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America's Cup


Dale Bradly
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Well I'm stoked, got the outcome I wanted.

I'm sure there's plenty of beers flowing tonight.

 

There's unsubstantiated rumours around that UK will provide the next challenger of record and/or host an America's Cup related event in the near future, so fingers crossed for you guys.

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Just managed to avoid looking at this post before watching today's race on YouTube as I have been every morning for the past few days.  It just shows, the faster boat won but Luna Rossa showed some great match racing tactics to slow them down but it wasn't enough.  Great start for the Kiwis this morning and they were able to tack onto port immediately after the start and got the header they needed to give them the lift once they were back on starboard.  After that, barring a big failure (as team USA suffered), it was done and dusted.

 

I do feel the 8th race was a considerable fluke for the Kiwis to win because both boats  fell off the foils in wind holes.  It's just that the Italians fell into a bigger one.  There is an upper wind limit, perhaps here should be a lower one, too.  Hanging around waiting for the wind to settle is a pain (we've spent a few hours slopping about hove to in the middle of the sea waiting in the past) but it's better than a race ending up a lottery. 

 

Anyway, congratulations to the Kiwis.  It's been a great series and a rare chance to see some of my former sport on the media.  Almost no mention in the UK media, however.

 

Geoff

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2 minutes ago, Geoff S said:

Anyway, congratulations to the Kiwis.  It's been a great series and a rare chance to see some of my former sport on the media.  Almost no mention in the UK media, however.

 

Geoff


Typical of the UK media, if it’s not a mainstream sport, football, rugby, cricket then you really have to search hard to find up to date information.

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How true. I've been watching Paris-Nice and the Tirano-Adriatica stage races on Eurosport this past week as well but, again, no mention at all in the UK media.  The penalty of being interested in a minority sport/activity (like aeromodelling!) I suppose.

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2 hours ago, Geoff S said:

...I do feel the 8th race was a considerable fluke for the Kiwis to win because both boats  fell off the foils in wind holes.  It's just that the Italians fell into a bigger one.  There is an upper wind limit, perhaps here should be a lower one, too.  Hanging around waiting for the wind to settle is a pain (we've spent a few hours slopping about hove to in the middle of the sea waiting in the past) but it's better than a race ending up a lottery. 

 

There is a lower limit - 7 or 8 knots I seem to remember, a measured average just before the start - but if it softens during the race there is nothing they can do unless both boats get stranded and they abandon. I suspect that unpredictable races in low winds like #8 are rather popular with the organisers though, as they are more exciting for the viewer (though maybe less satisfying for the sailing officianados). Personally I enjoyed the whole thing and am glad the Italians didn't win - apparently they would have returned the Cup to non-foiling "furniture racing" if they had. 

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  • 3 years later...

Best wishes to the UK supporters for the upcoming races.

Ineos vs LRPP in the LVC final was awesome to watch, and congrats on taking that out.

I'm a kiwi, and supporting the home team (who are on the far side of the world....) but really looking forward to what should be be some excellent racing.

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The LVC series has been excellent and let's hope for some close racing and decent conditions for the finals.


I still find the boats breathtaking everytime I watch them and for anyone in the UK the racing is on TNT. 
 

If you want to find out more https://www.bbc.com/sport/extra/n09m4noh7g/britannias-challenge
 

Not confident be able will be able to beat the kiwis, but fingers crossed.😁

Edited by PDB
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I've been watching on Discovery+.  The women's races have been dogged with ultra light winds which means very delicate handling of both tacks and gybes to avoid falling off the foils.  The difference in speed between displacement and foiling is huge and trying to get back into the fast mode in very light winds is difficult.  It's amazing that the apparent wind moves so far forward the yachts are close-hauled even on a dead down-wind course - so different from the Scorpion was used to sail with a spinnaker when 12kts seemed liked flying - 40+ knots must be incredible (and dangerous -   we sailed bare-headed and they wear bigger helmets than we did on our motorcycles.

 

I think INEOS Brittania has a good chance as they've been racing continuously for several weeks in the LVC and the Kiwis haven't. Time will tell.  Personally, I wish they were still racing 12 metre yachts but time moves on.

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Yes, I watched the first race and it wasn't great for Britannia.  They were faster down wind but not fast enough.  Hopefully they can do better but the history of the America's Cup is littered with one-sided regattas.  In 1934 Tommy Sopwith's Endeavour won the first 2 races in big J Class yachts but the New York YC's defender, Rainbow, won the next 4.  That was considered close compared to earlier attempts. 

 

INEOS cycling team have pretty good cycling record - recently they've won all 3 Grand Tours several times. Chris Froome won all 3 consecutively (though not in the same year, he won the Giro in the spring following the previous year's Tour and Vuelta).  No idea about the football.

