Hi Mark,
Is not my business to know how certain people are trowing money out of the window, the point is that I do not see the future application of that madness !
Nasa & Esa Space Research Agency expenditure is based upon a tiny percentage of tax payers (in Europe the cost of 2 newspapers per year/person) and because of that they are supposed to provide a good return to industry and give work to several thousand industries. Many of satellites service today are available to the world community are the products of that effort, one above others the portable telephone, but I can add TV, the Weather bulletins, the aircraft industry and many, many materials of common use for the pleasure of modelers, like composites .
Really I do not see any future for the rigid sail of that size ! just simply as that and I consider frustrating for the people that were working to make it and observing as few irresponsibles boys are doing with just for pleasure/fun !!!.
there are plenty of racing applications from many sports that will never see widespread public use and are basicly “boys and their expensive toys” (auto racing come to mind). Yeah you’ll get some of the technologies that filter down to the common folk…but even then tech is still so new and so expensive only the very few can afford it…
But the America’s cup has never been an event for the common folk to participate it…and big boat racing,even at the dinghy level, can be costly…
Marc,
auto racing activity is useful since many aspects are re introduced in the cars of every body !
The rigid wing did not, to my eyes, invented something useful. If they want to study “existing” materials and test the strength and elasticity of a rigid wing, it is sufficient to play a visit to Boeing !
Cheers
ClaudioD
I read up on the Deed of Gift and briefly, the trophy was originally awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race around the Isle of Wight, which was won by the schooner America. The trophy was renamed the America’s Cup after the boat and was donated to the New York Yacht Club (NYYC) under the terms of the Deed of Gift, which made the cup available for perpetual international competition specifying that it be held in trust as a perpetual challenge trophy to promote friendly competition among nations, that can only be challenged by a nations sailing club and not a individual person.
The original Deed of Gift of The AC since it was created in 1857 was amended four times: 1882, 1887, 1956 and 1985.
In order to maintain the Cup, the game of the defender has always been to shape and bend the rules to keep the Cup, it has always been this way and NYYC became such experts at it and held the cup for 150 years. Nationality was not part of the original deed of gift but only a rule introducted by NYYC club, that became a victim of rule manipulation game after they lost the cup.
no doubt that you’ll see 17 back on the water… under the rules you can rebuild up to 50% of the boat, and the teams have unlimited sails/wings will it ever be a contender, doubt it, but you need a boat to practice against. I’m sure oracle is kicking themselves for trying to sail on probably the worst day. but if you don’t try, you don’t know…
ETNZ has been seen foiling on relativity flat/calm waters. the question…can they foil on choppy waters… do they dare chance it…
Artemis…???not even a wing up yet…
Prada- looks flashy but will it all show and no go…
nice article…I still have my concerns over the flat water testing VS SF bay… it will be interesting to see what NZ does in the next week or so to “clean up the lines” so to speak…
Also the fact that they are only foiling on the leeward hull… is very impressive.
My thoughts though are they ready for the rough waters??? Oracle has found troubled waters in the rough conditions. Good or bad, they found their weakness (better early then late). if NZ is only working on the calm waters will they find weakness in their boat once the water gets bouncy…and will it be too late then?
ETNZ would not be so silly to risk their AC 72 out in unnecessary conditions. I’m sure they’re fully aware of the limits and I too find it hard to believe any team would not have factored in local conditions …but looks like OR did not ?
With all their expertise on local conditions, sea currents, etc…why did they feel they had to go out sailing in HIGH wind conditions which were over the permissible range for the actual match itself? Showboating? or were they fooled into trying to match conditions NZL-1 foiling in winds gusting up to 35+knts?
The mountains of footage and photo’s of OR17 bouncing, bashing and twisting around SF Bay surprised many how they could launch something so …(?)… and OR fans were falling over themselves about how revolutionary it was with built in twist etc etc ??? ETNZ by contrast is very steady on leeward foils and mountain of footage available proves it.
Now the B.S has settled fact is, OR17 had never shown blistering and sustained speed foiling as NZL-1 - OR17 never foiled, it hobby horsed which possible played a part in its unfortunate capsize. I was imagining after the capsize J.S went home that night thinking to himself “well glad we finally got that heap of crap out of the way”.
I completely agree with you in that the up-side is that OR boat #2 will be a better platform and the sailing team will feel much happier to have it sooner than later.
