Americas Cup - thrilling racing at last

DJE said:
They have to pre-set the "elevators" on the rudder foils before the start of the race and correct the trim by tilting the main foils. Don't know why but it seems to me that an adjustable elevator would give much better control of pitch angle for much less effort.
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I assumed the rules prevented them from adjusting the pitch during the race.

It is clear that Oracle is much less stable on the foils, and in particular has a much greater tendency to bury their bows when tacking or gybing which is a contribution to their slow up-wind pace.
 
The race 6 commentary yields an explanation. Oracle has a finer bow compared tp NZ, it tends to bury, it's what they do.
 
DJE said:
Yes it's the rules. Just makes a difficult boat more difficult to sail though.
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Yes - you have to admire the skills of both crews, it really can't be easy to keep those boats going a 30+ kts with only a couple of square feet of anything in the water - it feels rather like an elephant balancing on a ping pong ball - and as for gybing while foiling - that looks very impressive.
 
mogy said:
As they go so fast why cant they do another circuit?
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I'm surprised that they have 4 offwind legs, albeit 2 of them short, and only 1 beat. Perhaps the hosts knew their boat would struggle upwind, although I suspect they didn't know by how much! Presumably in due course they will be beating on an ebb tide so making the beat minimally shorter, but the whole event might be over before they do...
 
A1Sailor said:
I'm surprised that they have 4 offwind legs, albeit 2 of them short, and only 1 beat. Perhaps the hosts knew their boat would struggle upwind, although I suspect they didn't know by how much! Presumably in due course they will be beating on an ebb tide so making the beat minimally shorter, but the whole event might be over before they do...
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The whole thing is based around the spectacle. Reaching and off wind legs, with the boats doing 40 odd knots on foils is more exciting to the uninformed than a relatively slow slog to windward at 20 knots.
 
A1Sailor said:
I'm surprised that they have 4 offwind legs, albeit 2 of them short, and only 1 beat. Perhaps the hosts knew their boat would struggle upwind, although I suspect they didn't know by how much! Presumably in due course they will be beating on an ebb tide so making the beat minimally shorter, but the whole event might be over before they do...
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Next race about to start. Tide is now ebbing.
 
Woodlouse said:
The whole thing is based around the spectacle. Reaching and off wind legs, with the boats doing 40 odd knots on foils is more exciting to the uninformed than a relatively slow slog to windward at 20 knots.
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And they look the same, with the sails right in, both upwind and downwind, so you may as well have them going twice as fast.
 
Just thinking about this american two point penalty. There are seventeen races and the commentators keep saying you need 9 points to win. So what happens if USA win 10 and NZ win 7? The score is 8 - 7 and nobody wins???? Or 9 - 8 on the water making the score 7 - 8 on points?? Surely the result must be depend on most points at the end of the regatta not first to 9 points.
 
I think there is contingency built in so the series keeps on going until one team gets to 9 points.

However I do hope TNZ don't win 9-8 as that would be a very unsatisfactory result
 
DJE said:
Just thinking about this american two point penalty. There are seventeen races and the commentators keep saying you need 9 points to win. So what happens if USA win 10 and NZ win 7? The score is 8 - 7 and nobody wins???? Or 9 - 8 on the water making the score 7 - 8 on points?? Surely the result must be depend on most points at the end of the regatta not first to 9 points.
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Usual AC response. "Reach for your attorneys"
 
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