America's Cup- Am I alone?

Mudisox

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I admit to having patriotic bias but I am beginning to find the flying boat racing really boring.
The development of PR/Marketing/Media of the "Rich Boys Ego" spectacle into "Entertainment", although now well produced for the masses [ incidentally, much developed for the 2012 Olympics, when I was involved], leaves little real excitement for me. With the restricted sailing area and also very short time for pre start manoeuvres, it has become a drag race with the boats beginning to have similar performances.
In a "normal match race" there are no confines as to where the boats can go apart from depth and they have 4 mins of pre start manoeuvres and any penalties given are more severe.
The many races that I have run, last about the same amount of time (20 mins target times), and there is plenty of opportunities for boats to interact and produce entertainment for watchers.
I don't think that I will be bothering to set my alarm, any more.
 

ltcom

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I started to enjoy the racing. Was on the edge of my seat willing GB on. Hope the second two races are better (have not seen them yet). I think the Italian machine is beautiful and they don't make many mistakes unfortunately.
 

ltcom

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Wwoops. Just seen race day 2. 2 poor starts, one flying mistake and then ANOTHER boundary penalty. But Ainslee is the man to pull it back if anyone can. 7 races are not up yet.
 

LONG_KEELER

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I'm enjoying it. Lots of skill involved and a fair bit of bottle needed. It's a bit odd when the boats hardly pitch or yaw
compared to the anchored boats sometimes bobbing about. You like it or you don't.

I suppose all sports are silly really, but on the plus side, what you learn in sports/pastimes can serve you well in real life. Particularly for the young. Whether you should get a knighthood for sailing a boat or driving a car is questionable though. Those selfless men and women who say , take inner city children sailing or climbing need the medals for me. Particularly with all the health and safety. Politicians of all colours love to give out knighthoods to successful sports people, it's as If they had something to do with it.

Apologies. Went wandering off there.
 

RJJ

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I suppose all sports are silly really, but on the plus side, what you learn in sports/pastimes can serve you well in real life. Particularly for the young. Whether you should get a knighthood for sailing a boat or driving a car is questionable though. Those selfless men and women who say , take inner city children sailing or climbing need the medals for me. Particularly with all the health and safety. Politicians of all colours love to give out knighthoods to successful sports people, it's as If they had something to do with it.
Couldn't agree more. Professional sportsmen and women get their medals, fame, and money; and they get to live their lives doing what the rest of us scrimp and save to do - that's their reward for all their hard work, and fair enough.

Honours should go for the unsung and underpaid.

"Honourable" exception for David Beckham who I understand has really made a difference in the areas you indicate. Maybe Sir Ben, Sir Chris etc will also "give back", in which case there's nothing left to honour them with.
 

Topcat47

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I was in San Francisco for the first of the foiling cat comps. It made it a real spectator sport and I was really pissed when it was moved to Bermuda. No chance of getting to NZ but I've loved watching on TV.
 

j80

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Kind of agree with OP - but I think the racing has been a lot better than everyone envisaged with these type of boats super high performance boats as crew got to grips with the boats - but AC has always been about a blend of extreme arcane tech with enormous budgets with a bit of match racing thrown in. The money/tech/ego battling has brought the sport into the mainstream - but obviously is not vaguely the same spectacle as watching the short sharp action that something like the world match racing tour presents Ultimately seeing the best sailors race in equal one design equipment for sailors would be far more of an interesting contest - but as it stands AC is a different type of competition where the race is invariably won by the design department before the foils touch the water. There is only so much match racing you can do with a boat that is slower to tack/accelerate/points lower etc as Ineos know too well. Would be great to see all these world class sailors jump in a performance one design monohull (with no major equipment performance differential) and have more close quarter racing - but this is the big payday for the professionals in the sport and although it is not as exciting as closer/less performance orientated traditional one design match racing - which arguably would be a better showcase for the best sailors and their abilities - it gets our sport some visibility. I am sure I will get up early to see ETNZ hopefully beat LR - partly because of lock down I won't be able to go and race my own boat!
 

Rum_Pirate

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Wow what a 8th race.
Both boats coming off the foils and had a lot of difficulty getting back up.
LP got 3 penalties for going outside course. Not sure how they got to clear them.
A shortened course. One leg shorter.
LR finish 3:55 minutes behind.
 
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Rum_Pirate

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LP got 3 penalties for going outside course. Not sure how they got to clear them.

Googled to see what I could find.
PENALTY RULE
If the umpires agree, you'll be given a penalty. In this America's Cup that means you have to put the brakes on. Slow down and slide back, until you're 50 metres behind your competitor, and wait until the umpires tell you you're good to accelerate again – and the match is in full motion once more.
Given that LR were off their foils and virtually dead in the water[not sure how they could slow down much more] and Emirates was screaming away it seems that the penalties counted for naught.
 
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