yesterdays races were pretty interesting… coutts did an amazing start. hit the line moving about twice as fast as everyone else…and threaded the needle through the start line. which was all too short… just saw todays fleet race start. damn committee boat in the way. DOH!!! Thast gonna leave a mark…
Not sure who is handling the RC duties, but they probably are familiar with a monohull starting line, instead of a multihull line! Usually RC committee/sailors used to monohulls forget that for every boat on the line, you need 2-1/2 times the width normally allowed for a single hulled boat. And that doesn’t leave much room for steerage, tactics, etc. if you have “line-campers”. Even with experienced race committees, we used to have big beach cat issues when most were 8 feet wide, and some of us would show up with 11-12 foot wide boats… No f…'n room !! Fortunately, my class was one where we could all sit back, let the smaller boats take off and then catch and roll over them all on windward leg.
this isn’t he first time I noticed the “all too short” start line, or the debacle in italy with the mark too close to shore… carnage makes ratings… and thats what they are trying to get… In all honesty Coutts had a great start the day before I guess he was hoping the lighting would strike twice. It is a bit refreshing to see that Team Oracle is not doing each other any “favors” on the race course. Spittle is giving coutts a run for his money…it would have been very easy for spittle to give room to his teammate but also nice to see him slam the door shut…
What do you guys think about the way the points are awarded on “Super Sunday?” You get 40 points for a first in the fleet sailing. Is that a fair thing? IMO, if there wasn’t a chance at the 40 points, then the teams would probably just pack up and move on at the end of Saturday’s sailing.
Luna Rossa has drafted the frenchman Franck Cammas, recent winner of the Volvo Ocean Race, among lots of other trophies. This add to last week annoncement about the draft of the two Spanich, Martinez and Fernandez, and the presence of Chris Draper, Paul Campbell-James and Massimiliano Sirena.
I am not aware of the internal working of a sailing team. But at first sight, this seems to be too many top guns in the same room?
at 59 seconds you see the daggerboard with a 90* bend, plus you also see the T on the bottom of the rudder… and oracle did break their stbd daggerboard
if they are trying to foil…then the the curved maybe helping with that… not sure I understand all there is to know about the reverse bow, either gotta be fast or they would not do it… doubt you’ll see it on monohuls as a result of roll. since the cat has much less roll it must help with stability maybe…
neat pics and neat videos. 40knts is a quick boat. and if the New zealanders are foiling… the speed could get much much higher…
The reverse bow has been around for a while in the A Class catamarans. It is called a wave piercing bow. It helps reduce pitching by going through waves instead of up and over them.
Thanks for the links Marc, great video - really interesting and surprised somehow to see the flex of the platform with a hull up. (bow lower than transom) not something I’ve seen on TNZL.
My money (if I had to put on this ;-)) is still on TNZL. it’s early days - let’s see what Prada and artemis will produce.
Gutted there will be no French there !!! Les Freres Peyron have done a fantastic work so far and continue to do so in AC45
Ironic though that Alinghi lost the cup to a trimaran with their big cat which clearly inspired a lot of the designers of the new AC72.
Any idea what is the “small hull” under the platform of Oracle ? taking some of the huge load no doubt but I would suspect it has another purpose too ?
I’d almost guess that it a way to strengthen hull/cross bar, Ie make it trimaranesque or to help support the trampoline. or maybe its just a shroud to cover the bits.
