Brits having a hard time in AC?

[Wansworth]

What an appalling attitud.

Only in America’s Cup?

 

[dunedin]

Corinthian,best explains the brits ,nothing wrong with that buy we are not winners

There was absolutely NOTHING amateur / Corinthian about INEOS team GB. They have invested heavily in professional sailing crew, designers, and every form of technology - including bringing in Formula 1 team tech to assist. No avenue was left unexplored.

Clearly (so far at least) they haven’t reaped the benefits of all that investment in professional staff and technology. But they aren’t amateurs. The INEOS (Brexiteer) boss will be raging about his return on investment so far.

Fat lady ain‘t singing yet, but big mountain to climb

 

[matt1]

What Mk2 foils? We've already used our allocation. All they can do not is modify the existing ones.

I’m sure I read an article in the week saying that between this event and the real thing they could make a final swap out of foils to their 2nd set and there was speculation all teams would make improvements after that. Maybe is misread that

 

[TernVI]

Because the boat is a crackpot concept, unlike any other mono or cat, designers do not have experience of what works well and what doesn't.
These are first generation machines.
You can throw computer simulation and F1 experience at something, but there is no substitute for real miles on the clock.

Possibly the boat which is best in one wind strength won't be be in another.
Back in 12metre days, you'd have several rival designs fighting for selection as defender.
Challengers had old boats built to the same rule to use as trial horses.
None of that evolution process has been applied to these machines until now.

 

[Laser310]

when the foiling monohull concept was announced after Bermuda, i thought; no way.., the boats will be pigs compared with the catamarans...

i am amazed at what all of the teams have accomplished - the largely successful execution of what was a very ambitious design brief is way beyond my expectations

it is entirely to be expected that there are big performance differences between the boats, given how new the technology is, and from a racing point of view, that's unfortunate. I guess most people think it's TNZ's to lose, so hopefully we can go through one more AC cycle with the same type of boat..., and it will be closer next time.

 

[Bobc]

The technology is un-deniably incredible and this is without doubt the bleeding edge of the sport.

However, from what I've seen so far, the racing leaves a lot to be desired. Since they increased the size of the start box yesterday, there is now no pre-race argy-bargy. There is little or no tactical racing. Nobody is hunting out the puffs, tacking on the shifts, or picking a favoured side of the course, because the gains are massively outweighed by the losses suffered through a manoeuvre. So they are just banging the corners, and it is just a drag race.

Added to which, a small mistake doesn't lose a team 50m, it basically spells the end of the race. There have been a few "bits" of racing here and there over the past 2 days, but overall it's been boring.

As amazing as these boats are, my feeling is that they have gone too far with it to the point where it's no longer match racing and is just drag racing where the team with the best technology wins.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Yes, but in the IMOCA 60s it's completely different foil technology to the AC boats.

Whoops. My first "age experience" of the day. Thought I was posting in Scuttlebutt re VG.

Watched the AC yesterday morning on Sky though. Very graceful sailing. Odd no spinnakers .

Sure the whole team UK have been trying their best .

 

[Frogmogman]

Even better how about a marine variation of the 'Le Mans ' start and have the crews swim out to the boats?

That's how the start of the Coupe de Porquerolles works; either paddle out in the dinghy, or swim. Use of the windlass not allowed for getting up the anchor (damn, I love that aluminium Fortress....) then 100 boats jostling to get away. The other peculiarity of the race is that each boat can decide which way it wishes to go around the island.

 

[Frogmogman]

Well this article isn't very encouraging. And after our hopes were dashed in the Vendee I was pinning everything on Sir Ben coming good.

This is your opportunity to get behind Pip Hare and Miranda Merron.

OK, neither is going to win, but both are putting in a performance we can all be proud of.

 

[matt1]

The technology is un-deniably incredible and this is without doubt the bleeding edge of the sport.

