Americas Cup - Wow!!!

[dom]

Team New Zealand looked unbeatable in Race 10 today. A valiant fight from Luna Rossa though, whose boat didn't really hold up to early expectations re light air superiority.

Great great effort from the Kiwis, both on the water and by land-based crew who delivered a visual spectacular in the midst of challenging pandemic conditions.

As Longjohnsilver says, a dull lead-up to the final, then Wow!! This series has confounded many experts, digital and and real ones alike !!

Top marks all round I'd say

 

[longjohnsilver]

Team New Zealand looked unbeatable in Race 10 today. A valiant fight from Luna Rossa though, whose boat didn't really hold up to early expectations re light air superiority.

Great great effort from the Kiwis, both on the water and by land-based crew who delivered a visual spectacular in the midst of challenging pandemic conditions.

As Longjohnsilver says, a dull lead-up to the final, then Wow!! This series has confounded many experts, digital and and real ones alike !!

Top marks all round I'd say

Yes, it was a brilliant spectacle, great racing over the past few days. I loved it, but will be glad to get a full nights sleep tonight
Even watching the 2 boats being towed back in on their foils was a great sight. What a beautiful area and a great advert for Auckland and NZ in general. And to top it all, both crews spoke well and seemed a good bunch of top blokes. You have to admire the 49er record of Berling and Tuke, quite amazing what they've won.

 

[bedouin]

I guess the "light air superiority" was an assumption based on the size of the foils, with the smaller foils TNZ might have had trouble in lighter airs. And we did see that in one of the starts where they fell off the foils at a critical moment shortly before the start and never recovered.

Seems pretty clear to me that the the size of the foils was the major difference between the two boats and the better design of the TNZ foils based on a loophole in the rules was a significant advantage to them

 

[Kukri]

May we assume that James Sheldon has given Aaron Young a piece of paper?

 

[dom]

May we assume that James Sheldon has given Aaron Young a piece of paper?

There has been an exchange between "the two commodores", so yes, you can probably assume that

 

[dom]

It's great theatre isn't it.

They all huddle into a room, lock the door, sit their lawyers down, switch their phones off, and then start to release all sorts of stories about scraps of paper and whatnot to tease the press!

Masters at advertising and promotion, although to be fair it comes in return for a fairly punchy quantity of $$$$$$$$$$$s

 

[Resolution]

As my invitation to become a member of the Squadron seems to have been lost in the post I don't know the exact nature of "the exchange", but wouldn't it be great if they could arrange an exhibition race in these AC75s on the original course around the IoW later this summer? Maybe for all four participants in this year's AC.

 

[Kukri]

That’s a lovely idea!

My ex* is a member of the Squadron. I’ll ask her owner.

*boat.

 

[dom]

As my invitation to become a member of the Squadron seems to have been lost in the post I don't know the exact nature of "the exchange", but wouldn't it be great if they could arrange an exhibition race in these AC75s on the original course around the IoW later this summer? Maybe for all four participants in this year's AC.

Oooooh, well now, not this summer but something along those lines is being mooted as a 'Deed of Gift'; don't you love the arcane parlance?
Team New Zealand 'accept challenge' of Ineos Team UK for 37th America’s Cup

As for the exchange, it can be made, via a scrumpled bit of paper tossed onto the winner boat. The so-called "hip pocket" challenge refers to a -- not necessarily the only one! -- representative of challenger scribbling a formal notice of challenge and then placing it in their 'hip pocket' to lob or otherwise serve to a representative of the AC winner after their win.

Hence the lobbing from boat to boat; wonderful stuff

 

[bedouin]

Oooooh, well now, not this summer but something along those lines is being mooted as a 'Deed of Gift'; don't you love the arcane parlance?

I don't think a race round the Island can technically be called a "Deed of Gift" race

But it seems a bit of a gamble from TNZ and certainly suggests they might not be confident of being able to remain competitive in 2-3 years time

 

[flaming]

I don't think a race round the Island can technically be called a "Deed of Gift" race

But it seems a bit of a gamble from TNZ and certainly suggests they might not be confident of being able to remain competitive in 2-3 years time

The Kiwis went into this cycle with a big advantage, and a big disadvantage.
The Big advantage was that they dreamt up the boat, and had worked out how it might work and what the key R&D avenues were going to be before they even released the broad details of what it was. So they were 6 months or more ahead of the others in terms of R&D into how to get an AC75 to work.
The big disadvantage was simply that they had the smallest budget by some margin. This time round the time advantage won out.

