguard particularly the navigator understanding his boat and weather as well as the dynamics of keeping the proper mindset of the crew.
AC is a short flat water race in a very circumscribed parameters of wind speeds. You look at the stress gauges and even with soft sails trim is determined by the computer. Everything else is determined before the race starts, once again by a computer and your grinders just follow the directions. I raced jboats and other class around bouys but also ocean (Bermuda, Halifax etc.) No question in my mind even back then there’s a lot more to ocean. That divide has gotten even more apparent as technology has advanced. Saw AC both at Newport and San Diego. Great spectator experience but have much more respect for the long distance racers. Can’t imagine going through the Southern Ocean. What that has to take out of you. Day after day. Watch after watch.
Unfortunate only the French seem to rout for these guys at a National level. In my country most folks don’t even watch or follow any of it.
In the old days boats had to come on their own bottom. Now a days they would break up in a fresh breeze.
 
Last edited:
What do foiling catamarans have to do with real world sailing? Are there any technology advances to these boats that have the slightest relevance to actual unpaid sailors and their boats? Any trickle-down to the Rest of Us who aren’t billionaires?
 
It's interesting that we are seeing more foiling boats on Mission Bay in SD. Started with a few Moth's and Kites and now there are at least a dozen of different verities including some larger boats.

The technology is amazing on the new AC cup boats but the strategy which was so important before is now not as important as not doing a "touch down" and trying to get the boat back up on a foil as quickly as possible. It seems more about boat control and less about strategy.
 
I watched full live coverage of the recent regatta on Youtube. But apparently it's only available in
where there is no competing subscription based coverage. So Canada gets it free but US doesn't.

It's pretty remarkable to see these guys sailing at 30-40 knots in 10 knots of breeze. The monohulls are faster than the previous multihulls. Looking forward to the series.
 
We patrolled one Americas Cup in San Diego. We were on the edge of the course and our job was to keep all the sightseeing boats off the course. You could see the cloud of diesel exhaust coming our way and then it would pass by us and then return as the race boats came by.
 
Put me down for being in the camp that prefers "real" boat racing.
 
We also patrolled powerboat races on Lake Havasu. They had drag races where the boat were outrunning the helicopter that was filming them. Those were pretty awesome.
 
We've been out watching for two days of the spectacular racing and also the light winds day. Quite big spectator fleets which will no doubt grow at the business end of the competition.
For the last couple of months the various teams have been practicing around the harbour. If you have a chat to the teams chase boats there are opportunities to get really close to practice courses.
There is still a lot more development to come on these boats in terms of speed and maneuverability.
Not that interesting?
When you are up close to a boat doing 30kn in 8kn of wind speed it is hard not to be impressed.
 
We were able to watch the second two days ( missed the first day) on NBC SPORTS, onDish Network free. I'm hope that the next races will also be there, expect so, so have my DVR set up to record what ever time it comes on. Most Arizona residents are that interestedm so not much info announced aroud here.

Have to admit the boats are amazing, but don't think I would want to do much long disstance ssailing on one.
 
Hippocampus said:
Now the ocean racing boats foil as well. So you have the endurance, strength and skill of the crew, decision making of the afterguard particularly the navigator understanding his boat and weather as well as the dynamics of keeping the proper mindset of the crew.
AC is a short flat water race in a very circumscribed parameters of wind speeds. You look at the stress gauges and even with soft sails trim is determined by the computer. Everything else is determined before the race starts, once again by a computer and your grinders just follow the directions. I raced jboats and other class around bouys but also ocean (Bermuda, Halifax etc.) No question in my mind even back then there’s a lot more to ocean. That divide has gotten even more apparent as technology has advanced. Saw AC both at Newport and San Diego. Great spectator experience but have much more respect for the long distance racers. Can’t imagine going through the Southern Ocean. What that has to take out of you. Day after day. Watch after watch.
Unfortunate only the French seem to rout for these guys at a National level. In my country most folks don’t even watch or follow any of it.
In the old days boats had to come on their own bottom. Now a days they would break up in a fresh breeze.
Click to expand...


And that’s why it should go back to an Ocean race around the island every so often!
 
Hippocampus said:
Another contest between N.A.s and engineers. The sailors seem pretty irrelevant. Rather keep abreast of the ocean races where the human element of the sailors actually on the boat comes into play.
Click to expand...

Hipp,
Not at all IMO.
In 1853 it may have been about sailors.

But for many years lately I think it’s 95%+ about engineering and design. Not even NA’s but design.

But then it goes international and to individuals. Design and engineering. But not sailors. Design, materials and engineering.
 
Last edited:
Hippocampus said:
Now the ocean racing boats foil as well. So you have the endurance, strength and skill of the crew, decision making of the afterguard particularly the navigator understanding his boat and weather as well as the dynamics of keeping the proper mindset of the crew. ...

Can’t imagine going through the Southern Ocean. What that has to take out of you. Day after day. Watch after watch.
Unfortunate only the French seem to rout for these guys at a National level. In my country most folks don’t even watch or follow any of it.
In the old days boats had to come on their own bottom. Now a days they would break up in a fresh breeze.
Click to expand...

The Vendeé Globe, single handed around the world, is foiling. I recently watched Hugo Boss competing with the Starboard foil broken off just outside the hull. The Port foil was keeping him in the race. The conditions were as far beyond a "fresh breeze" as you can get. Much of that race is done in the roaring 40s, where a 40 knot wind is a constant.
 
Yup those vendee boats are truly amazing. Have nothing against foiling boats at all. Point of view has nothing against that or other advances. Just like to see the human elements ( guts, intelligence, endurance, fortitude) involved.I understand the AC sailors are great athletes. I watched the foiling cat pitchpoling resulting in a death. There’s a reason they’re wearing crash helmets. I’m not belittling them at all. Just saying imho the ocean races get much more of a visceral response from me. Some of the drone and helicopter coverage of all the RTW races shows how mind boggling those races are. Makes the AC a walk in the park.
Over the last few years have been in and out of the NEB yard a lot. Just wandering around you see what dinosaurs most of us are on or have raced in the past. Wife keeps telling me”close your mouth..you’re going to swallow flies”. Bye back to refereeing between family. Even zoom has it problems.
 
Last edited:
I watched the YouTube of the AC. With all the technology improvements, perhaps in the near future the boats will be autonomous. The skipper will sit in a room observing the boat, prepared to take control electronically if something goes wrong.
But I am still waiting for my, lives in my garage, personal flying machine, too.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

janice142
America's Cup - September in France
Replies
9
Views
5K
Peter B
P
KJ
America's Cup 2017
2
Replies
49
Views
5K
Yahoo 1
Y
FF
Some fast food fun!
Replies
1
Views
1K
O C Diver
O C Diver
ARoss
America's Cup
Replies
13
Views
1K
Marin
M

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom