Regards to your Holly, if that is her in the pic (found on google images)
Only two teams I understand will have second 72 O.R & ETNZ, Artemis & Prada don’t have the funds available.
B.A seems to be O.R choice, but how they compare will be interesting, J.S IMO is more tactical where B.A is more aggressive.
Prada & ETNZ being based in Auckland harbour will not doubt be testing together with ETNZ 1st boat, but I doubt ETNZ will be doing same with Prada with NZL-2, why would they !?
ETNZ does not play their helmsmen against each other, they just looking for the best boat, Dean Barker will be helming it in AC 34 regardless.
I have word on this… Apparently, the moorings bouys supplied by ACRM had a little problem and the chain line was a bit on the short side at high water.
I did some digging and found this:
“The mooring chain fouled on an old piece of concrete with rebar sticking out of it, at low tide. On the rising tide the mooring ball did not rise, but the cat did, and her bow lines parted. I know, I’m the diver who inspected the situation and help move the mooring today.”
So two slightly different versions… Prada had a close call as well, so you can do the rest!
Thanks for that Jim - as to ‘moorings bouys supplied by ACRM had a little problem and the chain line was a bit on the short side …’, I’m disinclined to go with this one, ARCM may have specified the bouy colours but the ground & riser tackle would ordinarily be spec’ed by the contractor who’s physically laying the mooring (that’s the way it usually works in the UK) and errors as fundamental as tidal range, in my experience, just don’t crop up. On balance, the second scenario is the more likely, although the contractor would usually be expected to put a diver down to ensure just that sort of thing wouldn’t and/or couldn’t happen. Whatever the final outcome of the salvage claims etc, it’s good to know that the line parted and not that the cleat/deck fitting was simply ripped out of the deck. Either way, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how the claim progresses.
Was interested to read your thoughts regarding the relative strengths/weaknesses of J.S. & B.A. I can’t pretend to have much knowledge about Ainslie’s ‘big boat’ experience, but certainly his olympic golds from the Laser class were achieved through incredible boat handling skills & phenomenal tactical skills. Of course I’m a little biassed here, but on a good day I don’t think there are many (if anyone!!!) who can better him from a tactical perspective. (Gets coat, runs for cover…!!). As you may have gathered, I’ve had tremendous respect & admiration for Ben for a very long time - I first became aware of his startling talent about 25 years ago: I was racing Fireball’s from Restronguet Sailing Club at the same time that he was serving his ‘apprenticeship’ on Optimist’s.
This is a very sad day. It makes me wonder that, when AC 34 starts, the winner may simply be the last boat with spare parts if they cannot recover from a capsize without major damages.
It sounds like he got legal advice and got greedy alright - I think it is appalling that this will end up in court - I too would have enjoyed being treated as VIP and a ride on this fantastic boat ! flabbergasket is right I’m sure they’ll be happy to leave SF but will they have their boat back or if so at what cost !
don’t have all the facts so difficult to be sure but it seems strange that someone will in the middle of the night would go on what seems to be a dodgy boat in a rescue attempt of a 45 footer instead of more simply calling for coast guards and taking contact with the LVC security teams which I’m sure are on site ! also find bizzare that a 45 footer would break off its mooring in what seems a calm night and not even capsize (enough force to break the lines but not capsizing the boat), then the grey area in the timing of the rescuer to eventually call the coast guards !!! any how a sad story for a humble team.
Hi Row, I did not give any strength/weakness assessment of J.S of B.A, it is just my impression of the persons characters as skippers, we all have mental picture of them and this only my opinion from what I have read about them.
I have the highest respect for anyone working in AC programs as they obviously deserve to be where they are, being the best at what they do … I wouldn’t pretend to knowing their respective weaknesses either, if there were any ?
My impression of J.S is being more the “street smart” AC skipper as he adapts quickly to fast changing situations (tactical) and he appears to works well with all aspects of a team whereas B.A seems more like “the Dominator” being a perfectionist that comes from being the most successful single handed boat sailor of recent time, he gives impression he would be a tough skipper (aggressive) on his crew if they did not live up to his very high standards.
D.B on the other hand gives the impression of being “the Analyst” where he takes decisions from specialists that he relies on his team members being experts at what they do, therefore, more the team player.
As I’ve said before, AC will never be won by a single person but by a well managed total package of design, construction & sailing crew working well together…
The “goolie factor” the OR boys were sailing in 25 knt winds when OR-1 went turtle yesterday was right up there !!! this pic showing the infamous twist of the weather hull looks like may have help contributed to it’s pitch-poling…while foiling.
Well at least Marc won’t be giving up his left nut for this ride
I do have the impression that the Main is released open too fast and this produce an additional “push”.
Apparently this happen already few days before : http://youtu.be/JLX1XPCQodk
CD
Trust me I would have LOVED to been on that boat yesterday… YEE flocking HAW it would have been a blast… if you don’t break something every now and again you’ll never know the limits of your equipment…
Ok it then looks like OR have the foiling issue (break) sorted, now just need to fix the turtle problem and get it sailing right side up.
But jokes aside for a moment, this incident raises some serious questions, multi-hull racing boats regularly capsize, doesn’t matter who we’re talking about. The bigger the boat the more damage that happens, we have just seen it takes one mistake and you’re out & the whole AC 34 event would be a disaster.
With wings, foils and god knows what else is coming down the pipe AC is on the breaking edge of technology, it is possible the last one left standing will be the winner ! Maybe this is why Team Korea is so quite, they’re just waiting for other teams to destory their boats and they turn up to AC 34 with their Hobbie 72 and take the Cup !
And next AC cycle they will be sailing Chinese Junks which they have 2,000 year experience jump on us westerners !
According to a news report (with video) they had just started to bear-away when the elevator trip to lower floors began. Multihulls, unlike iceboats have an axiom which was quoted by Jane Pagels at a long-ago Prindle championships… “Down is down, and up is up”
Yes you pick up tremendous speed when you bear away in a gust, however with the wing out and not close hauled, there is no way to reduce the amount of sail area to the wind when in trouble. Similar, when gybing in very strong winds, the traveler is brought in so the reduced sail area of the leech of the sail is exposed to wind from behind, the rudders are wiggled causing the sail to flop to other side and the traveler is released at the same time to take up the shock-load of the sail area getting hit again by the wind.
Maybe they could offer to give the boat to the guy instead, and he would decline, because he can’t afford the $200,000 for crew, upkeep or mooring costs.
heck, keep the boat, and rent it out on SF BAy for Rides. like they do with the old 12 meters… It would be a nice business., two or three crew members, and half a dozen passengers at 100 bucks a pop… move it down the caribbean with the warm temps… lots of fun…
