OMG, I'm going to stop taking baths because I just heard that one can die in 2 inches of water!Get rid of those flying hull big cats. They just killed someone. Stick to the monos.
Racing by its nature is dangerous. Its not like AC participants are being killed regularly like the heyday of Formula 1 auto racing.As cynical and awful as it may sound, I don't think that the death of a crewman is enough to shake these guys from their commitment to these boats and this format. They have invested so much time and money into them that I think the only thing that will make the Oracle team abandon the boats is if they just prove to be so fragile that they can't run the races (enough of the participants run through their allotment of two boats), or if the racing community decides they're too expensive/dangerous to operate and they decline to participate in future cups.
I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see a different cup holder (if Oracle loses) change back to monohulls or some less extreme version of a catamaran.
If watching one-design racing is your thing, go down to your nearest sailing club, you'll probably see it there.I would prefer AC to be raced in a one design format. Everyone on the same style boat, same style sails, same number of people. They it would be a race about strategy and crew skills
I thought it was an international sailing competition where the country who can afford to hire the most Kiwis gets sailing bragging rights for 3 years.I get the 'one design' angle.. it's true that the AC has never really been about the best sailor(s) and more about developmental design - both below and well above the waterline. .
This is the second boat destroyed, Oracle destroyed their firstI don't understand the title: "Another America's Cup entry destroyed" There was already a cup entry destroyed? Is Artemis renouncing to the cup?
Very good designers obviously among the greatest contemporary NA: Artemis is designed by JK, Oracle has an huge design team and I don't understand who is the main NA.Just by the by - who are the designers of these things? I can't imagine that Farr, Peterson, Holland, Frers and all my other heroes are doing them.
+1. My heart goes out to that family.The tragic loss is paramount here and I would not have posted the original thread had this outcome be known. Our thoughts are with the family and friends impacted by this tragedy.
Yeah, it seems they've finally figured a way to try to take sailing Mainstream...This spectacular possibility of catastrophe is likely to bring more spectators. Consider that this could have happened when racing next to a competitor and taken them out too.
I'm not good with it.
Then the boats should be exactly the same and obviously they are not....
The sport is supposed to a match racing game of who has better tactics and can control the race
I want to go back the old days when you built the boat at home crewed it with people from your own country, sailed it to wherever the competition was taking place then sailed it back home.I doubt we'll ever see the days when the boats from the last Cup races compete again. Can you imagine any boat today repeating what Intrepid and Courageous did, winning the cup in consecutive campaigns?
Never was national, except nominally. The field America beat to win the trophy that now bears its name were all yachts owned by wealthy Brits, aristocrats and industrialists; America was built entirely with funds from a NYYC syndicate -- ie, Hamptons money.I would like to see the AC go back to a competition between countries and not corporations. In recent years the idea that these are national boats is nonsense. It is one rich guy's company against another's with the key question being who can afford to buy the best Kiwi talent.
Nuff said.But the most telling thing I heard while visiting the repair shop came from Coutts, the CEO. I asked him what would happen to the radical new wingsail design after the Cup was over. "No matter who wins," Coutts said, "they are definitely going to make changes: make the boat smaller, bring the team budgets down, stuff like that." In other words, the CEO of Team Oracle now acknowledges that the AC72 is an overreach.
Seriously??? Sorry, but I have to disagree with you there, bigtime...If you don't like the new AC boats, that's great, but don't fool yourself into thinking the new boat or format is more or less dangerous than any other. There just is no evidence to support that assertion at this point.
I think that that is the biggest problem with this particular edition: Not attractive to sponsors and probably not self sustained without billionaires money.It's their event... attract money from spectators.
Agreed. But it takes the concussion incidents, or Earnharts death in NASCAR, to bring attention to make the safety changes which they can make.The American football analogy is a good one. There have been many improvements to safety as the years go by, or the owners would eventually assume too much liability. Even the concussion issues lately will be addressed.
AC sailing is clearly going the other direction. The risk associated with the 72 cats is obviously much greater than the 12m.