However, from what I've seen so far, the racing leaves a lot to be desired. Since they increased the size of the start box yesterday, there is now no pre-race argy-bargy. There is little or no tactical racing. Nobody is hunting out the puffs, tacking on the shifts, or picking a favoured side of the course, because the gains are massively outweighed by the losses suffered through a manoeuvre. So they are just banging the corners, and it is just a drag race.

Added to which, a small mistake doesn't lose a team 50m, it basically spells the end of the race. There have been a few "bits" of racing here and there over the past 2 days, but overall it's been boring.

As amazing as these boats are, my feeling is that they have gone too far with it to the point where it's no longer match racing and is just drag racing where the team with the best technology wins.

Completely agree. Fascinating to watch about 90 seconds of footage of them foiling but after you have seen that once it’s of little interest to me. Now the cats were, in my view, very watchable. Particularly at the various venues around the world. I can’t but help this event has gone backwards in terms of viewer engagement.

 

[Bobc]

Added to which, the winds in Auckland are predominantly light between from January to March, so they may well have scored a massive own goal by choosing boats that need 10kts+ to work properly when the average wind strength during the event is less than that (unless this was the Kiwi plan all along).

 

[rotrax]

The technology is un-deniably incredible and this is without doubt the bleeding edge of the sport.

However, from what I've seen so far, the racing leaves a lot to be desired. Since they increased the size of the start box yesterday, there is now no pre-race argy-bargy. There is little or no tactical racing. Nobody is hunting out the puffs, tacking on the shifts, or picking a favoured side of the course, because the gains are massively outweighed by the losses suffered through a manoeuvre. So they are just banging the corners, and it is just a drag race.

Added to which, a small mistake doesn't lose a team 50m, it basically spells the end of the race. There have been a few "bits" of racing here and there over the past 2 days, but overall it's been boring.

As amazing as these boats are, my feeling is that they have gone too far with it to the point where it's no longer match racing and is just drag racing where the team with the best technology wins.

Bit like F1 Motor Racing then......................

 

[Bobc]

Bit like F1 Motor Racing then......................

But with only 2 cars on the track

 

[halcyon]

What Mk2 foils? We've already used our allocation. All they can do not is modify the existing ones.

This was the boat a year ago, wonder who did the redesign ?

Brian

 

[matt1]

Isn’t that their first ac boat?

 

[halcyon]

Isn’t that their first ac boat?

I am assuming so, looks a lot better, do you think people will notice if we swap over ?

Brian

 

[Bobc]

I’m sure I read an article in the week saying that between this event and the real thing they could make a final swap out of foils to their 2nd set and there was speculation all teams would make improvements after that. Maybe is misread that

Sorry, my mis-understanding. They have to declare their foils for an event 5 days prior, so no changing of foils during a regatta. They can design and build new foils for the next regatta.

 

[matt1]

That sounds hopeful but I’m fearing there is more required than just new foils. Kind of odd though because the team were out on the solent a lot in their scaled down version and then in the first proper AC boat and all the clips I’ve seen in Auckland have been impressive. And yet now they seem to be having technical issues and making unforced errors. And it can’t be the pressure either as Sir Ben has plenty of experience with that

 

[halcyon]

Sorry, my mis-understanding. They have to declare their foils for an event 5 days prior, so no changing of foils during a regatta. They can design and build new foils for the next regatta.

From what was said on TV, they have 6 foils. we have built all ours, other teams have kept one back in case, so I think not, just hope I am wrong.

Brian

 

[halcyon]

That sounds hopeful but I’m fearing there is more required than just new foils. Kind of odd though because the team were out on the solent a lot in their scaled down version and then in the first proper AC boat and all the clips I’ve seen in Auckland have been impressive. And yet now they seem to be having technical issues and making unforced errors. And it can’t be the pressure either as Sir Ben has plenty of experience with that

I think we have the second boat which is the race boat, but the underside looks nothing like the one a year in the Solent, that one was closer to the NZ boat.

We must wait for the new year, see what they have done then over Christmas.

Brian