Americas Cup Yachts

How fast did the most recent ones actually go upwind and downwind? Does anyone know roughly.

Cheers

George

Im not sure it would make sense to have a minimum crew weight, if they intended to race it in keelboats.

You forgot to ask how high they point. The answer is higher than pretty much anything else ever built. So forget about beating them around a W/L course in a dinghy.

As for rules, normally the rules are established by mutual consent. Lately this has meant an IACC boat http://www.americascup.com/multimedia/docs/2004/08/109206221 1_accv5.pdf. There are a whole set of minimum dimension and construction rules which would rule out a dinghy, although AFAIK there is not a minimum length.

In the current legal turmoil and lack of mutual consent, the original Deed of Gift for the Cup applies http://www.a3.org/ac2000_DeedofGift.html which amongst other things specifies a minimum waterline length of 44 feet.

Another thing that might put off a dinghy sailors is the 1M Euro "performance bond" entry fee. http://www.americascup.com/multimedia/docs/2004/08/109229955 0_terms_of_challenge.pdf

By chance was it the 1^st of April when they told you they can sail to 4degres from head to wind…..

Maybe all the sail and mast designers have got it wrong and we should not have moved on from square riggers!

Are you sure you mean they can sail to 4 degrees to the wind or they can get there booms (if that is what they are called) to 4 degrees from the centre line of the boat???