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America's Cup

E

exc141ac

What M$ could have done
After much (and still continuing) legal haggling --
the races (3 this go around) are set to start on Friday.
Only Alinghi (Swiss, holder, catamaran) and
BMW Oracle (US, challenger, trimaran) this year --
no other boats were allowed.

They can hit 25 knots in a 10 knot wind.
 
Hmmmmppthhh :angryfir:...we (NZ) should be there along with all the other nations and they should be sailing the same boats like they have in the last few cups. Hope BMW Oracle win in any case ... Alinghi is not liked here since they stole our sailors and then took the Cup off us.
 
Heh well it's still very much a Kiwi affair - 1/3 of Oracle's sailors come from these parts, and a quarter of Alinghi's!
And that's not counting Russel Coutts, sorry Sir Russel ;)

There isn't enough money to build a whole fleet of boats like this, so it'll be a one-off I imagine, and business as usual when Oracle takes it off 'em.
Dockyard jewelery is how I've heard them described...what on earth do you do with a $10million America's Cup boat after those three races?
 
The whole affair has been so boring what with all the litigation going on...
You easily forget what amazing machines these are.
Star Wars, and then some.
They scoop water ballast on the go, and move it about to keep that hull flying.
There are hundreds of sensors all over the boat, the sails are powered and computer-controlled.
Huge one hundred footers, they can go 40 knots

View attachment 31383

Oracle has a wing, not a sail.
Bigger than an A380 wing.
Massively powerful - at the start, Jimmy Spithill put the hammer down to head off Alinghi, you could've smelt rubber burning.
Then he stalled it on the line!
And came back from 600 m behind and powered past Alinghi to win by more than a kilometer.

Something dramatic needs to happen in the second race, otherwise this will be all over in two.
I mentioned $10m in the post above - there's a zero missing - that would be $50m per race, then.
 
Sorry to ask for details, but I truly don't know what has happened here. I am surprised of the extremely limited competition field. Why is this the case -- what was the lawsuits all about?

Ken
 
I still wish to know the details. However, as an American I am overjoyed the US team won the first race, and by a margin so dominating as to suggest we might bring it back!

I love these races. Who is broadcasting them on TV?

Ken
 
'tis a long and ugly tale - there should've been a full regatta but the parties could not agree on anything at all - who the Challenger would be, who was legitimate, what boats etc etc.
Not unknown in America's Cup history, but taken to extreme.
The default fallback was to run a one-on-one Deed of Gift race.
The rules appear to be: 90 feet on the waterline and a blank cheque.

The amount of national pride involved has become a little fuzzy of late.
NZ was extremely miffed that Swiss pharmaceuticals tycoon Ernesto_Bertarelli bought a few of our top sailors and took the Auld Mug off us with his Team Alinghi.
Not to be outdone, American software billionare Larry Ellison took a few Kiwis off Alinghi for 2010; and indeed Sir Russel Coutts runs Larry's Oracle campaign.

So it's a battle of two immense billionaire egos.
The interest is that the technology really is space-age.
They have created the best sailing vessels money can buy to slug it out.

I think many New Zealanders would like to see Larry stick it to Ernesto.
Then we might coax back all our boys and take the Cup off Oracle with a revitalised Team NZ ;)
 
I used to be an avid watcher of the America's Cup sailing on TV.

From the days off San Diego , to the racing in Australia and finally when the Kiwi's won it and hosted the racing down under.

They were exciting times.

Now the sportsmanship has been forgotten.

OK the big boats are amazing.

But now it's like a couple of spoilt rich brats trying to bend the rules to suit them selves and having little tanties when they don't get their own way.

I hope it returns to a more international event with realistic rules and yachts.

Pete.
 
Yes, the American team won the second race to sweep the event and the yawns from the American media are deafening!

If it hadn't been for this thread I would have never known the race was taking place!

http://www.ajc.com/sports/us-boat-wins-back-304447.html

Considering the massive interest in previous races I'm shocked this got so little attention.

Ken
 
Go Oracle! :applause::applause::applause: What a boat...what a crew.
Larry will die happy.

The next America's Cup will be something to look forward to I'll wager.
Can't wait.
 
Ken Stallings said:
Yes, the American team won the second race to sweep the event and the yawns from the American media are deafening!

If it hadn't been for this thread I would have never known the race was taking place!

http://www.ajc.com/sports/us-boat-wins-back-304447.html

Considering the massive interest in previous races I'm shocked this got so little attention.

Ken
Click to expand...

I think the interest got drowned in the courts. I remember the last time it was held in Newport, the papers would have reports daily, with the news having it near the top of the broadcast. Like you said, it's almost invisible now.
 
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