It's official- September 30, 2013: Australia’s Hamilton Island Yacht Club confirmed as Challenger of Record. More information here What's it going to be this time, holographic boats on 900- foot long screens? wing-sail, monohull radio yachts on an inland reservoir? Your guess is as good as any! If the Aussies are challenging, does that mean Spithill and Coutts gotta leave town to go down under?
In that case, it looks as if the American's may be in trouble, unless they choose the XBox as the format. If they want to make it affordable to compete in the America's Cup, they maybe theyshould choose r/c yachts. Every country that I can think of has excellent builders and winning designs. For $150 million (euros, dollars, etc.) you could built an army of boats for an army of skippers, and pick from the best, not to mention giving the r/c yacht hobby/business a big boost Like with the Olympics, you can train tirelessly for several years, and perfect your technique, so putting together a winning team of Americans should not be so tough, if you can afford it and organize it. Would you give up several years of your life to train for the America's Cup to defend it for fun and/or your country? Personally, I don't see why people consider the Kiwis so great. Maybe they have MORE experienced sailors per capita or at any age, but the U.S. is known for a level of competitive spirit that is equaled by none. In fact, there have been some come-back stories in American sports that are on-par with what OTUSA did recently, just not in yacht racing.
I would put Morelli (Gino) and Melvin (Pete) at the top of the multihull design/engineering world. While Nigel Irens might be second, M&M just have put together too many winning designs. A List of their most recent efforts..... California 45 America's Cup 72 Team New Zealand Team Luna Rossa Nacra F20 Carbon Nacra F18 Infusion Nacra 17 Olympic Nacra F16 BWM Oracle 2010 Stars & Stripes 88 PlayStation 125 SL33 Alinghi 41 Formula 40 A-Class Catamarans
There has been a little forward-moving news in San Francisco. the mayer has been putting together a list of sites for the next AC. http://www.americascup.com/en/news/...roposes-venue-sites-for-the-35th-americas-cup
BTW: the next AC-Winner http://www.sail-world.com/Europe/Ro...ation-Close-the-Gap---the-lead-changes/117912
I wonder who they will get to replace him as the regatta director. So far, it looks like the next AC may be about as 'different as the last one; SF may try to capitalize on the success of the last one with more waterfront building or improvements, or just make a lot of money of it. Plus there will be a new (different) regatta director.
This is weird... On AC.com, there is a story about OTUSA training with Team Australia?? Team Australia is supposed to be the Challenger... I don't see anything wrong with it at the current time, and the photo in the story is the Oracle AC45 boat with the big 4 on the jib...
Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for '17 America's Cup would be half way between SF and Hamilton Island http://www.sfgate.com/sports/articl...r-17-America-s-5303121.php<hash>page-1#page-1 About the $$$ ... could be more involved
Re: Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for '17 America's Cup money makes the world the go round... no sponsors, no money...no money no fun... not everyone has deep pockets like larry..
Re: Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for '17 America's Cup Having the AC45 racing has a qualifyer for the AC could be a good idea but the then what will it do the AC45 fleet ? we had plenty more countries who had a boat for the AC45 tour but knew they wouldn't have the budget for the AC72 last time round so it offered a great spectacle or racing AC45. Haven't looked yet but is there a budget limit as part for the rules ? and have they ruled on the team member nationality yet so it becomes a team representing a country instead of a cheque book team ?
Re: Larry Ellison eyeing Honolulu for '17 America's Cup http://www.sail-world.com/Europe/Am...-training-on-San-Francisco-Bay-+-Video/120268 :grumpy:
foiling through tacks "He (Gino Morrelli) foresees the boats foiling through tacks without slowing down..." http://www.blueplanettimes.com/the-new-americas-cup-cat/ I want to see that! :magnify: "the T-foils will be symmetrical, and bigger. This is part of what brings us to foiling tacks. You’ll have more chance to use low angles of attack to give you the highest glide speed through the tack. We’ll see who can glide to weather the farthest.” "the ability to over-rotate the wing gives us a tool for sailing in a wide wind range with one wing.” "if you’re bearing away around the weather mark in 30 knots, you can crank the wing inside out to get positive righting moment. You get a safer turn"
Re: foiling through tacks Naaahh..... Sailboats are "slow" and they will never foil. Nobody wants to watch "sailboats." You'll need 100 MPH wind to foil a sailboat, and they will never foil while turning. --Manly-man person drinking beer at a sport bar. Unfortunately, I didn't have my Android[SUP](tm)[/SUP] tablet with me. I'd like to show a guy like that this photo: I'd bet our expert will say, "it's an offshore catamaran powerboat, and the spray is from the twin 1000 HP engines." What's that sticking up from the deck? "Obviously, a building in the background." HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!
Re: foiling through tacks Back in the early 2000's (2001 -2003) I had the ability to sail one of the MicroSAIL multihulls owned by a local sailor. During the day, with light to medium winds, we had no problems getting it up on it's foils, and were able to tack from one side to the other without dropping off the foils and onto the water. The boat was driven by a soft sail and jib, - NOT a solid wing. As for a single hulled sailboat, it is amazing what the loss of all the lead will do for overall weight. If one were to take the Moth class - making a larger boat that would foil probably would require more than a keel and rudder - especially considering the Moth is driven by VERY movable ballast. Regardless - Gino and his partner Pete (Melvin) have been into multihulls and design since back in the late 1970's - wwhere Gino sailed in the same class as I did (18 sq. meter) but he was leaving the class as I came in. Pete developed the ultra light A Class boats starting with the carbon "WaterRat" design, which has been updated/redesigned a lot of times thru the A2 version. For interesting reading and to see what this group has been into, Google the company (Morrelli & Melvin). Hint: they were involved with the Sony "PlayStation" cat way back.
Re: foiling through tacks It's official.... It'll be wing-sailed, foiling, AC62 cats for the 35th America's Cup. But the one weird rule is that they can't start sailing the boats until 5 months before the qualifiers start in 2017?
Re: foiling through tacks What's weird is that the Challenger teams are only allowed to build ONE AC 65 boat where as the Defender can build TWO !!!! ...... Further, the Defender is now allowed to compete in the Challenger AC 65 round robin series ...a historic No No !!! Go figure how many challengers will sign up under these new stacked rules ???
Re: foiling through tacks The Rule was supposedly created with the cooperation of the challengers and other experts. As long as there are more than one challenger, there will be at least two boats for "training" and development. The Defender will not get to compare to any other team until the actual America's Cup regatta, so allowing two boats for them makes sense, and is fair. In any case, we we will get to wait until 2017 for any real competition to start, except maybe AC45 racing. I would like to see some AC45 racing on the Great Lakes of the U.S.A.