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Sports oldest trophy: Auld Mug History The America's cup is sports oldest trophy, having been first awarded in 1851 when the Yacht America won a race around the isle of white, giving the competition it's name, and starting over 170 years of hurt for Great Britain who have failed to gain it back ever since. Since 1870 the competition has been held every two years, often with a challenger series before hand to determine who would become the "challenger of record" and be able to go toe to toe with the previous winner in a sailing match race. Very quickly the competition attracted the wealthy who, since the 30's, have spent vast amounts of money trying to build the fastest racing yachts afloat in attempt to win Auld Mug.  The J Class, perhaps some of the most beautiful yachts ever made were the america's cup boat of the 30's and are still made and raced today Although there are class rules dictating limits within which the boats most conform generally these have left huge scope for teams to innovate and push the boundries, unfortunately this was taken to an extreme and a huge legal battle over what was eventually the 2010 americas cup nearly destroyed the competition forever. Having always been a monohull competition the billionaire owners of Team Alinghi and Oracle fought for years over if each others boats (a catamaran and trimaran respectively) were legal. Eventually the dust settled and the next two editions were fought on catamarans. The AC 75 Having successfully won the cup on the last edition Team New Zealand got to set the rules. They had refused to sign up to an agreement from Larry Page to continue using cat's so he took his ball and went home to set up a rival series. Luna Rosa thus became the challenger of record and had some input into the new rules, they'd previously been very vocal about wanting to return to monohulls and has threatened to quit over the small AC50's used in the previous edition. The result is the AC75, an absolutely ridiculous machine that almost defies belief. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQUl_hf6yo8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk99LkioFvM That sound you hear that sounds like a gale? yeah that's the wind around the rigging because these things go at 50knots (~60mph) powered purely by wind, the chase boats are struggling to keep up with them. That hum is the second video? no that's not an engine that's what a foil going through the water sounds like at those speeds. This is a radical new design with a huge area for optimisation, the video above refers to the teams 1st boats used for development but they've all now launched their second boats which are even more extreme. What will be immediately obvious to anyone who's looked at a cruising yacht, or even an offshore racing yacht, is how slick these boats are. Aerodynamics play a huge roll in the AC75 with every source of drag eliminated as far as possible and boats being designed to exploit ground effects while going over the water. The sails drag across the maindeck in order to seal the high pressure area on the windward side from the low pressure leeward and on the second boats both ineos and new zealand seem to have taken this further with large chines under the boat in what looks like an attempt to seal off the gap under the boat too. Teams have 11 crew which is made up of 1 skipper, 1 flight controller, a trimmer and 8 grinders. All the power on the boat except for moving the foils has to come from people and the energy required to constantly move the massive amount of sail area these boats have is enourmous. The grinders will work almost constantly to pressurise the hydraulic systems on the boats that do the actual moving. The Teams There are 4 teams competing for the America's cup this year and in the 2 race series that proceed it, a 5th from Malta had been hoped to compete but in the end failed to meet some deadlines. Team: Emirates Team New Zealand [NZ] Club: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Boat: Te Rehutai  Method of Christening: Mechanical lever ensured reliable champagne smashing Billionaire: Matteo de Nora Overview: The defending champions are, as expected for the people who wrote the rules, looking extremely good. They are on two foils for the shortest time of anyone except maybe american magic and the boat is absolutely flying. Crucially they seem to be running much bigger sails then the competition in the same wind which is a huge advantage if this bares out. As the defender they automatically get a spot in the final but will compete in the run up series. Team: American Magic  Club: New York Yacht Club Boat: Patriot  Method of Christening: Again used a big rear end metal arm to smash the bottle Billionaire: Hap Fauth, Doug DeVos and Roger Penske Overview: My pick for the prettiest boat in the fleet, it looks like some sort of anime whale. The stern looks very different to the other boats which may point to a different strategy to their competitors, who knows how that will play out in head to head races Team: Luna Rossa Challenge  Club: Circolo della Vela Sicilia Boat: Luna Rossa  Method of Christening: Traditional wife of billionaire owner smashing by hand, as expected from an italian team Billionaire: Patrizio Bertelli Overview: A close second for the nicest looking boat the italian team are desperate to win the AC having appeared in several finals over the years. Their skipper has won it twice though so perhaps this is their chance. The bow of the boat had some work done on it recently so perhaps not all is well with the design team. Team: Ineos Team UK  Club: Royal Yacht Squadron Boat: Britannia  Method of Christening: Popped a cork and sprayed, this weeks mechanical issues almost certainly a consequence of this Billionaire: Jim Ratcliffe Overview: Thought by many to have been the favourite to challenge for the cup there's been rumours of huge issues with the team and or boat as it was towed in slowly after a practice run and hasn't been seen for a week. Rumours are flying that there has been some major damage to the boat whilst others claim the team realises it's behind and are making major modifications to the boat, the only people who know are in the team. Britannia