Edited by Geoff S
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The main reason my rc builds take forever and my flying is very average is my main sport is dinghy sailing. I'm captivated by this Americas cup and will be heading out to Barcelona in a couple of days to watch. Just hope Ineos team UK can get some wins under their belt or we won't have much to see. Still not much btw these teams but beating NZ will be a tough ask

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22 minutes ago, DaveB1 said:

The main reason my rc builds take forever and my flying is very average is my main sport is dinghy sailing. I'm captivated by this Americas cup and will be heading out to Barcelona in a couple of days to watch. Just hope Ineos team UK can get some wins under their belt or we won't have much to see. Still not much btw these teams but beating NZ will be a tough ask

 

What do you sail, Dave?  We (my wife and me) used to sail a 12' dinghy called a Graduate (no spinnaker/trapeze) then we moved to a 14' Scorpion (spinnaker but no trapeze) and I ended up with a Laser until a bad cycle accident put a stop to serious sailing.  If there'd been any others about I think we'd have gone to a 470 which we sailed on holidays in Menorca.  I also used to get a free sailing holiday for several years as 1st mate on the Rolls-Royce ferro-cement ketch 'Merlin of Clyde mostly in the Irish sea - the best work gig I ever got 🙂 

 

At 84 it's all getting a bit too much I'm afraid so I enjoy sailing vicariously 😞   I prefer watching fleet races - hardly anyone match races except for the Cup.

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Racing singlehanders on inland puddles for me, originally moths and now Lasers for the last 30+ years.

 

The Kiwis are looking very strong and I hope it doesn't become a whitewash, but Iet's not forget 2013 and Ben playing a large part of overturning an 8-1 lead by the Kiwis.

 

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/qNCTW3GNGjY?si=0JPfDLwTgLZUvmYK

 

Day 2 of racing from 1300hrs https://www.youtube.com/live/nPBLqvXwLlw?si=IqYmcMT3_eHX5lk2

 

Edited by PDB
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On 12/10/2024 at 09:14, PDB said:

The LVC series has been excellent and let's hope for some close racing and decent conditions for the finals.


I still find the boats breathtaking everytime I watch them and for anyone in the UK the racing is on TNT. 
 

If you want to find out more https://www.bbc.com/sport/extra/n09m4noh7g/britannias-challenge
 

Not confident be able will be able to beat the kiwis, but fingers crossed.😁

The live racing need extensive highlights are available for free on YouTube here

https://youtube.com/@americascup?si=WSVoBEkcNSjmfhKS

and anyone interested in the tech behind the incredible AC75 yachts should subscribe to this channel too…

 

https://youtube.com/@mozzysails?si=9ErgbdJAr9AIGmTO

 

 

 

Edited by MattyB
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3 hours ago, Jake Bullit said:

Lovely boat the Graduate. 

My daughter crewed in one at the nationals at Bassenthwaite and Rutland.

She's now a cadet on cruise ships, currently in the Carribbean.

 

Glad she enjoyed sailing the Grad. We had a lot of fun with the 3 we had.  We used to sail an open meeting in the middle of Lichfield on a tiny pond - literally, we were within 0.5 mile of the cathedral!  From what I've read the Nationals are now just a weekend event.  It was a full week when we sailed and there were upwards of a 100 boats on the start line.  We were very much middle of the fleet but there was always someone to race against.  Things change and dinghy classes come and go.

 

Edit. I've just checked on Google maps and Stowe pool where we raced is only 200 metres from Lichfield cathedral 🙂 

Edited by Geoff S
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11 hours ago, DaveB1 said:

I sail a boat called a H2 (like a single handed Merlin Rocket - modern all carbon singlehander) I also crew a Scorpion (and have done with the same helm for 40 + years) - can you remember what sail no your Scorpion was Geoff ?

 

We had 2 Scorpions. The first was a SEBB stitch-and-glue version which, when we we bought it, the seller offered us some scrap metal that had been in the buoyancy tanks when it was weighed.  It was somewhat underweight but, as we were highly unlikely to be high enough in a nationals race to be checked we raced it 'illegally'.  The second was a Stewart-built boat and IIRC was 1745.  The spinnaker system was the then popular twin-pole set-up which worked but was complicated.  We sailed a 470 in Menorca years later which had a simple spinnaker system which we thought was much better.  Both Scorpions were finished like grand pianos, so shiny was the varnish.

 

That H2 sounds interesting. I guess it's like a Merlin in that it's so wide you need hiking boots to get across 🙂

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It is great to watch....how do they get all that lift from the tiny blue bits in the water .... its seems a bit like flying aerobatics on wheel spats.

also, I suspect skulduggery....there were dozens of wee guys hidden in the hull....Tthey sneaked out at the end

ernie

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