At least it’s progress in the right direction 
A truly phenomenal engineering achievement - if you fast fwd to about 3.30 where she’s foiling there’s an amazing view of the flexibility between the 2 hulls - I wonder how that compares with the designers numbers?
Row
Great stuff finally standing up ! a little wobbly with her first steps but it can only get better
Just blows me away that we have 72ft sailing boats … that can foil !!! amazing how quickly technology has progressed over very short time, think about it, wings already seem like old news.
Row I have trouble believing it meets designers intentions with all that flexing going on, aeroplanes fine as they are flying in aerodynamic conditions but boat sailing with both aero & hydro dynamics ? one crack (as we have seen already) and it’s all over red rover !!!
Looking forward to see what hull #2 is like.
Next thing to ponder, who will be helming 2nd boats for Oracle & ETNZ 72’s … lots of guessing going on now.
Alan -
keep in mind that the Gougeon Brothers (WEST System) built their Formula 40 trimaran (Adrenalin) that had floats that were designed to articulate through waves and water. Worked well enough to see the trimaran banned the following year from F40 competition. Granted, it was not up on foils, but there was some thought/research about letting the amas be hinged and float up and down. Dateline would have been mid to late 1980’s
Cheers, Dick
Hi Dick,
Now there’s a boat that was ahead of it’s time, did you know she is in Auckland and still in original condition.
But having hinged amas on a tri is completely different story to having a controlled hull flex on a cat foiling with a wing ! even if is mathematically possible to control angle of attack of the foils, keeping them in balance on 72 footer at high speed would need require some serious on-board computer control connected to rapid hydraulics, maybe that’s what is in the centre pod of Oracle ? … a few of Larry’s I.T servers :rolleyes:
Cheers Alan
Now that we are talking about foils, why hasn’t anyone used them on the 45s? I bet it’s probably prohibited by the rules, but they would probably learn a few things by trying them.
been watching the latest video from Oracle and though this time they are foiling on one foil, which is progress from before I still find their platform too flexible - maybe it is voluntary but ETNZ I think are still ahead… any news and video from Artemis - they were the first to publish a video of their 72 but then all quiet !!!
Who knows which are the other 72 coming down the line ? Prada, pretty sure but who else ?
Alan - I had heard she was moved down there. She spent a few years in a shipping container back in Michigan (my home state) and then I heard she was sold and moved. Like many other unique boats, it was always a question of whether she would be maintained, or if she would become neglected. Great to see she is still sailing, as it was one fantastic boat. At the time, and living only 45 minutes from their shop and racing with Meade and Jan in a Force 5 local dinghy class, as well as being deep into multihulls, I was able to be there to see two of their creations. One of course was “Adrenalin” (above) and the other was the proa “SlingShot” that was used for a record speed sailing event. The only other Gougeon boat that I missed seeing locally was “Golden Dazy” - a big 42 foot (Two Tonner) monohull that had no deck house, but was clear finished western red cedar strip construction. She was designed for and won the Canada’s Cup race her first year.
I also have a great photograph that Jan Gougeon gave to me of Adrenalin from the port quarter bow. It hangs in my family room and I will get it down and get a photo to post later. Yes - tris can be “loose” but cats were also known to be “faster when stiff”. Cheers. Dick
There was an announcement in April that Team Korea would be in, with speculation that Uncle Larry paid their entry fee … but nothing further has been said since !
http://www.americascup.com/en/news/8/teams/7213/ac-world-series-san-francisco-preview-team-korea
Just FYI…
There are a couple applications, for iOS and Android, called AC Race Tracker, that will get the live race data feed ( the same data that the umpires get) and show you the positions and speed of the boats on the screen. You can zoom it and tap a boat to see speed, heading apparent wind, heel, etc., and also the race chatter. You’ll see the boats on the screen as soon as they turn on their onboard gear, so you can watch the boats practicing while others are in a match. Right now, I’m watching TNZ and USS going up & down the course by themselves and it’s been 20 minutes since the second fleet race finished.
More information:
Wussel Coutts admitts he made a mistake with the AC72 class rule and revealed he even tried to scale back the size of the boat late last year.
Read details here: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10838714
Is this the beginning of butt covering campaign as AC 34 looks possibly to shape-up as a failure !?
Foiling a 72 in AC 34 maybe more a dream than reality given the short course …
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10838854
I thought the SF bay was a little tight.
BTW- would someone please tell Mr. Jobson, that having one hull and the dagger board out of the water decreases the DRAG, not the “friction?”
Adding a few hundred metres to the course has the potential to increase the drama for pure match racing, but when foiling? Seems pointless. As you have pointed out though Alan, the butt covering has definitely started although in all honesty I think it’s a little late for that. Just got this horrible feeling that AC34 will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Just hope that Coutts finds a way of salvaging his reputation - maybe he should just stick to making yachts go fast…!!
Row
It can only happen in America 
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/French-boat-s-rescuer-seeks-200K-award-3934214.php
I would’ve settled for a “Team Energy” luncheon, or a bottle of Moet, but I would’ve preferred to be an honorary member of the syndicate for the rest of the week, with V.I.P. privileges, including the joyride.
I didn’t even know the boat had gotten loose, because Usually they put the floating gate across the opening of the AC mooring area.
Sigh…like you guys don’t have lawyers in Germany…
Lucky they got their boat back…Salvage law is pretty broad
It could have easily been plowed under by a tanker, or other boat, or drifted out into the ocean.
Maybe the frenchies could give this guy the boat after all the races… and call it square…or swap out his old beat up boston whaler with one of their chase boats…
Although I would have been very happy to ride on the boat for a days racing in lieu of payment…
Although I may not have been dumb enough to try to take a 45 foot cat with with a 5 story mast with my 13’ whaler and a dogy engine
basically someone told him to lawyer up after the fact… and he got greedy…
Imagine what they would’ve thought when they walked out to the mooring to see the boat was not there… :shock::shock::eek::eek:
And yeah, at the speed it might go even without the foresails, it could probably get to the open ocean in no time.