Venting time

[Guest]

VENTING TIME!!!!

 

As with many one eyed ETNZ supporters I have taken to facebook this morning to vent my frustrations over an Americas Cup that promised so much and yet delivered on very little. I then went through a contemplative mid afternoon period seeing that the afternoon nap was alluding me to try and figure out why I was so annoyed at ETNZ falling so short of winning the cup due to a time limit wondering if it was because i wanted to party with thousands of people in town and drink the $300 of piss i had in my boot. While I am dissapointed that I cant party by using the AC as an excuse, I have realized that my disappointment has come down to poor event organising and management.

 

Why has it been poor event management and organising? for this one simple fact and I cant understand why teams like ETNZ did not point out sooner as a boat cant finish the race if the wind is under 10 kts. Why is this such a problem? because the design brief on these boats was to sail in as little wind a 3kts!!!!! If you cant finish a race within a time period then why make the boats race in them let alone designed for the possibility of racing in it? Any Auckland Yacht Club running this race would have known that it is impossible to finish this course within the time period given the average speed for the last half a hour building up to the race which raises questions surrounding why couldnt the race committee shorten the course, or is the RC no longer at the top of ther game? Sure there was a lot of luffing at the start and it took them forever to round mark 1, but if the wind didnt build then they would have gotten no way near mark 4 anyway so that cant be used as an excuse.

 

With these unanswered questions I then started to ponder on why these time limits came about and why these races cant get pushed forward or wernt scheduled earlier to avoid high wind in a windy area. The brains trust of Larry and Russel wanted to turn sailing into something that every American would love to watch by creating a brand new class of boat and race course that could be similar to nascar (crash car) and F1. The boat and the course they have delivered on big time and these are the most impressive boats ever to sail, but why is it that only the kiwis are going crazy over this cup and why as one American network been paid to run the cup? The Event organizers have created the fastest AC boats ever and pushed the limits of sailing but the Americans just arnt interested in it and all the kiwis I talk to over in San Fran have said theres more kiwis at the event than Americans. Have they created an event and missed their target audience completely....HELL YESS!!!!!!

 

Sure if the American and international networks were wanting to show this cup and promote it as much as they can I would understand the reason why so many races have been postponed but the simple truth is that there not. The target market that they have wanted to try and bring into sailing hasnt turned up and the sailing community from what I can gather havnt been impressed overall with the LV and AC, so one has to wonder why they havnt made changed to the rules.

 

I guess now Kiwis are understanding why San Fran hates Larry and Russel so much as they have been burnt out of millions of dollars and broken promises. Has this cup brought in the money that they promised, have the people turned up as expected, is this the best sailing that anyone has seen by far? well except for some very close racing and near crosses at 40 kts the answer is no. If that is the case then has this cup been a drastic failure....yes. The sooner that ETNZ can end this sorry circus the better.

 

just to balance it out a little here are the good things that they have delivered.

 

The quickest boats ever to match race..and match race they have

Stadium racing close to specators

new advances in technology for viewing the racing (not as much as they promised though)

And hopefully ETNZ winning the cup again.

 

 

As for me it is now time to go and shovel some mulch around a garden and figure out if I can be bothered waking up early to go and watch the racing in town with thousands of other people or if I should just stumble out of bed at 8am and hope that ETNZ can end this thing tomorrow.

[Hurts 6]

Yes Stephen, huge amounts of this cup have been frustrating cluster-f**ks BUT it has been facinating. After watching this morning I launched a violent 3 hour assault on a hedge and other strenuous outdoors tasks that kind of needed doing - and felt much better for it so Gardening is good therapy. Giving with world a spray on the internet may work too .

 

Watch tomorrow - the ETNZ guys are no doubt doing it even harder and most of it isn't their fault - it's always darkest B4 the dawn etc etc.

[ex Elly 200]

If the wind is light, why don't they move the buoys a bit closer together?

[philstar 61]

I agree, it seemed totally crazy that they were still running the full sized course in light conditions. Any race officer knows that you set your course to the conditions and your beat length is supposed to be suitable to the target race time.

I simply can't believe that Ian and Howard set a course in this mornings conditions when they knew the boats wouldn't make the time limit. The only answer is that maybe their hands are tied and they're not allowed to shorten the course which is ridiculous.

[Jon 362]

Isn't it just mirroring life ?

If it was easy to win its not worth doing !

We've still a few days up our sleeve

Oracle hasn't

[Atom Ant 0]

Its obvious why they don't move the buoys closer together. If the calculations are correct then Oracle don't have to have a boat optimised for light winds and have ensured that light airs races never finish within the time limit.