America’s Cup - ETNZ launches 1st AC75 (new)

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

I'm curious as to why the Kiwi's would want to change horses at this point of the game, even though they have that option.
They have a fast steed now, and one that they know and understand.

Huh, did I miss something?

In any case if this was to happen there is already precedent for it from the 1995 Cup event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZL_32

Boat 2, NZL 38 was fast enough, and was used in the initial stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup in San Diego winning all but one race.

However Boat 1, NZl 32 was thought to be even faster, and was brought back out for the final stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup. She won 9 of 11 races in the semi-finals and 5 out of 6 in the finals.

By the time of the Cup finals it was clear NZL 32 was far superior to any of her rivals, including the winner of the defender series Stars & Stripes (USA-34).

With that knowledge, Stars & Stripes skipper Dennis Conner swapped boats for the Cup matches, taking the helm of Young America. While Young America didn't win the Defender's Series, she was widely believed to be faster than Stars & Stripes.

Young America was however no match for NZL 32. In what became known as a "blackwash", Black Magic trounced Young America 5–0 in the Cup match, and thus remains unbeaten in an America's Cup race.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Huh, did I miss something?

In any case if this was to happen there is already precedent for it from the 1995 Cup event.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NZL_32

Boat 2, NZL 38 was fast enough, and was used in the initial stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup in San Diego winning all but one race.

However Boat 1, NZl 32 was thought to be even faster, and was brought back out for the final stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup. She won 9 of 11 races in the semi-finals and 5 out of 6 in the finals.

By the time of the Cup finals it was clear NZL 32 was far superior to any of her rivals, including the winner of the defender series Stars & Stripes (USA-34).

With that knowledge, Stars & Stripes skipper Dennis Conner swapped boats for the Cup matches, taking the helm of Young America. While Young America didn't win the Defender's Series, she was widely believed to be faster than Stars & Stripes.

Young America was however no match for NZL 32. In what became known as a "blackwash", Black Magic trounced Young America 5–0 in the Cup match, and thus remains unbeaten in an America's Cup race.

I am sure NZ will be testing changes up until the day of declaration but I think changing boats is not under consideration.

I agree that NZL 32 was a fantastic boat. I sat in on a simmering debate between Doug Peterson and Laurie Davidson on which of the two actually designed the boat. Of course it was collaboration but being the owner of a Doug Peterson boat myself I was on his side of that. I'd long maintained, in jest of course, that Doug took a lot from the Serendipity 43 design (my boat) when he drew NZL 32. When I told him of that joke, to my surprise, he agreed that he did.

I actually don't see any similarity

[CassidyNZ]

Whilst I’m certainly not a top-level strategist, I often wonder about the incremental rolling-out of features that improve boat speed. I got the impression, as did many observers, that ETNZ already had a quiver full of improvement arrows at the start of the Bermuda campaign that they injected into the boat each day they raced.

In my ham-fisted way, I would roll out the absolutely fastest iteration of the boat in the first race, roast the competitor, totally destroy any level of confidence they may have and then go on from there.

Yes I hear all the cries of “it’s on-going development” but that can continue even with no secrets being withheld in the initial confrontation. Why not just bring out the best you have right up front and simply smoke the opposition into submission? What’s the advantage of having “tricks up your sleeve”?

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

Whilst I’m certainly not a top-level strategist, I often wonder about the incremental rolling-out of features that improve boat speed. I got the impression, as did many observers, that ETNZ already had a quiver full of improvement arrows at the start of the Bermuda campaign that they injected into the boat each day they raced.

In my ham-fisted way, I would roll out the absolutely fastest iteration of the boat in the first race, roast the competitor, totally destroy any level of confidence they may have and then go on from there.

Yes I hear all the cries of “it’s on-going development” but that can continue even with no secrets being withheld in the initial confrontation. Why not just bring out the best you have right up front and simply smoke the opposition into submission? What’s the advantage of having “tricks up your sleeve”?

I don't think that NZ is keeping any iteration back for use later. I think that many of the mods they might be considering have unknown value at this point. And when something works or is shown to work in testing, then it may give them an idea for further development. Or evaluation back at the dock might give them an idea for how to better utilize it.

