Anyone following the Louis Vuitton Cup?

I'm taping the series, so if it's over please don't tell me how it ends. This is the set up race for the America's Cup Race.

Last race I saw was Britain vs Japan, GBR came in hot under JAP, JAP didn't yield and ended up with carbon fibre streamers.

I can't believe how the technology has changed from the old 12 meters where tacking duels were the key, lots of yelling, cranking, pulleys clanging and ropes flying. What do you mean no spinnakers? A good reach leg rewards you with 40 knots, oh my.

They are so fast!! My wife even thought they were cool.

We were tempted to take a cruise to Bermuda this weekend. Would have been awesome since the docks are next to the racing.

Btw, you can still race the 12 Metre yaghts in st Maarten.

I watched the last America's Cup and was blown away by what seemed the greatest comeback story in all of sports. These boats are so fast and so agile that they've completely changed the game for competitive sailing of all types.

In reply to nderwater:

I'm torn by it. While the speed is very alluring, and strategy is incredibly important, I really loved the tacking battles in the 12M era. Which is the era I started noticing them. I remember staying up "late" in my dorm watching Dennis Connor bring back the Cup.

With the new boats- it's more about the pure speed, and if they can foil going down wind. They are amazing, but....

In one of the matches yesterday there were 9 lead changes. This is some of the best match racing I have ever seen and I am a lifelong sailor. All the tactics, course plotting, overlaps, right-of-way, etc are there. Tape a couple of days worth and watch the differences in strategy and the "luck" of picking the correct course side, getting a footer (or header) and making a mark or not.

The performance is truly incredible. It truly is like F1 on the water. The closing speeds have got to be fairly terrifying. At the final leeward mark rounding yesterday in race 14 Artemis (Sweden) was coming into the mark at 30+ knows and looked to give plenty of room at the mark for Emirates Team New Zealand who was seconds behind them. Emirates had to gybe under Artemis and could have based on the room but the skipper would have had to have some big brass ones to do it. In my opinion he balked and pulled the protest flag. On the water the stewards gave him the race. Under review they say they shouldn't have. Tough when that happens but you go on to race another day.

I grew up sailing and racing boats, but as much as I enjoy watching I am conflicted about the new class. Things happen so, so fast that its hard for me to follow what's happening in real time. Kind of like watching pro hockey or basketball (which I admittedly don't do often...), where game play happens at a speed that makes it hard for non-experts (like me) to comprehend or even see tactics and strategy.

One interesting "tech" note- I see the New Zealand yacht is using leg power instead of arm power for their systems- the grinders look like they are riding bikes. Very interesting- and given the layout of the yachts, it does make sense- the space works out well.

That outside pass France made on the UK was really neat.

All of the highlights are in youtube.

I love these boats!!!

What amazes me is the crews. Think about it.. The way the most of them are operating they have 4 guys who are nothing but muscle, just running hydraulic pumps. If you powered the pumps mechanically there is only two guys on each of those boats steering and trimming..

Just amazing...

And I have no idea how you would sail back downwind with the apparent wind so far ahead of the boat. Going back down it looks like they drop the wing just a few degrees off where it is going up, and maybe add just a bit of camber.. Simply awesome.

Complete envy over these boats. Not sure if I could handle one but so exciting watching these boats. The technology will change sailing forever and I welcome it.

See the outside pass by the Swedes over New Zealand? Swedes cut it close, NZL put the hulls in the water losing speed and the Swedes won by 1/2 mile.

...then there was a protest.

NZL won.

Now the Judges recant their decision. Click the video, right call?

In reply to 914Driver:

And even though they recant the decision, it still stands, and NZL wins. Which is kind of a bummer.

One of the team France guys talked about it at length I watched yesterday- the crux of it- it was a 70/30 move- 70% no penalty, 30% penalty. But given the situation, he pointed out that it was pretty easy to make it a 100/0 choice, and to risk putting the choice in a human's hands is a choice. Right or wrong of the decision, it's still a risk.

Not to say the Swedes were at fault, but pointing out that they could have easily avoided the issue. If I understand the issue clearly enough, it would not have taken much more space for Artimus to make the clean cross and sail away. They had the boat speed to make a clean outside pass- like France did to the UK earlier.

Kind of lame that it happens, but it does.

On the other hand, the outside pass France did on the UK was great- and it resulted in their first win. I understand that the team has had little time on their boat, so the emotions were running high with the win.

I watched a little on Saturday while waiting on my wife to get ready to go out. I don't know anything at all about sailing or the challenges the teams face to navigate so take this with a grain of salt...

But they are looping around the same course 7x. In the ocean. Two at a time. Why don't they all start at a port somewhere like Venice and sail to somewhere else like Monaco all at the same time?

It's boring as berkeley watching boatcross. The boats are really cool though.

I can only afford watch the chinese knockoff of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

In reply to Huckleberry:

Just a different kind of racing. There's a lot of racing from A to B. There's full fleet racing at the same time on a course, and there's head to head match racing.

