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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 16, 2013 - 12:10pm PT
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Anyone else anticipating this!? Coming to San Francisco Bay this September! The boats they are sailing these days are crazy, a 72 foot catamaran that hydrofoils at 40 knots!
Capsizing these things at speed is very dangerous for the crew, last month a Brit died on their boat in a tragic accident.
I'm going to be in SF in August and plan to watch some of the qualifying races.
Check it out![Click to View YouTube Video]
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mcolombo
Trad climber
Heidelberg, Germany
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Jun 16, 2013 - 01:23pm PT
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Andrew "Bart" Simpson, the guy who was killed I met few times sailing Stars in Europe. Good guy and really sad. Still all the guys on the boats know the risks and are pros. The teams are all very safty concisous.
It was not a capsize but an catasrophic failure of the main beam due to faulty build/design which killed him. The boats are fast and on the edge but New Zealand, Lunna Rossa, and the new Oracle seem to be at least somewhat under control. Any very high performance sailbot is scary in a bearaway.
Any time you go out on the water on any boat things can happen. I guy I used to sail for, pro skipper and multiple class world champion was lost on SF bay when the hiking rack of a test boat failed and dumped the crew in the water. One of my best friends and sailing partners was lost at sea off Hawaii. I will never forget watching them bring in the body of top Austrian Torndo Cat sailor who died in a capsize in 2002 at the Princess Sophia Regatta on Malloca.
Looking forward to the racing!!! Wish there were a few more boats. I hope Artimis gets their boat together and sails well in memory of Bart. They have been through a lot. Lots of people are giving Paul Cayard a hrd time- seems to be made a target. Still he was alwys cool to me and I am sure he is deeply saddend by the accident.
Kind of hoping for a bit scaled down maybe 60 foot version for the next go.
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mcolombo
Trad climber
Heidelberg, Germany
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Jun 16, 2013 - 02:40pm PT
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The boat did not upend it folded. "like a taco" was the description. traping Bart under tons of broken Carbon Fibre. He had air and the crew tried to get more to him. They could see him struggeling but to no avail. In a nomal capsize you have some time but this was a sudden unexpected failure of the forward main beam.
The delay is for Artimis, their second boat was already built but not rigged/finished after the accident their operations came to a stop for investigation and testing. Should be sailing soon
We will see what comes next go, depending on who wins roumours are about of scaled down less expensive 60 foot versions, or 90 foot Monos but that is pure roumour.
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Bill Mc Kirgan
Trad climber
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
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Jun 16, 2013 - 03:12pm PT
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Woah hEAVY man...7+ ton on that foil and it be bending.
STARBOARD BOAT GETTHELLOUTTAMYWAY!!!!!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 10, 2013 - 12:05am PT
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no much of a race, but the two first races of the Louis Vuitton Cup (to determine the challenger) have been run by a single boat... Emirates Team New Zealand... pretty amazing to see in video, I'm going to have to try to get a peak out on the bay...
[Click to View YouTube Video]
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 10, 2013 - 02:03pm PT
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hahaha, Billionaires, well, when I was on a team racing in Long Island Sound (instead of writing my thesis) the yachts were owned by mere Millionaires.. I lucked out and knew the son of one (who was also a graduate student in physics) a Catalina 38, a cruising version of the Sparkman & Stevens sloop designed for the Marblehead-Bermuda race (I think Ted Turner won that race in the original)...
we actually took line honors one year in the 'Round Long Island race sponsored by News Day (the local Long Island rag at that time) and came in 2nd in our class (handicapped).
When we showed up at the front gate of the Stamford Yacht Club, which was hosting the awards banquet, the gate keeper informed us (there were 5 of us stuffed into a small car) that the "help's" entrance was around the back... we told them we were there to accept our award for the race and drove on by... our table was setup quite a ways back from the "main table" and we weren't wearing the blueblazer/redbrickpants uniform, but had time anyway with another "working class crew" who'd also placed.
I don't recall the food being all that good (but it was free) and the beer was definitely pre-microbrew era pilsner...
Anyway, what's new?
The basic rule of thumb as I recall is that you "race your age" at 59 I'm to old for an AC45 (and not rich enough anyway!!).
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command error
Trad climber
Colorado
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Jul 10, 2013 - 03:02pm PT
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I want to see boats going fast,
close calls, right of way crashes,
sailors bobbing in the water like corks,
boats slashed and taking on water by AC72 razor sharp foils.
I want to see fist fights on the pier.
I want to see real sailors with their hands raised in victory!
Don't want to watch no pussy saying they are going to be safe.
There is nothing safe about sailing at 40knots on a 7 ton floating knife blade.
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command error
Trad climber
Colorado
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Jul 10, 2013 - 03:25pm PT
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to reach port we must sail - sometimes with the wind
and sometimes against it - but we must sail,
and not drift, nor lie at anchor
-Oliver Wendall Holmes
imagine
flying on the water
the best sailors on the planet
the fastest boats ever raced
34th Americas Cup
San Francisco Bay July-Sept 2013
http://www.americascup.com/
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jul 10, 2013 - 04:59pm PT
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America's cup racing has always been a 'pockett book' race for the most part.
