America's cup... Are you interested?

flaming

flaming

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So at the start of this cup cycle, the talk was all about making the sailing exciting, compelling viewing and using the cup as a vehicle to get more people (and youngsters in particular) into sailing.

They have just had the first (unofficial) race between 2 AC72s on the bay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rqSNL7DVQaA

It's obviously fast, and it's obviously "extreme" But is it exciting viewing? Will you watch?



Thoughts?
 
I'm trying to see how I can adapt the technology and get my Hurley 22 up on foils.

flaming said:
So at the start of this cup cycle, the talk was all about making the sailing exciting, compelling viewing and using the cup as a vehicle to get more people (and youngsters in particular) into sailing.

They have just had the first (unofficial) race between 2 AC72s on the bay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rqSNL7DVQaA

It's obviously fast, and it's obviously "extreme" But is it exciting viewing? Will you watch?



Thoughts?
Click to expand...
 
That's not a great example of what the cup races will be like. Assorted clips of one boat or the other with no indication of what's going on.

I'll probably watch one of the early races if I can and judge it from there. Odds are I won't be near a tv or decent Internet connection when it all goes on anyway.
 
Bobc said:
I would rather watch TP52s or 18ft Skiffs personally.
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That's kind of where I am I think... I've watched some of the TP stuff and it's gripping as the racing is so close between 4 or 5 boats, plus the boats are not sooooooo different from what I am familiar with, so it's much easier to identify with mistakes etc. I have no idea what a badly trimmed wing would look like. Or indeed if such a thing looks any different!

And I think they push harder, as the penalties for getting it wrong are a broach or a kite in the water etc, not the capsize and probable destruction of your rig. or worse. How many times in the last mono cup did we see mistakes like bad drops, or blown kites etc, and see the boat carry on. Some of the crew work to recover was exceptional. I don't think we're going to see that this time round.
 
Am I interested? Yes. As a performance dinghy sailor and foiling Mothie of course I am...it is pretty incredible what is happening at the top end of the sport, and sticking my neck on the line here, I think in 20-30 years time we may be able to take a commercial ferry trip in some kind of wind powered/assisted hydrofoil. Just look at what's happened since Rohan Veal tried the first succesful foiling system on a Moth...the pace of development has been amazing...and that's just from blokes in sheds. F1 technology does trickle down to cars, this stuff will trickle down to the wider marine engineering world.

However is it the right boat for the cup? Abslutely not. Even ignoring Bart's death and safety concerns, they are too fast, fragile and expensive for match racing. You fundamentally want slow boats, it makes for far better, more tactical racing. I can see for the dumbed down public pure speed might be exciting...for a few minutes...but I'd rather see 60' monos where you can see people running around putting up kites and poles and fiddling with runners, not simply some blur of grinding every few seconds from hundreds of yards away. I'd also like to see more tactics, let's face it like a Moth this is going to be a corner banging, sending it hoon-fest, without any of the aggressive dial ups, covering tactics or anything interesting.

The pinnacle of our sport, and they've only just got two boats in the same piece of water for the first time? Imagine selling tickets to a cup final or F1 GP where none of the competitors had ever actually competed in that format before with bareley a month to go? Hmmmm....

IMHO the 12 metres were the pinnacle of AC racing...I really hope the Kiwis win so that can bring some sense to the next one.

I hope I am proved wrong, and I will watch it for the spectacle, but not the racing.
 
I do not think that I shall be watching much of this series for various reasons: first, I am disheartened by the recent tragic death of Bart Simpson; second it does not really relate to the type of sailing that I participate in and the razamataz drives me nuts.
 
Iain C said:
However is it the right boat for the cup? Abslutely not. Even ignoring Bart's death and safety concerns, they are too fast, fragile and expensive for match racing. You fundamentally want slow boats, it makes for far better, more tactical racing. I can see for the dumbed down public pure speed might be exciting...for a few minutes...but I'd rather see 60' monos where you can see people running around putting up kites and poles and fiddling with runners, not simply some blur of grinding every few seconds from hundreds of yards away. I'd also like to see more tactics, let's face it like a Moth this is going to be a corner banging, sending it hoon-fest, without any of the aggressive dial ups, covering tactics or anything interesting.
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I agree. I remember watching the last one - with the tri - and going "holy S***!" when it first became obvious how fast that thing was. But I actually turned off before the end because competitively it was a non event, and watching them do 30 knots in 10 knots of breeze became dull fairly quickly.
I know they've changed the format, with reaching starts etc, but I just fail to see how the racing is going to be more exciting. Remember the 2007 cup was won by about 6 inches in a dramatic final race, I simply cannot believe we're going to see that level of competition.
 
flaming said:
It's obviously fast, and it's obviously "extreme" But is it exciting viewing? Will you watch?
Click to expand...

No. No-one is interested in stuff going round and round without any context, no matter how glamorous the producers thinks it looks. If you want people not already involved to get interested they have to know what's going on, who they want to win and what's at stake in each race.

Lovely floaty long shots of boats going fast is just eye candy. You need those info-graphics, similar to the ones they had for the olympic sailing, showing where the boats are relative to the marks. A red button thingy to give the 5 minute overview of the RRS to the uninitiated while the pundits are shooting the breeze before the race. Most importantly you need commentators who really know their stuff, can put the race in the series context, can explain the importance of what's happening and explain rules where relevant (even if it mildly annoys those who know them), explain what tactics are being used, how they're panning out, and what the skippers' options are. And not (like the BBC olympic coverage) trot out the same phrases over and over again.

Some back stories on the people would be nice. And some personal rivaries. And ideally the young prodigy from the slums of some south american city who learned to sail running contraband in fast sailing dinghies (no engine for stealth!) vs. the highly sponsored stop-at-nothing evil millionaire (probably european, cos we've just got evil accents...) playboy incumbent...Oh I'm just getting carried away now...

Infographics and decent commentary anyway
 
flaming said:
I agree. I remember watching the last one - with the tri - and going "holy S***!" when it first became obvious how fast that thing was. But I actually turned off before the end because competitively it was a non event, and watching them do 30 knots in 10 knots of breeze became dull fairly quickly.
I know they've changed the format, with reaching starts etc, but I just fail to see how the racing is going to be more exciting. Remember the 2007 cup was won by about 6 inches in a dramatic final race, I simply cannot believe we're going to see that level of competition.
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I fell asleep watching the last cup race. Like you said, it was incredible how fast the boat was but it didn't stay exciting for long.
 
My bro lives there and sugested we all came over for the races. While I would go to see him, I can't work up any interest in the latest stuff. As above, it went out for me when the politics became more important than the boats. Jimmy Connors multihull comes to mind. 12 mtrs were elegant and related to normal racing. Yacht racing is difficult to get accross to non yachties. It really is not very engaging.
 
I find all the big cat short circuit racing dull to watch.
Very fast in a straight line, but tack so slowly, seems to make the tactics limited.
I was appalled but not surprised when Bart got killed.
I'd rather watch either big yachts, e.g. J's, or fast dinghies/skiffs, or even team racing in Larks.
I watch a bit of skiff now and then, and I surprised myself by enjoying some of the Olympic sailing on TV last year.
 
benjenbav said:
Two billionaires seeing who can piss highest.
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The only thing wrong with that analysis is the number of billionaires.

No I wont watch it. Some sports lend themselves to spectating , some dont. And yachting doesnt in my view. Plus there is no serious British interest and the yanks are likely to win once again which also rules it out.
 
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