OR-17 was the boat they beat aleghini to win the cup…
th e pitch pole was on oct 16…wasn’t it? and that boat had a 17 on it…
ended up with 19 races
the ACWS oracel boats had 4 and 5 on them…
Some of my photos from the races on 9/11 - 9/15 are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hew_hamilton/sets/72157635588153535/
Foiling moth pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hew_hamilton/sets/72157635580176881/
18’ skiff pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hew_hamilton/sets/72157635584487366/
Oracle coming out of the fog towards the skiff regatta start was pretty cool. And I’m not selling my Oracle jacket or my ETNZ polo shirt!
A lot of significances are included with the number 17,
Check with Google ‘significance of number 17’ and you will discover a lot of things
CD
nice pics hew…
Good pictures Hew. Can you tell us how you got on the water, and who you were with? Did you meet Genny Tulloch? She’s a real babe. 
Was the course really that way? It looks kind of crowded, or are all the spectators outside of the boundary? The videos I saw made the boats look much closer, compared to the helicopter shots.
I saw a video of John Craig discussing regatta preparations, including how they got the Coast Guard involved and some local laws created so that commercial & recreational traffic had to stay outside of the course boundaries. http://youtu.be/jlzuLK6DChM
I’m glad to hear that none of the nesting geese were disturbed by the sailboats, and the local wildlife nuts didn’t make a big fuss…
Very nice photos Hew565 !!
In case you thought the America’s Cup was just a thing between the Kiwis and the Americans:
[ul]
[li]America’s Cup broadcast in news bulletins globally 15,000 times
[/li][li]Over 320,000 downloads of the America’s Cup app
[/li][li]Over 1 million visitors to the official public sites in San Francisco at America’s Cup Park and America’s Cup Village. Hundreds of thousands more viewed the racing from the city front
[/li][li]Over 5 million unique visitors to AmericasCup.com in September and over 45-million page views during the Summer of Racing (July 1 to September 26)
[/li][li]24.8 million views of videos on YouTube
[/li][li]Over 100 million minutes of YouTube videos viewed in the past month
[/li][/ul]
Did anyone ever figure out why OR suddenly dipped into the water just before the first mark on the last Finals race?
I looked up the number 17, and the one thing I liked was that Italians consider it to be unlucky…
I didn’t meet Genny Tulloch, but I did talk to Randy Smythe, while the Moths and skiffs were racing at Marina Green.
The course was laid out like they show in the overhead shots, and all boat traffic was kept out of the edges of the course. The reason they look like they are inside is the 500 mm lens I was using. The shots from “up in the air” were from a walkway on Alcatraz Island. Looking toward the start, the spectator boats were out of the course, but the pre-start area is a box that stretches a good way outside of the race course. The boats were not very close to the AC72s.
The reason a few of the races were cancelled was the wind direction. The course is a fixed course that is not moved around to match the wind. They have to wait till the wind swings west enough to fit the pre-determined angle. That’s why this really is a good venue, the wind comes in very predictably, except when a rare front comes past.
Unfortunately, we were only there for the poor performance days by Oracle, except for the race on Saturday where ETNZ nearly turned over. I think that was a “turning point” for the regatta! They were selling Oracle team gear, “buy one, second one half price” while we were there. I wonder if the sale went away later in the second week!! I’ll make plans to be there in a few years if they choose similar, high performance boats for the AC35!
I think the Oracle crash in the final start was due to the foil cavitating and losing all lift for an instant. I heard that one of the reasons for the upper wind limit was to keep the water speed over the foils safely below 50 kts, due to the possibility of cavitation. Unexpected cavitation while doing 40+ kts in a 2-3 kt ebb tide, could send a boat down the mine shaft! That would ruin the whole event!
Lessee… 11 wins = 11 race videos to download x 500 Mb each… is 6Gb
Should I download the losses and cancelled races? that’s 21 races, I think = 12 Gb.
I’ll need 2 DVDs
Just got back after week being on the road … belated congratulations Oracle Racing !
:weeping:E:weeping:T:weeping:N:weeping:Z:weeping:R.I.P:weeping:
You gotta give the utmost credit to ETNZ. Without them there would’ve been no America’s Cup as we know it. Even JS said the Kiwis should be proud to have been fighting it out to the last turn of the last race on the last day; because it’s not over until it’s over.
If ETNZ didn’t enter the LV Cup, then the Italians wold be in the AC with Oracle? I think that would be a very different outcome. I think the final score would have been a little closer, and OR would not have made the advances they made.
As I said before, ETNZ is the best team out there, So is OTUSA. It’s just that only one team could win the Cup.
I was watching the beginning of the Race 1 video, where they briefly interviewed all the key people, and even Mr. Coutts said,“I honestly don’t know who’s going to win this; 'd put it at 50-50 right now.”