At the end of this cycle the big advantage has been largely eroded. The difference in understanding of how to get an AC75 to fly, and how to make one go fast, is much, much reduced. To the point where the big disadvantage starts to be more important. 3 years of Radcliffe and Bertelli (sp?) pouring money into their teams and suddenly the gap is not there. So what the Kiwis really need is money, lots of it, to fund the next 3 years of R&D and testing.

In the absence of a tame Billionaire They have 2 ways of getting money, sponsorship and an imaginative deal with someone who has lots of it. Enter Sir James Radcliffe.....
The Kiwis give him a one off race for the cup, in his back yard. In return the dollars will flow. Plus of course they can tap up their sponsors for the event....

Then they can be confident of having the R&D necessary for the next multi challenger event. Which you can be sure will also be in AC75s.

The more I think about it, the more I think this might be a great deal for the Kiwis and go a long way to solving their budget deficit to the other teams.
And a total stitch up of the Italians....

 

[Kukri]

Very good analysis. Thanks for taking the time to write what amounts to a professional article.

 

[dom]

Good points flaming. One point to remember is that Emirates comes with more than money. Deeply engrained within and widely courted by the world's top aerospace manufactures, it comes as little surprise that foil design appears to have played a major part in their team's success.

Also worth bearing in mind that the success of the "AC Show" will now attract new sponsors and more money.

Which is why the Emirates Team NZ has become such a formidable presence: consistently fast on the water, smart commercial thinking, and a savy media/spectator event.

They've done ever so well and they so deserve it.

 

[bedouin]

The Big advantage was that they dreamt up the boat, and had worked out how it might work and what the key R&D avenues were going to be before they even released the broad details of what it was. So they were 6 months or more ahead of the others in terms of R&D into how to get an AC75 to work.

They were also able to take advantage of a couple of pretty major loopholes in the rules they wrote, and the limit to the number of foils each team could try was also a benefit to them given they were already well ahead in that area.

 

[michael_w]

I found the billionaire's urination contest as dull as a dull thing when compared to the Vendee.

 

[flaming]

They were also able to take advantage of a couple of pretty major loopholes in the rules they wrote, and the limit to the number of foils each team could try was also a benefit to them given they were already well ahead in that area.

Yes, very true. Well, almost... Luna Rossa were also in the rule drafting phase as CoR, so shouldn't have had too much of an advantage over them.

But.... Hmmmmm....

And yes, the limited foil numbers was probably in their favour, but I actually don't blame them for that, I think it was a good rule that evened up the playing field a little between the budgets and drove the teams towards a pretty universal foil.
It will certainly be very interesting to see the changes that Ineos and ETNZ agree in version 2 of the rule.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

The Kiwis went into this cycle with a big advantage, and a big disadvantage.
The Big advantage was that they dreamt up the boat, and had worked out how it might work and what the key R&D avenues were going to be before they even released the broad details of what it was. So they were 6 months or more ahead of the others in terms of R&D into how to get an AC75 to work.

No wonder they won then.

Most other sports have introduced an expenditure cap to try and even things out. It's
fun that the AC will probably never do that.

How much do you think Ainslie got out of it ? Couple of million £ ? Does he run evening classes in the winter. I would like to put my name down.

 

[Kukri]

“Now, Fife: I haven’t got money to burn, but if it makes her go any faster, just shovel on the notes!”

Attributed to Sir Thomas Lipton, challenger.

“If you need to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it!”.

Attributed to Cornelius Vanderbilt III, defender.

 

[Resolution]

The world has more "new" billionaires than ever before, most of them really quite young. Lots have gained a taste of the sea through their larger and larger superyachts. As long as the contest can be as radical and extreme as we have had this time with the AC75s, I think the next few years should see a more than adequate supply of backers to future challengers.

 

[Sailfree]

Not really up on the rules but can/will NZ change the boat specifications for the 37th AC?

When leads swapped it was great to watch but early races where 1st over the start line just extended their lead was boring. Reminded me of F1 !!