America’s Cup 2021

Omega Man said:

When I was out on that 12-meter for sea trials, my friend went up the mast and “pinned” it. Kinda a commitment.
OM

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I look back on my first trip on a bosun chair at age 12... since I was lightest on crew to free halyard that jumped the pulley ... maybe my interest in being a lineman hanging off masts and poles that came later

mlytle said:

that was a great race!!

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Watched again with H... she was loving the tacking and the fast turns. Said she would have flown off the J boat deck on that pivot turn force jibing

Patriot 2.0 is back!
Racing this weekend. The thanks decals look like giant band-aids

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKiUbv9A1Sm/?igshid=4tcs24y5mx17

I saw the flip, but what made the hole?

junkjohn said:

I saw the flip, but what made the hole?

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They said internal trusses moved in direction not really designed for and punched through hull.

So way more than just patching a hole. Thanks

henzilla said:

Patriot 2.0 is back!
Racing this weekend. The thanks decals look like giant band-aids

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKiUbv9A1Sm/?igshid=4tcs24y5mx17

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awesome. those decals say it all!

Patriot is back in the water with all sorts of modifications.

To me one of the more interesting things about the video is watching Prada get towed. Having seen it, it makes perfect sense that they tow on the foils.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42ByUwy37T0

My Americas Cup experience is limited, in '74 while at Navy OCS in Newport RI there was an Americas Cup going on. Our curfew was at 2200 but the parties really didn't get going until after that. It was tough duty having a ground floor room with an easy to remove window screen in King Hall. There might have been a few after hours sorties to town.

Later In the mid- 80's I had to deal with the congestion going in and out of San Diego while the practice, trials and the Race Series was going on. The actual race boats and their tenders were easy to deal with, but the jack asses in the multitude of pleasure craft must have obtained their qualifications on the back of a cereal box. Hazards to navigation would be a light description. On more than one occasion an obviously intoxicated skipper would turn directly across our path with no communication, signal or warning. "Main Control - Bridge, All Back Emergency, give me all you've got so we don't hit this fool!"

If you would like an in depth look and excellent description of what took place for Patriots capsize watch the following.

Ken is doing a fantastic job with the commentary.

That was a great breakdown I tried to link to the other day
Thanks

And to seeing you pop in

Tonight's race is going to be huge.

Keep an eye out to see if Terry Hutchinson is still onboard.

This is the second time the "skipper" wasn't the helmsman. Last time? Grant Dalton was the skipper of team NZ when they lost to Oracle.

If you watch the races he spends most of this time on the handles (grinding) and he's no young buck (52). Apparently the rest of the brain trust wants him off. Ironically the Team NZ guys wanted Dalton off too. Considering Dean Barker (helmsman) is common to both programs this will be fascinating to watch.

They fixed the boat and made a whole bunch of changes at the same time. It's make or break for team USA.

Had the same thoughts about Hutchison before the capsize. I had a head scratcher moment seeing him grinding.
They had a fast boat and didn’t take advantage... as small as that may be.

Jonesing for races... go get back into this US!

USA today.

Wrong set up and two crappy starts but even if they won the starts they didn't have the pace.

0-2 in a best of four. Not looking good for the NYYC.

DO they always only have 2 boats move to the America's Cup race itself? When they were in San Francisco, I'd swear I saw multiple boats racing. Is the format the same?

rob nye said:

USA today.

Wrong set up and two crappy starts but even if they won the starts they didn't have the pace.

0-2 in a best of four. Not looking good for the NYYC.

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Not a best of four. It is a FIRST to four (best of seven).

jstrube said:

DO they always only have 2 boats move to the America's Cup race itself? When they were in San Francisco, I'd swear I saw multiple boats racing. Is the format the same?

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John,


The America' Cup is a match race between a challenger and a defender. The 2013 America's Cup in SF was raced between Emerites Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA. The challenger series back then was called the Louis Vitton Cup. All these races were match races sailed in the AC72 foiling catamarans. There were four teams competing.

Prior to these races (the year before), they held a preliminary series called the America's Cup World Series. It was sailed in AC45 foiling cats. IIRC, these were a combination of match races and fleet races. This is probably what you were remembering. These races had about 12 countries involved. They used the greatly less expensive 45 footers as a way of getting more countries involved and to get teams experience in foiling cats. Eventually only four teams decided to put together a full AC72 challenge.

Since then, there has been an international foiling cat series held in the Bay called SailGP. I belive they used 40 footers so they could be shipped to the next venue in standard shipping containers. These were a combination of fleet races and match races.

jstrube said:

DO they always only have 2 boats move to the America's Cup race itself? When they were in San Francisco, I'd swear I saw multiple boats racing. Is the format the same?

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Generally speaking the America's Cup is a small regatta with not many teams participating. It's always been incredibly expensive and the last 20 years have seen the introduction of corporate sponsors.

The actual Cup itself has always been a match race, i.e. only two boats.

In retrospect the 12 Meters were the best class. Best competition and the 12 Meter yachts ar still being raced today. When compared to the recent versions the best value too.


In 1983 there were three boats competing to be the defender of the cup; I sailed with Tom Blackaller on Defender over the summer, filling in for tuning and testing days. Those that know me wouldn't be surprised to know I was very good at making boats go faster but not the sharpest kinfe the drawer when it came to tactics, those I wouldn't get till a bit later. One of my coaches used to quip I went twice as fast but sailed three times farther.


On the challenger side there were 7 boats, so Newport was home base to 9 syndicates with 10 12's. To say it was an incredible, once in a lifetime summer would be an understatement.

Ironically it was the NYYC's hubris that lost the Cup. What most never knew is that the first official measurement of the 12's was open to a representative of every syndicate to attend. When Australia II was measured nobody from the NYYC attended. So Dennis representing the NYYC loses the America's Cup and the blue bloods are all kinds of cranky at the guy from San Diego so in 87 the NYYC puts their wallets behind John Kolious. Dennis lines up HP and a few other sponsors so he can represent his home club, the San Diego YC.

Because of the bad blood between NYYC and DC they never told him that part of the "tradition" of the cup was to have a pocket challenge ready to go before the start of the last race. This was to comply with the deed of gift as the deed left much of the what the boats would be up to the challenger. By having a pocket challenge they all knew it would be in 12's next time around. In 87 the San Diego YC didn't have a challenger ready to announce so Sir Michael Fay came along with his big wide monohull and DC showed up in a Cat. This would start a whole series of courtroom challenges to the deed of gift.

Welp, a rather inglorious end for American Magic.

The big crash not withstanding they were never on the pace. While their recovery just to sail again was very impressive in sailing like any competitive sport you can't win if you don't finish.

When I was a kid the USA dominated international sailing. From the America's Cup to the Olympics, offshore, inshore, small boats and big we were a dominant force right up through the 84 and even 88 Olympic games.

I wonder if it's coincidence that our dominance in international sailing ended with the loss in 83.

Kinda hard to watch that last race, knowing it wasn’t going to Magically happen. At least they got her across the line. System glitches to say the least. For whatever reasons just didn’t get back any mojo after damage.

Still great to see these boats on the water pushing design limits still learning what they can do. The camera boat couldn’t keep up in race 1... that was wild to think about.