So spread the word about how exciting yacht racing can get, and get young Americans into the sport. Yacht racing really is the Ultimate sport; You need brains, skill, a LOT of athletic ability, and money. You go fast, you turn. There’s danger, “drama,” spills, and thrills. Show me a Nascar guy that can bench 250 (besides the tire guys.) And you don’t have to be be an heir to daddy’s fortune and wear those “yacht club suits” with the funny hat- you can look like a guy from an early Springsteen album. Then we will have a truly American team that defends the Cup. maybe we’ll even have defender trials again 
Does anyone know how Oracle got things right to go foiling upwind, or is that one of the secret things they can’t tell?
I remember the commentators saying that you couldn’t foil upwind well enough for racing because you’d have too much leeway from the foils being too small.
thx
Nope, it would have been Artemis Racing … Luna Rossa participated only because it bought the NZ first foiling boat, that allowed NZ to build a second boat with the money they got from LR.
Really?
From the Saling Anarchy site:
the 12 steps
Breaking down the Oracle “advantage”
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It is well recognized that Oracle was having serious foiling stability difficulties at the outset of the regatta and that their performance could not match that of ETNZ.
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Half way through the series it was acknowledged that Oracle had fitted an automatic control to their hydrofoil trim, and that this modification was approved by the measurement authorities.
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Since this modification Oracle’s performance has almost unbelievably improved. This has been “explained” by skipper Jimmy Spithill as being due to the superhuman efforts of the crew to improve their handling skills. However, in view of the intensive training Oracle were able to do, prior to the regatta, with their highly skilled team partner, it seems unlikely that only now have they discovered the “magic bullet” they clearly have. It is much more likely to be the result of the modifications, possibly enabled by their surprising decision to use their lay day card and the subsequent lucky postponements.
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It must be remembered that this is the first time that this contest has been sailed by yachts “flying “ on Hydrofoils and it is probable that new and different criteria should have been applied.
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In the aeronautical world it has long been known that the stability of swept wing aircraft can rapidly be lost by uncontrolled yaw leading to a dangerous situation known as “Dutch Roll”.
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A device known as “Little Herbie” was developed during the commissioning of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets over 40 years ago, to overcome this tendency. Little Herbies, or “Stability Augmentation Systems” (SAS) as these are now designated, are equipped with sensors such as Accelerometers and Gyros which can detect and instigate corrections to stability with a speed and accuracy which exceeds the ability of even experienced airline pilots. They are therefore now installed in virtually all swept-wing aircraft.
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The “legality” of this device has been justified and accepted on the basis that it does not actually “drive” the trim of the foils…..this is still performed by the muscle power of the crew, via hydraulic linkages. That may be so, but the device, using its sensing and directives, has been described as “automatic”. This implies that the trim of the foils is determined by what can only be described as “superhuman” technology. If this technology has been used to overcome the foiling stability difficulties of Oracle it will have enabled the use of higher speed/lower drag foils which the crew would otherwise be unable to manage. This would give a significant speed advantage during foiling. This has been clearly in evidence since the modification. Improvement in stability and speed has been staggering.
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The high speed/low drag foils do have a downside in light conditions where, due to their lesser lifting characteristic, foiling is difficult or impossible. This was also clearly seen in the abandoned Race #13 when ETNZ were only 4 minutes from the finish, with a lead of over 1000 metres.
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ETNZ appears to have worked within the constraints of accepted yacht racing rules and the special America’s Cup 2013 racing Rules to achieve foiling with these craft. This has been at the cost of using foil characteristics and controls which can be successfully managed by a skilled crew while having to make some concession to pure speed.
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Although there is risk of being derided for being a “poor loser”, or a “bad sport” it cannot go unnoticed that Team Oracle have already been penalised for cheating, that previous Defenders have been noted for sailing very close to the wind of rule compliance. The recent outpouring of bluff and arrogance from Jimmy Spithill may well be part of a plan to trail red herrings and to draw the attention off the real technological reason for their quite literally astounding comeback.
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The question is whether the use of a device which can enhance performance in excess of that achievable by human endeavor should be allowed in a sporting contest?
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Is this grounds for protest? At least we should all be aware that this is how desperate sporting entertainment has become.
Ahhh, conspiracy theories abound.
This seems more accurate: http://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/matthew-sheahan/535348/america-s-cup-what-was-changed-on-oracle
I think it is fitting the the final word on AC 34 should go to Dean Barker in this very moving and personal interview.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Campbell-Live-talks-to-Dean-Barker/tabid/817/articleID/315390/Default.aspx
Unfortunately, I think only Kiwis can watch the video… It didn’t work for me 
Update: I finally got to watch the video, and a few others. Maybe that one was so busy from all the Kiwis viewing it that I had to wait a while.
I think I will make this my last entry into this thread:
Considering how the Oracle team made 11 wins to the ENZ 8 wins, I will declare that Oracle Team USA is indeed the overall winner of the 34th America’s Cup.