is one of the more radical designs with Adrian Newey of Red Bull part of the design team and people pointing to a possible scoop on the deck as a secret aerodynamic weapon. The teams best asset however is probably Sir Ben Ainslie, the most decorated olympic sailor in history and architect of one of the greatest sporting combacks of all time. In the 2013 America's cup Team Oracle was 8-1 down, Ainslie was brought in to try and turn things down and 8 straight victories followed to retain the cup. The Races Dec 17-20: The Americas cup world series and Prada Christmas Race, a warm up series to get teams used to the boats whilst matchracing Jan 15-Feb 22: The Prada Cup, the series that decides the challenger of record Mar 6-21: The America's Cup, Team New Zealand vs the Challenger. Sailing seems cool! any other stuff to follow The Vendee Globe is on! almost the complete opposite of this inshore series with huge teams is people sailing by themselves round the world as fast as they can. Thread here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3947598 Loving Africa Chaps fucked around with this message at 20:01 on Dec 13, 2020 |
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Dec 13, 2020 19:55
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There was another practice session today with all 4 teams getting out. Wind was at the absolute lowest level at which sailing will be allowed in the races, this video (and channel) has some good commentary if a little biased towards ETNZ. Luna Rossa are looking increasingly confident in their manouvers with them starting to take the second foil out the water while their still turning. One interesting point of difference in the boats is Britannia has all it's grinders on their own pedestal facing outward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egAWgqCzU7c
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Dec 14, 2020 11:03
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Crunchy Black posted:I can do an effortpost later but worth pointing out how the Americans went from "greatest comeback in Sporting history" to "abject, dismal failure" in the last 2 defenses lol The would be great, i'm very much an americas cup casual so would be good to get your input.
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Dec 14, 2020 17:11
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Crunchy Black posted:Jesus Christ. Hahaha, it's streaming on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne-covgb3ao First races today and ETNZ aren't unbeatable! American Magic managed to beat them in a very close race. Luna Rose lost by about 3 mins to the defenders. Huge issues for Ineos though in the other two races. They kept coming off their foils in the practice races earlier in the week and during today's races failed to finish either due to a failure of the hydraulic system for the foils which is a competition supplied component. One of the chase boats had to keep them off the rocks after they stopped a second time.
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Dec 17, 2020 07:57
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Baneling Butts posted:Just found this thread! I've been following the America's Cup since I'm in NZ, hoping to go out to see the boats race next weekend. Yeah it's an extraordinary turn around, particularly yesterday in the low wind speed. Almost as amazing as American magic's loss of form! The boats definitely better but you also had Ben Ainslie absolutely bossing the starts too which was a huge advantage on day 1. This was an great video discussing the poor form of Ineos, the boat is definitely way more controllable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2hMu6keSbo Can't get enough of watching these AC75's. Hopefully we get a few more teams next cycle.
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Jan 17, 2021 10:46
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Crunchy Black posted:Thanks for bumping this thread, idk why I couldn't find it in my bookmarks, so crossposting from Nautical Insanity--but uh yeah looks like American Magic is done. Watched the full race and it was noticeable how tense the Comms were in the run up. Bad decision making by Dean Barker when they had a huge lead. Also wtf I had no idea the skipper was grinding, no wonder Comms were difficult
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Jan 17, 2021 19:02
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Humbug posted:It seems to me as a layman the American boat is the most specialized towards "normal" conditions. It seems to lack lift in light wind and command and control in difficult conditions. It had a lot of performance before Christmas, and was going very well before the gusting and subsequent capsize, even with a poor start. On the full coverage they showed they are running much smaller foils than Lunna Rossa or Ineos which will mean less drag and higher speeds but much less lift so a less controllable boat and that tallies with exactly your observations.
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Jan 18, 2021 09:20
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I hadn't realised Dean Barker was the skipper for 2013 when he lost 8 in a row from 8-1 up.
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Jan 18, 2021 11:23
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Crunchy Black posted:Yeah its my understanding Defiant is still in NZ but no one knows just how bare they stripped her or *exactly* where in NZ. Planet Sail on YouTube said it was sitting outside the shed and implied it probably did have systems but would be incredibly uncompetitive and the systems are likely incompatible. Composites can be pretty repairable and it sort of looks like it might be a panel that blew out so they may well get it done. I think a big issue will be potentially salt water damage to.the electronic systems.
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Jan 20, 2021 21:07
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Baneling Butts posted:The schedule's been altered so it's just one race between Ineos and Luna Rossa on both Saturday and Sunday. I'd expect so for commercial reasons and I imagine both teams want the practice and on water development time.