Just like the comment that two nations at war aught to pit their best single representatives, be it physical, intillectual or both, to represent their nation in a battle...
America's Cup comp really aught to be sailed in Lasers.
Either way, it will never happen, to idealistic.
Re yacht racing: that is not the name of the game or how radical advances in design and construction take place !
I do find the fact that there really is no 'home team' to root for any more a little distubing. Design, construction and even crew rosters are often a multinational organization(s).
Imagine what it would be like if China joined the game?
Posted from Marblehead Ma. ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sad PS:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/Ted Hood sailing innovator and champion yachtsman dies at 86
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jul 10, 2013 - 07:50pm PT
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Always has been a charade with more time spent in the courtroom than on the water. Great sailors, often way way outdated designs and almost always jerkass owners like Larry F*#kin Ellison that epitomizes the lot. What they should be racing are Mod70s and junk these monster machines they have developed to "their" forever changing rules and aren't safe enough to sail out the friggin Golden Gate.
Christ, I am starting to sound like Reilly on a bad day.
You want to see exciting racing you have to tune into the European scene which is light years ahead of old Americaca.
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Lambone
Big Wall climber
Ashland, Or
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 10, 2013 - 09:04pm PT
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God damn, break out the whambulance....
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Gene
climber
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Jul 10, 2013 - 09:20pm PT
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May the best funded team win.
g
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jul 19, 2013 - 05:40pm PT
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You said it Gene:
"Pocket Book Racing"
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jul 19, 2013 - 06:02pm PT
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Although an avid sailor, and sailing instructor, the AC has passed away from my interest as a race, and the real basics of what racing is about, most of the time.
By that, I mean that most sailing is "one design", where everyone sails the same basic boat, the contest is between the skill of different sailors, or sailing teams.
The AC has now devolved down to who has the most money to "buy" the race. The race is also not set up fairly. Virtually all other sporting contests, world wide, have abandoned the concept of challengers vying to fight the previous champion in the finals. Think how many Nicklaus or Federer would have if they had that system. Or Armstrong.
And the Champion gets to choose a location that gives them an advantage.
But no one wants to give up an unfair advantage. What an example of sportsmanship!
How about a million dollars maximum spent on a boat? How about you can have only one boat? How about an independent body set the location?
Unfair competitions that are not competitive, turn people off. They've destroyed this competition, and I doubt that it will be revived.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Jul 19, 2013 - 06:47pm PT
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The America's Cup used to be a really big deal. The races were main stream sports and got a lot of press and TV time.
It was a beautiful race, with the boats all being long, skinny, displacement ships that carried a ton of sail.
That O'Connor guy blew it. After the Kiwi's beat us for the first time, using a winged keel (winged keels have been around for a while). During the next race he trotted out a catamaran, which looked silly competing with the other traditional boats.
To have a really good race, they should be one designs. There are tons of one design classes that are inspected down to the last square inch, and Nationals is a big deal. Believe it or not, Oklahoma has a great sailing lake for the smaller one designs and usually hosts a national every year or so. They hosted the J-24 nationals a while back.
So what would it look like if somebody trotted out a Tornado (a very fast catamaran) and threw it into the J-24 fleet?
The new boats are super high tech and ultra fast, but I think that they should have stuck by their guns and still raced the older and very beautiful boats of the past. Good luck putting that one into a hat, though.
I got an MC Scow to play on after work a couple of months ago. Crazy fast they are...but they are also a very closely watched boat that has had different builders over the years. Everyone has the same boat, so it comes down to seamanship.
Somehow these high tech anything goes boats have ruined the stately beauty of the old race.
My two cents.
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Jul 19, 2013 - 09:12pm PT
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those AC72's are amazing boats... it will be fun to watch actual match races when all the teams are representing...
in the past, the NY Yacht Club established rules that heavily favored their defense... including the requirements that the boat and crew had to be completely supplied the challenging country, including the sails, the design, etc...
this certainly put the challengers at a disadvantage... once the Kiwis won, it opened up the race... but it has always been an event for rather wealthy sponsors.
Match racing is great to watch with the modern technologies, but being there, especially at the start, and the course tactics, like climbing, is much more exciting...
...being able to sail any America's Cup boat is pretty much outside the possibility for most of us, watching is what we get to do... and the boats out on the bay are exciting to watch.
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Ken M
Mountain climber
Los Angeles, Ca
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Jul 19, 2013 - 10:56pm PT
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but it has always been an event for rather wealthy sponsors.
Now too expensive for most BILLIONAIRES.
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SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Jul 22, 2013 - 02:33pm PT
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Some very tired ground crew from Artemis
Susan
Edit....ahhhh not the lady in purple, that's me : )
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TrundleBum
Trad climber
Las Vegas
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Jul 23, 2013 - 03:58pm PT
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How about a million dollars maximum spent on a boat? How about you can have only one boat? How about an independent body set the location?
How about going back to Twelve metres and having two identical boats built and the races sailed 'round robin' where crews and skippers alternate each boat each race ?
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