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The future of the AC? |
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Rupert
Really should get out more Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
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Topic: The future of the AC? Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 8:37am |
Just read the article and watched the vid on the home page about Oracle pitchpoling. Once they start racing, is this what we will see? Push the boat an tiny bit too hard, and you are not just out of the race, but have broken the boat so badly you won't be able to fix it. Gonna make for some very timid racing if so.
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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andy101
Posting king Joined: 11 Jan 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 176 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 9:33am |
A lot of spare wings will be hidding in sheds in San Fran next year I think!
I guess they need to push it to the limits at this stage so they can start to learn what the limits are - having done a little bit of hobbie sailing you learn pretty quickly when to ease back especially on flat water! However, I do think these boats look slightly dangerous and there is potential for some very serious injuries - the height the crew will fall from if they hit something on the way down or if the mast gives way & the hull falls on top of someone in the water. I love the 45's but these boats do seem a little to big?
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pondmonkey
Really should get out more Joined: 12 Aug 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 2202 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 9:39am |
It's at best is glutinous display of technology, wealth and consumerism... but then that's the AC, so good luck to them for doing what they do best, but forgive me (and seemingly quite a few sailors) who simply don't give a sh*t.
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alstorer
Really should get out more Joined: 02 Aug 07 Location: Cambridge Online Status: Offline Posts: 2899 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 10:01am |
I really don't understand those that seem to think there was some sort of golden era where having vast amounts of money wasn't key to winning the AC. Certainly the IACC era was no better than this, just with much slower boats. I mean, is this much more dengerous than the likes of oneAustralia? USA17 was out in much higher winds than the IACCs could handle...
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Al |
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andy101
Posting king Joined: 11 Jan 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 176 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 10:28am |
Danger is relative I guess, our Austrian friend probably wouldn't think this is but I am not sure I would be queuing up for a ride on a windy day until they have played with it a good bit more! |
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Rupert
Really should get out more Joined: 11 Aug 04 Location: Whitefriars sc Online Status: Offline Posts: 8956 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 10:48am |
I'm not worried about the cost (not my money) or the danger (not me falling 70 feet onto a carbon wing) just the total anticlimax that will happen when one boat breaks and the other has a series walkover. I'd like to see a classic race series, which maybe happens in the AC once a generation.
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Firefly 2324, Puffin 229, Minisail 3446 Mirror 70686
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laser193713
Really should get out more Joined: 13 May 09 Location: United Kingdom Online Status: Offline Posts: 889 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 10:52am |
Somehow I get the feeling there is a huge gulf in difficulty between these boats and a Hobie, the fact that you start on foils means that the moment the hull hits the water the rig loads up hugely. Unless you have some clever way of "unstalling" the foils to get that bow back up, which in turn would probably create more drag for a small time, you arent going to save it. The other side of this coin is that you do learn, but by doing so wreck $10m dollars worth of wings in the process, neither seems like a particularly viable solution if this sort of sailing is every going to filter its way down to Joe Public in his "Channel Crossser 3000" which he wants to use to take his wife and kids to France occasionally. If the technology isn't going to filter down to his level then what's the point!?
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alstorer
Really should get out more Joined: 02 Aug 07 Location: Cambridge Online Status: Offline Posts: 2899 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 10:59am |
why does it have anything to do with "filter down" technology?
Lets get this straight.
The Americas Cup has always been, from the word go, about massively rich guys (and to some extent these days, corporations) using sailing racing as a subsitute for whipping down their trousers and taking a measuting tape to what's in their pants.
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Al |
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andy101
Posting king Joined: 11 Jan 11 Online Status: Offline Posts: 176 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 11:07am |
You don't say!
The point is if it is a new boat they will quickly learn what the point of no return is is - I think the 45's have a dump button for the wing so this one will as well - they just need to learn to hit it more quickly I guess! The comparison with the Hobie merely relates to its propensity to pitch-pole especially when you are learning where the limits are.
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ifoxwell
Really should get out more Joined: 05 Jan 06 Location: Hoo Online Status: Offline Posts: 669 |
Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 17 Oct 12 at 12:03pm |
Hind sight is a wonderful thing but you cant help but think that perhaps they should have built up to the 72's
The 45's weren't that much of a jump and the number of teams competing in the world series is testimony to how much interest they generated so perhaps the first cup in multi hulls should have been in development 45's. The teams could then have done a lot of there testing on the SMOD cup boats, which would have sped up the development process and brought down the costs... we may even have wound up then with more than just the 3 teams competing. Ian
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RS300
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