The next America's Cup

[Guest]

Pretend you are Grant Dalton. the last race is about to start. You are way ahead on points and a dead cert to take the cup.

So you have a meeting with Luna Rossa to sort out the format for the next event (they will supply the back pocket challenge).

 

You have a free hand to totally redesign the event.

 

What would it look like - what courses, what boats, what other rules.??????

 

No right answer, just trying to kill a Friday arvo. (i'm working on my answer, back in 10 mins).

[Guest]

Here goes

 

1) All crew must have a passport from the country they are representing at least 4 years before the first gun.

2) One entry per yacht club.

3)Boats are fixed keel monohulls, no stored power.

4)Boats to be declared 30 days before the first gun.

5)Max crew per boat - 6.

6 )Six races. 1&2 W\L courses off East coast Bays. 4/5 Same. Race 3 a short passage

race - see below. Race 6 a longer passage race - see below

7) All races are fleet races. (match racing sucks)

 

Course for Race three:

Start off Devonport as per Coastal Classic at 10am.

Ponui Island to Port. Passage Rock Starboard. Mark off Birkenhead Wharf Starboard. Finish same as start. Approx 50 miles (5hrs?)

 

Course for race 6. Start as Race Three. Navy buoy at TiriStbd. Gannet Rock Stbd. Birkenhead buoy stbd. Finish.

 

No other limits on design other than they can get around the course (note min depth on passage races will limit draft).And they have to get under the bridge.

 

Course for race four

[Guest]

Let's add a 7 hr time limit on all races, no postponements unless wind exceeds 35 kn.

[OYSTR 1]

1. In our own backyard, Hauraki Gulf, obviously

2. Need lots more teams competing (still no citizenship restriction), drive international interest and revenue (TV rights)

3. To achieve this cost needs to be reduced: back to smaller one design monohull (old 12m rules?)

 

I really liked the match racing rounds of the LV followed by the AC. The AC 72's are fantastic machines and I can see that the speed factor (and risk of spills) would be a drawcard for the general public, but I prefer close match racing and seeing tactics and skills play out.

[Clipper 343]

If you are a dead cert to take the cup, you have the fastest ac72. So you keep the rule the same.

I would want to see longer courses, but not much. All done in 1 hour.

Stick with cats, stick with match racing, let whoever sail for whoever.

Pretty close to now actually.

Except maybe the reaching starts. Looks cool, not sure if I'm a fan or not.

Definately no monos, no stored power.

[Guest]

Go back to what happened in the best AC event that has happened in the last 30 years. Perth.

[WarLord 0]

Dalt will be -

 

All Focus on the job at hand ,

There is Never A Dead Cert with one race to go

 

Focus Man Focus

[Vorpal Blade 89]

1,. A box rule multihull, little restrictions other than length, beam, height and displacement max and minimum. Suggest about 60ft overall. And no point in making it easy, a maximum crew number of say 7 or 8.

2. One boat per team entry only, no trial boats, practice days etc etc...trialling between teams allowed.

3. Boats have to be built extensively in country of team origin same as nationality rule (see 4 below), hulls, spars/wings, etc

4. A nationality rule like Squids, a 4 year window on citizenship, to be declared on entry of event

5. The series has no match racing just fleet races - challengers and defender combined- with a combination of short W/L fleet racing, a couple intermediate length races of 70-90 miles and a long race of 200+ miles to sort the men from the boys.

[PaulR 3]

Sounds like the old offshore days comming back.

 

3 Olympic triangle races . . . => W/L

Short and Long offshore (coastal / outside harbour) races

 

e.g. JOG, 1/2, 1, 2 ton Kenwood, Admirals Cups etc.

[southernman 73]

Keep it as it is but,,

 

A 2 course event offshore longer legs and an inshore short course for the punters to see up close.

Reaching Start but small start box

Only limit on wind would be upper 35 knot, otherwise you race

Limit overall time for race - no drifters !!

One boat campaign to limit cost

[rigger 47]

Would have been good to see them use Len Brown for testing out their MOB procedures - that might have got some more attention....

[Kiteroa 8]

If ETNZ do win i'd stay stick with the 72's But with a one design wing package based on the ETNZ/Prada wing, built by an ETNZ approved supplier. The cost and complexity of the wing is the biggest hurdle in this edition for sure.

[Guest]

So it appears we have a few DeLorean owners out there.

We must do if some are saying keep it as it is now. I though Now hadn't happened yet

[Guest]

The fact is they've fucked it in terms of yacht racing.

 

It used to be a competition where extremely wealthy yachtsmen (that is, not yachtsmen at all, but owners of yachts with a passion for sailing) would vie for supremacy in a series of races, sailed by extremely clever sailors..

 

In Corinthian terms, it probably reached it's highest moments during the pre-war challenges of Endeavour, Endeavour II, and then the post war period 1960s until the win by Australia II.

 

Thence foreward it has seen a steady decline - in terms of quality of sportsmanship and purpose.

 

The current competition is a scarcely disguised copy of formula 1 car racing where the punters (few of whom have any idea what's going on) are, instead, waiting for the next major crash.

 

Me too.

[PaulR 3]

But it will be a far faster crash than before, so interest is high.

 

 

Where to bet? I reckon race 3 will be the most telling of the series, IMHO of course

[Variant 2]

Wing sailed cats.

 

A bit smaller, maybe 50 - 60 feet.

 

No rules which try to inhibit foiling.

 

Have longer courses.

[Guest]

Wing sailed cats.

 

A bit smaller, maybe 50 - 60 feet.

 

No rules which try to inhibit foiling.

 

Have longer courses.

 

+1

[Guest]

After recent events:

 

How about TP 52's?

 

Rule exists and works, existing boats, close racing, room for some development, way cheaper.

If it were to be in NZ there would be greater exposure/financial gain to the country from 20 syndicates in TP52s than 2 or three big one offs.

[Guest]

...........

The current competition is a scarcely disguised copy of formula 1 car racing where the punters (few of whom have any idea what's going on) are, instead, waiting for the next major crash. .....

 

I was wrong about the disguised bit. In today's Star-Times

 

......(the vision) of Larry Ellison.... to bring a motor-racing feel and TV spectacle to it in boats capable of 40 knots..... Spithill (felt that) the small course would magnify the dangers. "We call it the cage. With incredibly fast boats it's like putting a jet-ski in a swimming pool......it's gotta look cool. It's gotta look great on TV"

 

So much for the skills, the arts, and the majesty of yacht racing.

[Guest]

When you introduce television to any sport as a means of "paying the bills" and Hypeing up the sport you compromise the Purity.

 

Look at 50/50 cricket, sevens, formula one (team racing orders), IPC... all ruined by Hype and TV governance/money.

 

This Americas cup is a flop already. Tainted by Ellison, Coutts and even Dalton ( By being entered)

 

its a 5 minute "hype fest" in 160 years of brilliant tactical YACHT racing history.

 

In fact its a lot like that forgetable Fay challenge against that cunning Cat Dennis Conner sailed.

 

All easily forgettable.

 

I like the long, technical, tactical, drawn out battles of the past.

 

Slamdunks, leeward hooks, vibrant post race arguments.... all gone! And replaced by sterile sailors and carbon engineering "ego fests"!

 

Sorry but I am not getting it