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Jan 21, 2021 09:17
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Italian but the automatic translation says Luna Rossa have made some big changes for this weekend. Makes sense, worst that happens is they end up in the semi finals which is what it was looking like anyway so it's the perfect time to take some risks with their setup https://twitter.com/SmilexTech/status/1352548574303817730?s=19
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Jan 22, 2021 16:07
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Really fantastic racing today, would highly recommend watching the full thing Vs the highlights. Bodes well for the final.
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Jan 23, 2021 11:40
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Humbug posted:Agreed. That was great racing. Really close all the way. For how how crazy the boats are, races still seem to be decided by the crews on board. There doesn't seem to be a Mercedes in F1 style design domination here. We haven't seen ETNZ's final form yet!
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Jan 23, 2021 12:29
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https://twitter.com/americascup/status/1354296966554013697?s=19 Patriot lives!
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Jan 27, 2021 19:58
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Humbug posted:Wow. Top speeds of 53 knots in the first race with the chase speedboats struggling to keep up. Keeping the boats under control seems a struggle. I agree, Patriot has huge control issues. It's so much more twitchy through the manouvers than the other boats and Dean Barker always looks likes he's working much harder on the wheel. Luna Rossa in contrast was just super smooth for the majority of the races. They're also yet to even vaguely compete in a start so far which puts them at a huge disadvantage every race
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Jan 29, 2021 15:26
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Rough exit for patriot with a failure of their canting system. Jimmy Spithill is now 11-0 against Dean Barker since being 8-1 down. Barker seemed to have no confidence in the start Vs Spithill and Bruni who just bullied them every time. The final Vs Ineos should be really good.
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Jan 30, 2021 10:19
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Humbug posted:That was rough. Looking forward to the final. Good point. There's been a ton of development from the teams who've been racing and and whilst I'm sure they've been doing tons of race simulations they'll be the most inexperienced team come the final.
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Jan 30, 2021 14:30
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First day of the Prada Cup final, first race was a wash but second close. Lunna Rossa seem to have a significant upwind advantage
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Feb 13, 2021 10:23
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Yeah 2 bad starts cost Ineos but tbh I'm not sure it would make a difference, Luna Rossa looked like they were intrinsically faster everywhere. Hopefully Ineos can come back and make the series interesting. Lockdown gives them some extra development time.
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Feb 14, 2021 19:30
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It wouldn't be an America's cup without a legal battle. Prada sued to ensure that the final wasn't allowed to continue past Feb 24th, they wanted to be crowned winner of no races were able to take place during lockdown. Organisers wanted to postpone so there could be crowds for the races but their hand has been forced so racing resumes Saturday
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Feb 18, 2021 20:37
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We had racing today! And it wasn't a whitewash! Pretty interesting clash at the start of the first race but Luna Rossa just sailed away after the double penalty for Ineos but they got revenge in the second. Lunna Rossa only need 2 more wins, Ineos need 6.
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Feb 20, 2021 10:18
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Well done Luna Rossa, faster boat that they sailed incredibly well. All behind them now to try and get the cup back to Europe at least.
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Feb 21, 2021 08:56
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Humbug posted:Pretty good interview with Ben Ainsley and Grant Simmer (CEO of Ineos sail team). Insights on the boat, their own performance and the difficulties before sailing started, and the Americas Cup finals. That was super interesting, thanks for linking. The interviews with nathan outeridge and ken read he's done are also great. Would also recommend mozzy sails for some interesting technical analysis, he had 300 subs at the the start of the prada cup but he's put out some really interesting videos on the design choices the teams have made https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK0h2Yj6jcyeXGeITonYnOA
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Mar 1, 2021 13:17
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First time getting to watch the racing, so far they've all been won off the start. Glad it's so close but hopefully they got onto some shiftier courses with restrictions easing. One thing though is the ETNZ boat sounds absolutely awful.
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Mar 13, 2021 08:45
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Gutted for Lunna Rosa, they should have won both races today. Bossed the start but gave up too much in some of their manouvers in the first race, second race they got the worst of the conditions. Can't see them overhauling the deficit given how close the boats are.
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Mar 15, 2021 07:41
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What an amazing race today. Luna Rossa outsailed a much faster boat then threw it away on the last upwind leg.
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Mar 16, 2021 08:49
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GGNZ
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Mar 17, 2021 06:44
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Hadlock posted:Latest rumor is that Emerates Airlines isn't going to be funding things next round, and unless NZ government steps in, it's headed to portsmouth uk Ineos are apparently the challenger of record with a possible 2022 deed of gift match in Portsmouth. Will be interesting to see how many other challenges come in for the next full cycle.
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Mar 18, 2021 08:17
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