America's Cup.... the next generation

In reply to mtn :

We've got it at Great Lakes Naval base. Way cheaper than the marinas to the North and South. Although there's a few hoops to jump through to get in here as one could imagine. 

This is an earlier Reynolds 33 and is 16ft wide. The later boats are 14ft wide and got a bit of a reputation for capsizing. The trailer is an interesting piece for sure. Slide the hulls out and bolt the 3 beams on. 

My father also has a 20ft Tornado that I grew up sailing with him. My understanding after doing a good bit of reading is that the envelope on the tornado is much smaller than a bigger cat. The Reynolds will give you a lot of warning before things go wrong. I'm pretty confident the 48' mast on this monster won't touch the water. Should be a really fun boat. Open invitation to anyone that wants to go for a ride!

I can post some more pictures if anyone is interested. I have no idea how many were made. Most of them are on the West coast. The previous owner did the R2AK race with this boat.

Cool! Knew it had to be somewhere north of Wilmette, just couldn’t figure out where. Best part about it being where it is is that you can go to the Full Moon on 41 - not that it’s a great restaurant, but it’s one of my favorites just because I grew up going there. 

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Cool.

What is the A2K race?

In reply to John Welsh :

Woops fixed my typo! R2AK is a race from Port Townsend WA to Ketchikan AK. 

Italy's AC75 from Luna Rosa was recently launched- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNSC-bB6uxI

Looking forward to seeing these boats move and race. Just amazing. 

John Welsh said:

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Cool.

What is the A2K race?

All Human Powered Race.  Sleepyhead is a big fan of it. 

John Welsh said:

In reply to spacecadet :

How did I miss that you went to Maine Maritime?  Mad props!  

I knew I liked you when we met.  I didn't realize how much.  

 

Unless we're discussing college years or maritime related stuff it doesn't come up much in automotive circles.

Have "sailed" sailed to Europe and back by ship and got to be helmsman going through the Azores on the way back. Immediately followed that up by working in drydock in south Boston all when i was 19. Got to go to my first ALMS race that summer too, out at Lime Rock. 

My handle comes from school. My sophmore year I got out of the merchant marine licensing program and went straight shoreside design focused and all my buddies were heading off to cadet shipping assignments and I took an engineering internship at NASA JSC in Houston and so a buddy called me the Space Cadet and I liked it and rolled with it. 

UK entry was revealed this morning.... 

spacecadet said:

UK entry was revealed this morning.... 

My company's software was used to design that boat, and my boss and one of my co-workers got a guided tour of it last week. The technology that goes into them is staggering.

Tom_Spangler said:

spacecadet said:

UK entry was revealed this morning.... 

My company's software was used to design that boat, and my boss and one of my co-workers got a guided tour of it last week. The technology that goes into them is staggering.

They are on a cutting edge similar to F1, with almost even less rules. they are really something special. 

spacecadet said:

John Welsh said:

In reply to clutchsmoke :

Cool.

What is the R2AK race?

All Human Powered Race.  Sleepyhead is a big fan of it. 

Yup, some kind of junkie of it....

spacecadet said:

Tom_Spangler said:

spacecadet said:

UK entry was revealed this morning.... 

My company's software was used to design that boat, and my boss and one of my co-workers got a guided tour of it last week. The technology that goes into them is staggering.

They are on a cutting edge similar to F1, with almost even less rules. they are really something special. 

 

I have done extensive sailboat racing of 20ft to 40ft keel boats over 25+ years.  When I look at these new boats, I am in awe of how they work.  I just wish I could so close to them to understand how they are rigged.  How the lines run...it they even have lines.  

The comparison to F1 is right on.  Yeah, I race sailboats but in automotive terms I feel like I have experience with Dodge Neons running the local Saturday night oval track in comparison to these F1 racers.  Sure, some it the same but some much is different.  

Said another way...commuting your car to work has little in common with F1.  

Oh yeah, Sleephead turned me on the R2AK a couple years back.  The first year I followed, 2 guys fom Ohio (and southern Ohio at that) competed in the race.  They had a 20ft-ish boat that they had trailered out there.   I don't race boats at the level I used to but if I was still, I would have like to invite those guys up to Lake Erie for some racing.  i would really like to get their first hand account.  

Some video today of the Oz teams boat in action... 

Holy E36 M3 are these things insane... 

The cat sailing and other flying boats of the past few years were something very neat but you can look at them and see how they work.. 

This is just berkeleying witchcraft.. 

So there's an opening race in New Zealand staring 12/17.  Kind of a Christmas cup before the challenge really starts.

Current practice has the teams racing each other, and so far, it looks like the fastest is New Zealand, then the US, then Italy, and finally UK.  

It's amazing to see the flying monohulls, but I'm also torn- as it appears by the lack of entries, that the cost of these are astronomical.  It's almost as if New Zealand will keep the cup because not enough teams were willing to try.  It's really odd, to me, that Australia didn't bring a boat.  Let alone other big sailing countries, like Japan or even France (who do field a lot of other competitive sailing racing yachts).

It's been cool watching the footage of these boats all out training on the water, sometimes at the same time.

The French seem preoccupied with racing around a remote island down south, sometimes single handed, others (less successfully this year) on foiling trimarans. Its been fun to follow along, it's still a tight race in the Vendee Globe around half way through it but it looks like the Jules Verne Trophy won't be won this year.

spacecadet said:

Some video today of the Oz teams boat in action... 

Holy E36 M3 are these things insane... 

The cat sailing and other flying boats of the past few years were something very neat but you can look at them and see how they work.. 

This is just berkeleying witchcraft.. 

No doubt.  One commentator described how all traditional sailboats roll (tip) around their centerline (imaginary line from bow to stern) when they lean over. These boats are like a three legged stool, so every time a foil is raised they roll along a line that angles away from the boat (imaginary line from rudder to a side foil) which makes tacking feel strange and unpredictable. Watching it work in action--successfully--seems to defy logic.

They've always been 12 meter boats, are these called Blade Runners?

914Driver said:

They've always been 12 meter boats, are these called Blade Runners?

They haven't been 12 Meter boats for 30 years now. 

Watching these things race each other is weird.

In reply to alfadriver :

How are the AC foilers substantially different than the herd of IMOCA boats that are in the middle of the Vendee single handed around the globe race?

I don't know what you call it, but blunt-front ships are so cool to me.

NOHOME said:

In reply to alfadriver :

How are the AC foilers substantially different than the herd of IMOCA boats that are in the middle of the Vendee single handed around the globe race?

Dunno- I'm not a sailer, I just like to watch the America's Cup.  Although, I think there are many more foiling boats out there- from smaller cats to much larger ones (but smaller than the previous AC catamarans).  There has been an international catamaran foiling series for a few years now- and I bet they made sure there were a lot of smaller ones to train future skippers.

pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) said:

I don't know what you call it, but blunt-front ships are so cool to me.

Isn't that the Stem?  i.e. stem to stern.  The only advantage I can see is less bashing on the bow, cutting waves better.

alfadriver (Forum Supporter) said:

They haven't been 12 Meter boats for 30 years now. 

I'm sure there are parameters to be followed, know what these are called, what class?