Have you seen the new boats that will be competing the the America’s Cup next year?
They have gone back to a monohull design BUT with moveable foils on each side and are capable of speeds up to 50 knots!

These AC75 boats are truly an amazing design and takes the design and engineering of these boats to an all new level. In fact in addition to working on hydrodynamics it now seems that aerodynamics is even more important as the hull is now working to provide lift to the boat...

Here’s a video as an intro to the boats and series coming up...

https://youtu.be/SVlwSyKa_PI

It’s going to be an amazing set of races as the Kiwi’s set off to defend their title.

Thanks for the interesting link.

They've come a long, long way with the tech and there'll never be another winner like this again:



Ted isn't under arrest here; the smiling and helpful Newport cops were just making sure he got to each victory party safely.

This was before the days of wonder 9s and double stack; just a couple of K-frame Smiths.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Blackmore,

A lot of unanswered questions. The NZ trials will sure be fun to watch to see what kind of performance can be obtained.

In the second practice yesterday the Kiwi’s were blowing by the Italians...it was almost embarrassing.. It’s hard to say if they were sandbagging or not but I doubt it.. ETNZ seemed so much more polished.

https://youtu.be/mjUweI5Oh24

Emerites Team New Zealand takes the lead in overall match races so far with the US boat in second.
The Christmas Cup race, a precursor to the Americas Cup starts tomorrow.

https://youtu.be/Q0fLhadAjAI

Off the top of my head, I don't think I've ever been on a sailboat that was actually sailing. I've walked on some in dock and more at boat shows, both in and out of the water.

However, as a lifelong boater (fishing boats, mostly) and lover of all boats, and as an engineer and lover of engineering and technology, I am ALWAYS interested to watch a bit of the America's Cup, see the absolutely INSANE performance they wring out of those boats, and read a bit about how they do it.

It blows my mind that they can get a sailboat moving twice the speed the wind is. So cool.

Those are some sexy, sexy boats. Beautiful lines.

It also looks like they've dropped the rigid sails. That may have happened last year, I'm not sure I've kept up.

I'm a more traditional sailboat guy, grew up sailing a lot as a kid. So this is like replacing horses with motorcycles and calling it the Kentucky Derby because it's run at Churchill Downs.
The new technology is cool and it's brought in a much wider audience, just not the same to me. Similar to what they've done to the Olympics.

NYCYC practiced & tuned in Pensacola bay. The first season with a 1/2 size boat, the next year joined by the AC-75 American Patriot. We could see the boats running up and down the bay from Pensacola Country Club. Man, they were fast!

Been watching the AC since the infamous '83 race, stayed up late with my dad to watch the '87 races on ESPN and been hooked ever since. Always wanted to be a grinder

Fast forward, was overjoyed to see the AC come to San Francisco Bay in '13, people liked to shit all over Oracle's Larry Ellison but, there's no denying, he helped change the race for the better by pushing to change the boat design to higher performance wing-sail and planning hulls. The days of creeking, heaving 12-meters was getting ridiculous as airplane technology was fast being introduced into the sailing world. The America's Cup is about the best sailing around, sure its rich guys and their toys...its their money, go ahead, I'll be on shore with a cooler.

Been watching it on TV. I missed day 1, but the British boat is clearly out of its league. They mentioned it had some severe problems on Day 1, but they still are doing pretty poorly. The American boat is fast, but in about half the races, they blow it by screwing up a tack and dropping the hull into the water, and then it takes too long to get back up on the foils.

Watch a few summaries. AC has changed to attract a broader audience, and sailing overall has changed to become a very wealthy sport. Too bad, grew up sailing and raced in college and crewed some SORC races. Beer can races were always the best, but all that is mostly gone and today is about very high end - sad to see it change.

Guess the final races today were canceled due to lack of wind. No more until the actual Cup races in March, I think.

Christmas Race results...

The first match today was with the 1st place boat and Cup Defender, Emerites Team NZ against the 4th ranked boat from the UK. The Brits got off to a terrible start not being able to get up on their foils and were at one time over 500 meters behind. Then the wind died and neither boat could get up on their foils and were unable to cross the finish line in the 45 minute time allotment.

The second race between the US and Italians was cancelled due to lack of wind so the first Christmas race series goes down without a winner.

In the video recap there is an excellent discussion about foil development and the differences. Go to about 13:30 I to the video.

https://youtu.be/wFJluSGMPNk

The next set of races will be next year...

Well it’s starting!

The Prada Cup which is a series of races to determine who will challenge New Zealand for the America’s Cup has started and right out of the gate the results of the first two races weren’t what anyone would have predicted.

This video gives a great intro to the series as well as a synopsis of the first two races....

https://youtu.be/A3fkbIb1V-o

Looked like NHRA to me but took more time. Win the start, hook up (get foiling), don't spin the tires (fall off the foils) and don't look back. UK was impressive and a far cry from what they were a few weeks ago.

Imagine NYYC and Luna Rossa are watching the film, scratching their heads and putting the engineers to work.

Pulling for my buddy Hutch and the Patriot Team!

Amazing that they are going "downwind" and sailing with their sails trimmed in close - they hardly ease them when turning downwind. Going so fast that they make their own wind. Makes no sense to this old sailor.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
Well it’s starting!

The Prada Cup which is a series of races to determine who will challenge New Zealand for the America’s Cup has started and right out of the gate the results of the first two races weren’t what anyone would have predicted.

This video gives a great intro to the series as well as a synopsis of the first two races....

https://youtu.be/A3fkbIb1V-o

Quite a change from a couple of weeks ago. Then Ineos was dismal. Now it’s American Magic. Not sure who is going to challenge NZ in the America’s Cup, but pretty sure who it won’t be.

Apologies for the thread drift.
When Dennis Conner won the Cup Sports Illustrated named him Sportsman of the Year. PJ O’Rourk did a piece stating how ironic it was that the Sportsman of the Year could not see his toes much less touch them.

Unfortunately, I think American Magic is now done.

https://www.sail-world.com/new...ttle-to-save-Patriot

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dwill104,

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:
... people liked to shit all over Oracle's Larry Ellison ...

That might be in part because Oracle is one of the least-liked companies in the IT world, IME.

Where I used to work we were a Sun Microsystems shop for all the servers. That was until Oracle acquired Sun. Didn't take me long to figure out why just about anybody and everybody I knew who'd ever had to use Oracle products hated the company.

I dumped our Sun gear for Linux and FreeBSD boxen as fast as I could replace them. Once-upon-a-time I'd never have dreamed of doing that.

quote:

Originally posted by Dwill104:
Unfortunately, I think American Magic is now done.

Yes, I fear that too. Lucky no one was seriously injured or killed and that they got the boat back to the dock above water. Going to be a tough week for the shore crew if it can be fixed at all.