Forget all the speed calculations, which owner has the biggest d**k? Because (quite crudely) that's all the cup is about. It's gone beyond proving whose the better sailor. Give me same boat match racing any day.
America's Cup has never been about 'same boat' march racing. Name one well known 'one design' match racing event!
It seems Ben Lexcen was not the inventor of the winged keel. The brains trust that came up with it (concept and development) was a Dutch crew headed by Peter van Oossenan according to the same Peter. They kept it quiet because foreign design was against the rules. The boat had to be developed by people of the challenging country.
There's a nice irony. The theme song for the challenge was "I Come From a Land Down under", recently scrutinised and judged to be an illegal misuse of prior art. Men at Work's plagiarism was probably nothing more than a neat little nod to a bit of Australiana. Its just a pity they failed to seek permission from the copyright holder.
That is what happened in 1987 when the kiwis challenged with KA1 (140 foot monohull)
Victor,
Without wanting to appear argumentative, this is not correct. The Americas Cup has never been sailed in "same boat" format. It has been sailed in "same rule" boats where the yachts were designed to fit within a rule (12m at the time). The yachts were not 12m in length, instead 12m was the result found when certain dimensions of teh yeachts were entered into a mathematical formula. You could trade waterline length for sail area, for stability, for weight etc. The yachts looked similar, but they were never the same. The closest 12m yachts came to being identical was "Challenge 12" and "Australia II" which were 99% identical with the exception of the keel.
The 12m worlds still happens every year and 12m yachts are still a very active class of yacht (just not the Americas Cup class anymore), but again they were never one design. There was an agreement not to alter the designs "once they were built", but there is no rule stopping anyone building a revolutionary 12 yacht, but once built it cannot be modified.
JB
It does seem a pity that "JAYBEE" is the only one who knows what he is taking about.
But hey someone has to feed the TROLLS ! Keep up the good work JAYBEE.
Doggie,
The last time 12m yachts were sued is 1987, after that a new class called the IACC was created.
The 12m yacht was considered to be an ugly pot bellied yacht, that were very difficult to sail properly (even the pro's considered them to be dangerous when fully loaded). They were also designed to the nth degree and becoming very typeformed and advantaged countries with huge supercomputer and tank testing capabilities which could find that 0.001% performance increase.
The IACC boats were be unknowns and opened the design aspect of the event again. The difference between a 1992 and a 2007 IACC yacht is massive, demonstrating that a lot of design evolution happened despite advances in computer modelling capabilities.
After the AC in 2007 the intention was to start a new class again of 90 foot yachts, but that was overtaken by the politicking of Alinghi and Oracle. GGYC and CNR may now choose a class with which to compete for 2013 (whether it is a totally new class, or an established class will be decided by Mutual Consent - or else we will have another DOG Cup in 2013).
JB
Hey JB, I suspect the Kookaburra's of 87were the closet to being the same design?
You're not being argumentative - you're being ridiculously pedantic. No boat is ever "identical". The 12 metre rule was obviously a way allowing some reasonable creativity - in the same sense as formula 1 car rules apply...etc etc etc.
Getting back to my main point...this whole thing is really about two guys wanting to show the world they have the biggest d**K. Yeah, I agree, great show and fantastic to watch, but no real contest and a waste of money on a grand scale. Essentially it's got to the point of being who's got the biggest toy (which boils down to money), not who is the best sailor.
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Has anyone managed to catch any coverage on TV? I haven't even heard it mentioned in the news. I was looking forward to a bit of footage of these boats ripping around. I don't get it, there is tons of coverage of the Sydney to Hobart, Skiff racing gets a couple of hours now and then, but the Amrica's Cup doesn't even rate a mention these days?
