anyone watch the live streaming on youtube yesterday of the first fleet race… pretty neat. I hate the slow and go penalty. remind me of to much of nascar.
the penalty is not a really a penalty anymore. if you are a great sailor, and you are over early on the favored end of the line. no more round the ends. the reward is huge, and the risk is minimal with the new rule. and I really hate the mark rounding rule. First boat to the zone has all the rights. no more tactics in trying to come to the mark on Starbard tack to get an advantage over a port tack boat.
They are making it to spectator friendly and taking away some of the tactics.
The coverage was great, the multiple choices of on board camera’s was fun as well…
I like the gates. but the last 100 yard reaching finish leg so the boats can parade in front of the grandstand…YAWN…
might as well have a down wind finish.
I love the speed and athleticism of the guys on the boat but it juts seems to lack the grace an elegance(lumbering slow behemoths:p) of the monohulls.
I see “some” of the AC45 rules to be adapted to fit the cats, as they aren’t as narrow as a monohull, so you don’t really have that much room around marks, and you can’t “squeeze” your boat between the mark and the other boat(s) like we might at the boat pond- at least that is how I see the new 2-length thing around the marks.
I’m kind of waiting to see one skipper make a big mistake and spear the other hull. :sly::eek: It will probably happen eventually, on a rather windy day, I suppose.
I like the slow-and-go penalty, compared to doing a 360. Since the course is so short, it gives the penalized team a chance at getting back in the race.getting a cat to do a 360 in those light breezes would surely cost them the race, although we could just assume they would figure out how to make the start without a penalty. The starts would undoubtedly be boring then.
I can appreciate the short duration of the new race format and the speed of the A45. Imagine how much longer it would take to sail an AC mono in those light winds… The ACWS course reminds me of a model yacht race, with a heat taking 20 minutes or so each, so if you have a bad heat, you don’t have to wait several days for another go.
What do you think of the lady-commentator’s language during the racing? It seems to favor those who aren’t real sailors, as if they want the average person (or landlubber) to get involved and enjoy this type of sport.
… And then I wonder if the ACWS will end up being cheap, like Nascar or Sprint cup… Yes, we want landlubbers to enjoy the sport, but the language use should reflect the sport, not those watching it.
yeah it feels like they are dumbing down the sport for the great unwashed masses… IMO hence part of the reason for the rules changes… its not fun an exciting for one screw up to make it a one boat race…but with match racing, you can offset penalties. so if you foul someone. you can wait until the end of the race to do your circle hoping that you can get fouled yourself and end up with an off setting pens…
I had a force 5 for a while. On a beam reach, you’d be ‘riding the knife-edge’ as I called it because the deck was almost perpendicular to the water, and you could see the entire centerboard, so I only had it down on light air days. Sometimes I just left it on the dock.
I’m glad you guys over at the RG65 group started talking about the live video stream. It was really fun to watch, and still reminds me of model sailing, with the short duration of each match. I still like the old IACC monohull racing, and would like to see some more, if they can figure out how to make those more even performance-wise.
I made a reminder to myself for next April, and hopefully I’ll have my ODOM back together by then too.
I finally watched the match races and speed trials from the last day. some of the best racing yet. hulls under water, on the edge. thats an awfully short start line for 9 boats, and the gates are pretty narrow when more than 2 boats come to the gate…
reaching starts suck, and its essentially a downwind finish… I was impression for Korea, but tangled lines doomed them…
I’ve been following the VOR as well. but with half the fleet broken down… on the first leg…not much going on…
there is a video clip from early on, on a day with BIG pressure, where one of the boats got both hulls under and there was water up to the mast! The commentator mentioned that the hulls will pop up as soon as it slows enough.
Board halfway up, traveler half-way out, out-haul and down-haul on tight to flatten sail, loosen hiking strap to allow droop-hike and get your back flat to water.
Whether a Laser, Force 5 or other dinghy with fairly flat bottom - “Flat is Fast” - referring to a hull flat on the water. It’s what gave us stomach muscles back then when young enough to hike for a full windward leg.
Does anyone have a link that shows the lines for controlling the wing-sail on the AC45 boats? I’m really curious how they manage the camber and twist of the wing-sail. I see how they sheet in and out the main, but not the rest.
Ben Ainslie announced today that he had signed with Oracle Racing for the 2013 America’s Cup, and that he would be competing his own AC45 entry in the America’s Cup World Series.
Fully underwritten by OR for the ACWS series in his own team and later then a shot at possibly helming OR AC 72 …it has got to be the deal of the century !! not to mention it takes him out of play to skipper in other competing teams, OR got their bases covered.
Ben Ainslie Racing or BAR has familiar ring to it :rolleyes: and then when start up their Facebook page Ben Ainsle Racing + Friends? abbreviation would be BARF …rather fitting don’t you think ? and supporters be BARFLY’s :lol:
When it came to the point in the interview about the Surrogate ruling, I was shocked at Cayard’s position as Artemis are supposed to be CoR that heads up the challengers, and not jump in sack with the defender !!!
For the preservation of the AC tradition and respect for the challenges, Artemis should resign the position their CoR …they’ve just become Oracle’s poodle !!! :lol:
Alan,
Just to say also that I am pretty disheartened and annoyed at the underhanded nature of the Iacc120 LwL rule changes. It does however echo the twists asd turns in recent history of the real Cup and it never fails to amaze me how absolute power, corrupts absolutely!
Gidday Jim, me too pal ! what do they say are the four weakness of man ….Greed, Money, Fear & Power !
Honestly, I just ignore the Italian rules now and stay with the basic fundamentals of min boat weight, max keel/bulb weight and sail area and focus on my own maximum LWL of 1000 mm … all their other B.S they can sleep with, not this little black duck Recon from recent pics shows one boat now having noticeably shorter LWL …wonder why? :rolleyes:
but anyway it does not matter, I’m now building my projects so that I can remove 500 gm ballast and sail with alternative min 4000 gram displacement … then maybe we can arrange a separate surrogate event at sometime ?
Hey keep off the SAS goons option buddy, I’m gathering that you caught up Wayne Tempero, bodyguard to Ernesto Bertarelli and Brad Butterworth …wild stuff !
IMO hence part of the reason for the rules changes… its not fun an exciting for one screw up to make it a one boat race…but with match racing, you can offset penalties. so if you foul someone. you can wait until the end of the race to do your circle hoping that you can get fouled yourself and end up with an off setting pens…
