Americas Cup

[Prospect and Sunray]

So £800000 cats that fall over when the leeward bow goes in the water are designed right ? Since there is no variation in design, all these boats will do the same, and that reverse stem acts as a trip step when it is immersed. It needs some flare to lift it.

I don't follow your point at all sarabande. ALL Cats (and to a lesser extent) Trimarans have low boyancy in the bows, which is why they are faster than monohulls..... do you propose just strapping 2 monohulls together?????????
Bear in mind that it is also possible to bury the nose of an 18ft Skiff and pitchpole and that has a boyant bow.
Yes the boats in the America's cup are all the same, so they could all capsise/pitchpole, so the ones who don't must be better at sailing and isn't that the whole point of the racing?

 

[Whiskey Bravo]

So £800000 cats that fall over when the leeward bow goes in the water are designed right ? Since there is no variation in design, all these boats will do the same, and that reverse stem acts as a trip step when it is immersed. It needs some flare to lift it.

I had flares in the 60's and 70's and still fell over a lot!

 

[lw395]

Same as in monohulls only more so.
Too buoyant a bow means too much pitching in chop which is slow.
Circus racers will always have to push it to the absolute limit so some will fall over.

Plus ca change...

 

[truscott]

Sarabande; perhaps you recall the infamous pic's of a monohull pitchpoling, that was on the cover of YM or YW a number of years ago (in the solent if I recall correctly)? All the buoyancy in the world isn't going to help you, if you get it wrong. Skill in handling the boat and sails as you bear away, seems to determine who gets it right and who goes swimming with these and many other multihulls (even the venerable H16's and Tornado's are not immune). In the speed runs you could see both Oracle 5 and ETNZ sailing the boat as flat as possible and coping with the bows piercing the waves, in spite of the gusts and unfavorable angle for the course.

As always, Time on the Water has more to do with it, than anything else.

The 800K price tag, has very little to do with the design (M&M certainly aren't making that off of every boat!) and the design works for what their brief was.

If you're really interested, I would suggest hanging out in Sailing Anarchy's AC and Multihull Forums for a better insight into the concepts.

PT

(Happily sailing Mono's, Multi's and Windsurfing)

 

[Lady Campanula]

So £800000 cats that fall over when the leeward bow goes in the water are designed right ? Since there is no variation in design, all these boats will do the same, and that reverse stem acts as a trip step when it is immersed. It needs some flare to lift it.

"Harumph! Wasn't like than in my day...."

Put the cynicism on hold for a moment. Here's something positive, embedded in a Press Release:

The weather conditions on Sunday were extremely windy and gusty and at the upper limit for racing; the conditions were extreme and the race saw a number of capsizes and boats damaged. China Team did an excellent job in controlling the AC45 and, while there were a number of close calls, the crew was able to handle the boat to not reach the tipping point.

For the speed trial, China Team was powered by 2 Chinese sailors among the crew of 5, and reached 3rd position. It was the first sailing experience for Ma Jian, the famous Chinese basketball player who has joined China Team training to be one of the Chinese sailors to be part of the crew on the AC72 for the America’s Cup final in San Francisco in summer 2013. China Team on target to first reach its pledge to be a true Chinese challenger, powered by mainly Chinese sailors on a China-build boat.

Ma Jian’s reaction when he got off the boat was one of amazement and surprise!

“I never realized how different this would be to basketball. I thought that being a strong athlete would be enough, but now I realize that this sport is a lot more complex than basketball, as the nature elements (wind, water…) are all very unpredictable and play a big role in the strategy of sailing. Also balance, I realize that you need a lot more balance to be a great sailor. I have a lot of work in front of me to become a top sailor. This sport requires more than discipline, it requires skills that most professional athletes do not have. I need to work so hard, but I can do it. But I believe that there are many young adults in China who would have the skills to do this, and train and become one of the best sailors. I have a better understanding now and I want to encourage people who believe they can to join the team to train”.

 

[adam2b]

Mvu - he was outside the boundary and you were inside the spectator zone, at least the zone which was being communicated by the marshalling craft. we were quite close to you. Frankly the whole marshalling effort was a shambles and nearly spoiled the day for the boats who had made the effort to get on the water to watch. Interesting the difference in politeness of approach you'd get from the official Americas Cup marshalls, who genuinely wanted to help, compared with the local volunteers revelling in their new found 'authority' barking senseless instructions. The best was when they moved the marked mid way through the second race and demanded we move back 50 metres immediatlely, when we pointed out that it would take at least 3 minutes to haul anchor and move the response was 'humph..well they'll all be around by then so you may as well stay there.' the pointlessness of that kept me laughing for ages. Good day out though and hopefully by next weekend they'll have worked it all out!