Americas Cup - thrilling racing at last

D

dunedin

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 Feb 2004
Messages
15,902
Location
Boat (over winters in) the Clyde
Visit site
Race 1 of the Americas Cup just finished - and watching two 70 foot cats fighting it out just a metre or so apart at 40 knots at the first mark, then crossing tacks upwind. Need balls of steel to cross a starboard tack boat when the closing speed is 50 knots and the gap is less than a boats length.

Real racing at last - work a look, at least for the first reach and the beat - on YouTube when posted
 
dunedin said:
Race 1 of the Americas Cup just finished - and watching two 70 foot cats fighting it out just a metre or so apart at 40 knots at the first mark, then crossing tacks upwind. Need balls of steel to cross a starboard tack boat when the closing speed is 50 knots and the gap is less than a boats length.

Real racing at last - work a look, at least for the first reach and the beat - on YouTube when posted
Click to expand...

Still undecided with these boats, but watching team New Zealand do a 90 degree turn with both hulls feet above the water and doing 30 - 40 knots.

Brian
 
You Tube Americas Cup channel carries it live each race. Kiwis showing the way, but 7 races still to go......
Overheard by a mate on waterfront in San Fran: (Yank) "Where is this place NZ?" ...... (Kiwi) "Find out when you come looking for the Cup".
:-)
 
dunedin said:
Some more fantastic match racing. More upwind tacking dueling.
Bit of a shame though that Oracle seems to want to use slam luffing (at 30+ knots) to give penalties rather than just sail faster
Click to expand...

They need to. The Kiwis are the much faster package.
 
flaming said:
They need to. The Kiwis are the much faster package.
Click to expand...

From what I have seen the Kiwis are only faster upwind, and even then the advantage might not be significant in stronger wind.

Race 4 showed that the upwind advantage is not sufficient to win them every race. I also get the impression that OTUSA are improving race by race. If that is so, and the Kiwis are near the peak of their performance (which they should be), OTUSA should get stronger as the series goes on.

Interesting that TNZ seems to want the windward position at the start. It didn't really work for them in Races 3 and 4, and I wonder whether they will choose a different approach on Tuesday.

I expected TNZ to just run away with this, but the coverage is fantastic and when I wake up on Wednesday I will try to watch the youtube feed BEFORE I click know the result of the races.
 
bbg said:
From what I have seen the Kiwis are only faster upwind, and even then the advantage might not be significant in stronger wind.

Race 4 showed that the upwind advantage is not sufficient to win them every race. I also get the impression that OTUSA are improving race by race. If that is so, and the Kiwis are near the peak of their performance (which they should be), OTUSA should get stronger as the series goes on.

Interesting that TNZ seems to want the windward position at the start. It didn't really work for them in Races 3 and 4, and I wonder whether they will choose a different approach on Tuesday.

I expected TNZ to just run away with this, but the coverage is fantastic and when I wake up on Wednesday I will try to watch the youtube feed BEFORE I click know the result of the races.
Click to expand...

In my defense I wrote that after race 3!

They can't keep going for the windward position, it may have worked against Artemis and LR, but Oracle are too good for them to reliably break the overlap and lead into mark 1. I'd go for the inside, as then even if you follow you're close and you've got tactical options. Whereas if you're windward and behind you're in all sorts of bother. COuld get all sorts of interesting if both teams start wanting the leeward position, as so far it's looked like they've been happy to let each other have the position they wanted.

From what I've seen (and I've surprised myself by actually watching all 4 races) the Kiwis are the more complete package. Their maneuvers are so much more polished. I think it's clear that the non self tacking jib on Oracle was a mistake, seems to be really hurting speed out of the tacks.

But.... Race 4 was interesting, for the first time the Kiwis looked unstable on the foils. Kiwi fans will hope it was a setup issue - perhaps one that helped in the lighter winds of race 3, but hurt in the stronger breeze. I still think they were faster upwind though. They got bounced off at the bottom into the bad current and the delta was huge, but they still halved it by the top mark, despite sailing up the unfavoured side of the course.

The next two will tell us a lot more I think. Oracle need to win them both, the Kiwis would be very happy to keep trading points.
 
dunedin said:
More upwind dueling at ridiculous speeds in race 5 now on
Click to expand...

Just watched it. The Kiwis have got Oracle psychologically. The Yanks went into a risky manouvre at the leeward mark even though they were ahead - it shows an attitude that they feel they can't beat the Kiwis upwind without being radical. After that the tactics just went to pot. It was obvious that going left was best on the last run with more wind and more tide. The Kiwis did it and got the advantage but Oracle got into a position where they couldn't come out of the windward mark and go down the left. You'd think one of the world's best tacticians wouldn't make mistakes, but the pressure must be huge.
 
lpdsn said:
Just watched it. The Kiwis have got Oracle psychologically. The Yanks went into a risky manouvre at the leeward mark even though they were ahead - it shows an attitude that they feel they can't beat the Kiwis upwind without being radical. After that the tactics just went to pot. It was obvious that going left was best on the last run with more wind and more tide. The Kiwis did it and got the advantage but Oracle got into a position where they couldn't come out of the windward mark and go down the left. You'd think one of the world's best tacticians wouldn't make mistakes, but the pressure must be huge.
Click to expand...

"Fast boats make great tacticians"

The coverage I watched suggested the Amercans blew it with their foiling tack at mark 2. IMHO that did not let the Kiwis past, it just made it easier. You are right the Kiwis are inside the Americans' heads.
 
Expect to see Sir Ben on the boat next time out. They're getting whooped and the best sailor in the world is watching from the sidelines.
 
dunedin said:
And USA seem to have just played their (one use only) "chicken" card and got the second race pulled
Click to expand...

Yes, I was trying to see the body language and how the tactician was feeling. I really wonder what he was thinking on the beat of race 5, they were missing shifts and, as I said, didn't set up the approach to the mark to get the right positioning (IMHO) for the last run. I really suspect that the effect of that one tactical mistake affected the rest of his race, which is why I suspect they pulled the second race. The clear thing (again IMHO) is that the first tactical mistake at the leeward mark was very probably driven by a sense of inferiority to the Kiwis.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top