Honestly- watching the A-B racing is much more boring. The boats quickly diverge from each other, and before you know it, the boats can't even see each other.

gearheadmb wrote: I can only afford watch the chinese knockoff of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

LOL

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Just a different kind of racing. There's a lot of racing from A to B. There's full fleet racing at the same time on a course, and there's head to head match racing. Honestly- watching the A-B racing is much more boring. The boats quickly diverge from each other, and before you know it, the boats can't even see each other.

I guess I had just assumed it was like stage rally (Dakar) where they raced somewhere. Like I said - I don't have any clue about the sport or the particulars. I stumbled on it while killing a few minutes and watched for a little while. I don't think it would hold my attention for very long.

Huckleberry, it's all about using the rules against the other guy. If you're on Starboard tack, the wind coming in on your right, you have the right of way. If you are on the downwind side of the boat next to you, you can turn 90 degrees right into the other guy and he has to give way. There is more of course, but knowing this makes the waterborne Auto-X more interesting.

Dan

Huckleberry wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Just a different kind of racing. There's a lot of racing from A to B. There's full fleet racing at the same time on a course, and there's head to head match racing. Honestly- watching the A-B racing is much more boring. The boats quickly diverge from each other, and before you know it, the boats can't even see each other.

I guess I had just assumed it was like stage rally (Dakar) where they raced somewhere. Like I said - I don't have any clue about the sport or the particulars. I stumbled on it while killing a few minutes and watched for a little while. I don't think it would hold my attention for very long.

Like long stage rallys, there are highlight shows for the A-B sailing racing. I could not sit down to watch a stage rally live, moreso a long A-B rally like Dakar. Not much going on for most of those very long races.

Like you said, this is more like Rally Cross- but just different.

For sure, not for everyone.

Even mass racing with more ships is hard to watch- it's incredibly hard to figure out who's in front for those of us non-sailers. Thankfully, this racing now shows all of the boundaries and winds and whatnot virtually quite well.

For the actual excitement- my watching goes back to the duels where the leading ship had to match what the following ship did to block the wind- so moves were more often. Now it's far more about ship trimming, and not making mistakes there- nosing the boat into the water and losing huge speed. It's just different racing.

Then again, given your racing background, I'm 100% sure you would enjoy racing from being ON the boat. That's a real blast.

It's been a while since I raced a sailboat and at the most I saw a five man crew. What are the rules governing a man overboard? If Team Sweden wasn't going to be penalized when the skipper took a swim, what's to keep a 10 man crew from tossing the dead weight of 9 men overboard on the last leg of a light air day?

Just curious.

Dan

Huckleberry wrote: Why don't they all start at a port somewhere like Venice and sail to somewhere else like Monaco all at the same time?

You might be more interested in the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race. It's long distance racing that happens both inshore and offshore, and there's a lot of tech in those boats too.

Man overboard (MOB) states that you have to finish the race with the same number of crew you started with, but...
It does not say you have to go back and get the MOB crew member right away. In light air W/L racing we always joke about dropping some crew in the water near what will be the finish and picking them up a few laps later. Of course, in practice, that really wouldn't give you an advantage.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Huckleberry: Just a different kind of racing. There's a lot of racing from A to B. There's full fleet racing at the same time on a course, and there's head to head match racing. Honestly- watching the A-B racing is much more boring. The boats quickly diverge from each other, and before you know it, the boats can't even see each other.

Windward/Leeward (w/l) racing is sort of the Nascar or circle track of sailboat racing. One race is usually a couple times around in a cirlce and there are usually 2-6 races on a given Saturday that make up the event.
Here are some popular version of w/l racing:

There are also more road course style races such as the Sandusky Island race where in 12 hours or so we race a figure 8 pattern around the Lake Erie Island with few marks other than don't hit ground.

There are also true A-B races which are more like Cannonball Runs. One example is the Port Huron to Mackinaw Race. You will start the race with 300 other boats. Soon you will only be around a few and then over the course of this 2-3 day race you might not see another boat for a 12 hour stretch.
There is one mark of the course off the Canadian coast that all boats have to round. You may not have seen another boat in 16 hours and sure enough when rounding the single mark there will be a traffic jam and a ton of jockeying for position.
I have been heading for that mark in the dead of night, in a fog, in light air and actually heard people talking on another boat before we could see them. An odd and eerie situation.
Sample of that one rounding from the boat trackers.

Bayview Mac has a short course, The Shore Course and a long course, The Cove Course.

Great racing! Can't wait to keep watching on the 17th.

Well that didn't go the way I think anyone wanted.

New Zealand sailed a fairly flawless series and their 26 YO skipper was pretty unflappable. I think the role set up they had on the boat helped with the skipper not having to fly the boat. I also think the way they played their main and board design played important roles as well. I'm VERY interested to see what new format New Zealand comes up with for the next series.