The code zero is an example. They saw that two of the challengers couldn't get foiling in the light stuff. Next day Team NZ is out trying out techniques to make use of the code zero practical (tacking is one problem, dealing the extra sail area when the apparent wind speed increases is a second problem, changing to a smaller sail during a race is a third problem, and keeping it on deck after a change is a fourth problem. If they later appear with a code zero on a race day it doesn't mean they were holding anything back.
I will concede however that they might not put on the afterburner in the practice races without good reason, to not tip of the competition about what they can do when needed.

[MicHughV]

I have no doubt the Kiwi's are eyeballing the Prada Cup series with a keen eye...looking for any weakness...any strengths......they would have to contend with......

Next few Prada Cup races are going to be telling !!

[fxykty]

Well, only two races left, not counting the two ghost races necessary to award points when AM does not start. But it might even be just one race. What a sad spectacle - the round robins have been completely hollowed out. Sigh.

LR must win both races and if they do then they advance to the final as they will have tied on points with IUK and had won most recently. I expect LR to fight like junkyard dogs for the wins.

If IUK win just one race then they go on to the final and LR will face AM in the semifinals. If LR win both races then IUK will face AM in the semifinals.

If IUK win the first race, there does not need to be a second race, which can be abandoned if both IUK and LR agree.

AM and TNZ watch from the sidelines.

First Covid, and now AM breaking their boat, have really decreased the amount of racing that these teams will have seen prior to elimination rounds. Sponsors have definitely not got nearly the attention that they had planned.

We have at least 12 and at most 22 races before the AC.

The AC will be at least 7 or at most 13 races.

[jmh2002]

At least it looks like there will be wind this weekend for the AC racing, perhaps even more towards the top end of the wind range on Sunday, let's see.

Predict Wind says the following, and GFS and MeteoBlue mostly agree:

Saturday: SW 10–12 knots. Gusts up to 20 knots.

Sunday: W 10–14 knots. Gusts up to 21 knots.

ECMWF and ICON suggest a little more wind on Sunday, more like W 16-17kn, gusting 23-25kn.

In any case that should mean good sailing from any of those forecasts

[Boatguy30]

Somehow misread the new schedule and expected racing tomorrow and Saturday. Sure there’s something else to do in Auckland for the day. Simulator is booked thru Monday!

[cj88]

Things are progressing well for American Magic. It's great to see the support to get them back in the game.

"We know we're racing this time next week ... the timeline is what it is and sitting here today we're in a reasonably good spot to get the boat out on the water a week from yesterday."

American Magic haven't been able to do it alone, however, with Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton offering his team's resources to help their opponents get back on the water.

"The defenders helped us out with their boat building facility, really we've handed off part of the project to them to take on and that's allowed our boat builders and shore team to focus on getting the inside of Patriot back to where she needs to be," Hutchinson said.

"It's been truly impressive to watch our team and the support we've gotten from Team NZ and you just know it wouldn't have happened without it. Our goal is to get this thing back out on the water and make what happened last week a distant memory and get back into racing."

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ame...OQGAHVKYP47WM/

[Pelagic]

I think its in New Zealand interest to help as much as possible.

Not only the NZ syndicate but also the country realize that without at least 3 Challengers, the media marketing and Sponsor's return is greatly diminished and will be a tough sell in the future.

Ghost races do not sell product

[Boatguy30]

Not sure what pics are public but the piece cut out is somewhat jigsaw shaped and about 5m by 2m from the port side. Also a new rudder being built or original completely repaired.

Was in the shed this morning on a tour, but not allowed to take photos. So I’d say they are on track unless the offsite molded hull piece somehow is a mismatch

[Pelagic]

Great race today between UK and Italy.

A couple of small mistakes by Prada in a slightly better boat was all it took to loose....

[CassidyNZ]

It was Max Serena who, when asked in an interview what makes a winning boat said “It’s the boat that makes one less mistake than the other”. Seems like Luna Rossa for now is not that boat.

[jmh2002]

A couple of nice short videos here from the onboard cameras with onboard audio too. First the Pre-Start, and second the Last Cross going downwind.

That's definitely yacht racing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnbgR-UieV0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAIg4-mLmDQ

[fxykty]

Patriot launching this morning and apparently they’ve made improvements to their control electronics. Going to be very interesting to see how they shape up against LR on Friday.