It’s official-
September 30, 2013:
Australia’s Hamilton Island Yacht Club confirmed as Challenger of Record.
What’s it going to be this time, holographic boats on 900- foot long screens? wing-sail, monohull radio yachts on an inland reservoir? Your guess is as good as any! 
If the Aussies are challenging, does that mean Spithill and Coutts gotta leave town to go down under?
I hope so…love to see boats filled filled with her countrymen/women
In that case, it looks as if the American’s may be in trouble, unless they choose the XBox as the format.
If they want to make it affordable to compete in the America’s Cup, they maybe theyshould choose r/c yachts. Every country that I can think of has excellent builders and winning designs. For $150 million (euros, dollars, etc.) you could built an army of boats for an army of skippers, and pick from the best, not to mention giving the r/c yacht hobby/business a big boost
Like with the Olympics, you can train tirelessly for several years, and perfect your technique, so putting together a winning team of Americans should not be so tough, if you can afford it and organize it. Would you give up several years of your life to train for the America’s Cup to defend it for fun and/or your country?
Personally, I don’t see why people consider the Kiwis so great. Maybe they have MORE experienced sailors per capita or at any age, but the U.S. is known for a level of competitive spirit that is equaled by none. In fact, there have been some come-back stories in American sports that are on-par with what OTUSA did recently, just not in yacht racing.
I would put Morelli (Gino) and Melvin (Pete) at the top of the multihull design/engineering world. While Nigel Irens might be second, M&M just have put together too many winning designs. A List of their most recent efforts…
[ul]
[li]California 45[/li][li]America’s Cup 72[/li][li]Team New Zealand[/li][li]Team Luna Rossa[/li][li]Nacra F20 Carbon[/li][li]Nacra F18 Infusion[/li][li]Nacra 17 Olympic[/li][li]Nacra F16[/li][li]BWM Oracle 2010[/li][li]Stars & Stripes 88[/li][li]PlayStation 125[/li][li]SL33[/li][li]Alinghi 41[/li][li]Formula 40[/li][li]A-Class Catamarans[/li][/ul]
There has been a little forward-moving news in San Francisco. the mayer has been putting together a list of sites for the next AC.
BTW:
the next AC-Winner
http://www.sail-world.com/Europe/Rolex-Sydney-Hobart:-Operation-Close-the-Gap---the-lead-changes/117912
WOX11 reaching 28 knts … must have been real buzz for crew 
Last month, Oatley announced Murray would be CEO of Team Australia.
I wonder who they will get to replace him as the regatta director.
So far, it looks like the next AC may be about as 'different as the last one; SF may try to capitalize on the success of the last one with more waterfront building or improvements, or just make a lot of money of it. Plus there will be a new (different) regatta director.
This is weird…
On AC.com, there is a story about OTUSA training with Team Australia?? Team Australia is supposed to be the Challenger… I don’t see anything wrong with it at the current time, and the photo in the story is the Oracle AC45 boat with the big 4 on the jib…
would be half way between SF and Hamilton Island 
“To race an AC72 in San Francisco cost the teams at least $100 million,” Ellison said. “To race an AC45 all over the world in 2015 and 2016 plus an AC60 in 2017 will cost each team as little as $30 million, all in.”
This time, the AC45 racing would be more than a pretty preseason show leading up to the America’s Cup. Each AC45 race would determine whether you qualify for the division championship in AC60s in 2017.
“So the next America’s Cup actually begins with the AC45 racing in 2015,” Ellison said. “Every race is important - just like Formula One.”
He added, “We plan to have AC45 races in every country where we have a team: Auckland, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; Shanghai, China; Venice, Italy - 12 cities in 12 different countries. The TV coverage should be stunning. Look at the AC45 regatta we held in Venice a couple of years ago. It was beautiful.”
.
About the $$$ …
could be more involved 
money makes the world the go round… no sponsors, no money…no money no fun… not everyone has deep pockets like larry…
Having the AC45 racing has a qualifyer for the AC could be a good idea but the then what will it do the AC45 fleet ? we had plenty more countries who had a boat for the AC45 tour but knew they wouldn’t have the budget for the AC72 last time round so it offered a great spectacle or racing AC45.
Haven’t looked yet but is there a budget limit as part for the rules ? and have they ruled on the team member nationality yet so it becomes a team representing a country instead of a cheque book team ?
And no, there is nothing come to light on the Protocol for the 35th America’s Cup expected to have been announced on March 16, 2014. No announcement on the venue, either - which all works the way of the existing teams and those not requiring sponsorship before they can proceed.
:grumpy:
“He (Gino Morrelli) foresees the boats foiling through tacks without slowing down…”
http://www.blueplanettimes.com/the-new-americas-cup-cat/
I want to see that! :magnify:
"the T-foils will be symmetrical, and bigger. This is part of what brings us to foiling tacks. You’ll have more chance to use low angles of attack to give you the highest glide speed through the tack. We’ll see who can glide to weather the farthest.”
"the ability to over-rotate the wing gives us a tool for sailing in a wide wind range with one wing.”
“if you’re bearing away around the weather mark in 30 knots, you can crank the wing inside out to get positive righting moment. You get a safer turn”
Naaahh…
Sailboats are “slow” and they will never foil. Nobody wants to watch “sailboats.” You’ll need 100 MPH wind to foil a sailboat, and they will never foil while turning.
–Manly-man person drinking beer at a sport bar. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my Android™ tablet with me. I’d like to show a guy like that this photo:
I’d bet our expert will say, “it’s an offshore catamaran powerboat, and the spray is from the twin 1000 HP engines.” What’s that sticking up from the deck? “Obviously, a building in the background.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!
Back in the early 2000’s (2001 -2003) I had the ability to sail one of the MicroSAIL multihulls owned by a local sailor. During the day, with light to medium winds, we had no problems getting it up on it’s foils, and were able to tack from one side to the other without dropping off the foils and onto the water. The boat was driven by a soft sail and jib, - NOT a solid wing.
As for a single hulled sailboat, it is amazing what the loss of all the lead will do for overall weight. If one were to take the Moth class - making a larger boat that would foil probably would require more than a keel and rudder - especially considering the Moth is driven by VERY movable ballast.
Regardless - Gino and his partner Pete (Melvin) have been into multihulls and design since back in the late 1970’s - wwhere Gino sailed in the same class as I did (18 sq. meter) but he was leaving the class as I came in. Pete developed the ultra light A Class boats starting with the carbon “WaterRat” design, which has been updated/redesigned a lot of times thru the A2 version.
For interesting reading and to see what this group has been into, Google the company (Morrelli & Melvin). Hint: they were involved with the Sony “PlayStation” cat way back.
It’s official…
It’ll be wing-sailed, foiling, AC62 cats for the 35th America’s Cup.
But the one weird rule is that they can’t start sailing the boats until 5 months before the qualifiers start in 2017?
What’s weird is that the Challenger teams are only allowed to build ONE AC 65 boat where as the Defender can build TWO !!! …
Further, the Defender is now allowed to compete in the Challenger AC 65 round robin series …a historic No No !!!
Go figure how many challengers will sign up under these new stacked rules ???
hope no one will accept to go on with !!!
ClaudioD
The Rule was supposedly created with the cooperation of the challengers and other experts.
As long as there are more than one challenger, there will be at least two boats for “training” and development. The Defender will not get to compare to any other team until the actual America’s Cup regatta, so allowing two boats for them makes sense, and is fair.
In any case, we we will get to wait until 2017 for any real competition to start, except maybe AC45 racing. I would like to see some AC45 racing on the Great Lakes of the U.S.A.