34th America's Cup

quagmire said:

The Louis Vuitton Cup is in the final stage with New Zealand going against Italy.

The America's Cup will be Oracle USA(defenders) vs the winner of NZL vs. Italy in San Francisco.

This happened in race 1 of the finals yesterday. It had to hurt....

YouTube: video

As much as those boats are impressive( the only thing touching the water is the dagger board!), they just don't look like sailboats anymore. They need to go back to the monohulls. Especially back to the way the old 12 meters used to look like....

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i disagree.
they look awesome.
it is only right that america's cup is battled for with the best boats available.

Don't panic said:

i disagree.
they look awesome.
it is only right that america's cup is battled for with the best boats available.

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the speed they get out of these boats is incredible

quagmire said:

...They just don't look like sailboats...

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alas, time marches on

quagmire said:

Well time can screw itself. I don't mind the wing( hell I love the wing), etc. I just wished they at least resembled normal looking boats and stuck with monohulls.

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cats have never gotten any love from the monohull crowd

these things are so fast they have to wear crash helmets! It's astonishing when they rise up out of the water and take off

quagmire said:

....These cats are wickedly fast. But, monohulls are the best.

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you can foil in a monohull too



i wonder if the America's Cup will ever go back to monotonous hulls or whether they'll stay with the speed racers

quagmire said:

Monohulls just look more graceful on the water.



These cats are wickedly fast. But, monohulls are the best.

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I like monohulls better as well.

quagmire said:

The hulls need to be in the water!

I like how normal monohulls look on the water. Heeled over with their genoa's out, etc. Then when on downwind leg of the course with their gennaker out.....

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I like how they look too. There's no question that the monohulls are the more graceful......but then the America's Cup isn't a beauty contest. Maybe they could have two classes, one for the slow boats and one for the fast boats?

Leadbellies are boring, IMHO. Slow and cumbersome.

Absolutely love the AC72s, and especially Oracle, which looks like it just sailed out of a bat cave. Have been following the cats for a couple months now - there's a great live webcam at the St. Francis Yacht Club which we take turns driving while the teams are out practicing. Awesome stuff.

Also love the technology that goes with the AC72s. One of the grinders on Oracle also writes the on board software.

quagmire said:

They look awesome and the speeds they go at is amazing( 30 knots when there is only like 10 knots of wind).

They just don't look like sailboats. The old 12 meters( seen here in this movie trailer) look like sailboats.

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for what is worth, i fell in love with cats the first time i saw one flyby as a kid, a few DECADES ago.

the only 'problem' i have with the superhigh tech is its intrinsic fragility (because they are so much at the edge) and the fact that it becomes ever more difficult to have close races because the technically superior boat is just faster and the electronics/tech evens out the skipper's abilities to 'read' the course.
but that was already true with the last few monohulls.

quagmire said:

Just put the wing on the monohull and they will speed up. Just look at back in 2010. Oracle embarrassed Alinghi and the main difference between the two boats was the wing.

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BMW Oracle was not a monohull. It was a trimaran.

While Ellison's fortune made the victory possible, the true star was his monster black-and-white trimaran and its radical 223-foot wing sail, which powered the craft at three times the speed of the wind, sending its windward and middle hulls flying well above the water.

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http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=4913750

quagmire said:

For those not following, Oracle USA was on the brink of an embarrassing defeat to New Zealand with Emirates up 7- -2( Oracle received a 2 point penalty for cheating). The score is now 8-6 with( would be tied if it wasn't for that 2 point penalty).

Does Oracle have the 2004 Red Sox in them and come back from the brink of utter defeat to win it? Oracle needs 3 more wins while New Zealand only needs 1 more win.

EDIT: 8-7 now. Oracle won the first race today. Of course if they didn't try to cheat, they would have successfully defended the America's Cup.....

EDIT 2: Series is now tied. 8-8. Tomorrow will decide the America's Cup. Either way one side will be devastated tomorrow.

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really amazing comeback with 7 wins in a row.
and now Oracle has to be the favourite.
i wonder what the betting odds were when they were down 8-1 (counting the penalty, with the kiwis dominating and needing just one more win to clinch.

Good luck to the Americans on board Oracle USA.

Hands up, it was a bit of mischief.

Monohulls

I used to care when this race was with REAL sailboats (Dennis Conner, etc).

I could care less if the Oracle wins or loses today. The whole affair seems to be about zillionaires cheating to gain some advantage. I seem to remember that it was an American team that started this whole BS about running Cat boats in order to keep the Cup here.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out the New Zealand team also cheated here and there, but didn't get caught.

Today's "I want it now" crowd only wants speed and would find it too boring to watch a really 2 hour race. What probably 90% or more of the viewers don't realize is that it feels like you're holding on to a tiger when blowing along at 6-10 MPH under sail.

I wouldn't be surprise to see added engines on board future Cup races so that they can go 75 MPH or greater. I won't be watching this crap today.

quite the turnaround for Oracle.......somehow they found superior boat speed and there just wasn't anything the Kiwis could do about it

quite an amazing achievement, and great racing