greg
i saw your post on aussie 2 winning in 83. i do not know you for a long time but i do get a feeling that you know what you are saying. but wow are you wrong about 83. not only was aussie 2 a faster boat than liberty, but your give dc , way to much respect . he got beat by a superior team, plain and simple. if conner would have kept freedom like she was in 80, they might have had a shot. bond and lexen were constanly improving the design of the hull. and after race 6 when bertand blew the start. they where working on the mainsail. this is what won the cup for the auusie. it was the same in 95 with nzl 32, the kiwis where contancely moving forward.i put aussie II and black majic in the same class( you called them superboats). the had good crews( very important over canting keels) and give them a good boat and let them go to work.conner did not lose the cup by himself the whole team did
cougar
During the match between liberty and Aus II, I was living in Pewaukee Wisconsin. John Bertrand had actually lived there for a number of years and raced E scows on Pewaukee Lake. At the east end of the lake is a complex of buildings that contains Harken’s headquarters, Vanguard boats (before they were bought out) and An inland sails loft which used to be a North Sails Loft. John B had worked at Vanguard for a number of years if I recall correctly.
Anyway, Aus II had a 100% North Sails inventory. Liberty was about half North and half Doyle. So everyone at the North Loft and everyone at Vanguard Boats were cheering for Aus II. Harken was well represented on both boats but a lot of the guys there remembered John from when he lived in town, so they were cheering for Aus II as well. I was working at Vanguard that summer, so I got sucked into cheering for Aus II as well.
At the end of the cup match, it felt like we were the only guys in America cheering for the other team…
Will Gorgen
Will, you weren’t the only ones- a lot of us down here were cheering away for Aus II!
Doug Lord
–High Technology Sailing/Racing
I think they should race one design boats so it could be about nothing but sailing skill and who cares if nobody sees it on TV. It seems that all the engineers are the ones that win the races
john
i think you missed to point. the americas cup use to be a team affair. and now it si still a team affiar but not it is the team that has the most money. sort of like the new york yankees. i will always watch the amercias cup . andall the fighting on the water. Ilike cris diskson slamming into russel coutts. when coutts would not allow him to pass. this is why you sail with a team. the grinders . and the guys in the sewers all count
its fun , and i for one would sailing a race. even if they put me inthe sewer
cougar
I’m an AC fan too, in all it’s forms. The 2007 cup will have a different flavor, but money talks and the sport is growing. I love to watch it on TV and 2007 will be better than ever(except for the time difference). 1PM Races will be on at what, 7 or 8:00AM EST?
Back to Aussie II and Liberty. I find it hard to really say one team was THAT much better than another. One could argue that DC and the US crew were great sailors to take it to 7 races. We’d all be talking about other things if that last race had gone the other way!
Shameless plug: track progress towards 2007 here: http://www.cupinfo.com
Matt
CupInfo.com
you are so right mwhite. dc and the crew did a great job taking it to 7 races, but you have to remeber that in race 1 aust II steering broke. and in race 2 the mast head broke. race 3 was done fanastic. and dc did a great job. but after that is was no contest. liberty was just a slower boat.
I agree that with the IACC coming to the med it will be great, i watched all the races on tv. and over here the races started at 11 pm. i still would like to see it go back to countries as opposed to companies
Cougar