What a shame about the Americas Cup

[GMac]

The last best AC was in Fremantle, it had something the rest since didn't have, wind and plenty of it. It's all way to sanitised now. If it wasn't for all the off-the-water action it would make a great for fixing insomnia.

[Sandero]

Like all professional sports, this is less about sportsmanship and more about money.

I find the resources devoted to all professional sports obscene. I don't follow them because they are for testosterone driven men with the mentality of children... with a few sportsman trying to do the right thing thrown in.

Don't support or watch.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by minisailor

Cat's tack ever so slow.

Oh no - here we go again, we the optically challenged being lead by the visually impaired, honestly does anyone actually belive the anti multi mythology still?

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Factor

Oh no - here we go again, we the optically challenged being lead by the visually impaired, honestly does anyone actually belive the anti multi mythology still?

Many do.

Shhhhhh!

Don't spread it around. Dockage is already hard to find and expensive.

Shhhhhh!

[Factor]

I have been infracted for my comment above - so I will try and say what I meant in an acceptable fashion.


Minisailor said

Cat's tack ever so slow. The windward leg will be a one tack event, start, sail out to the starboard layline and tack for the mark. The America's cup action has always been the start with the dial up and fight for the favored end of the line. Due to the cats slow tacking ability this would come to a screeching halt

Minisailor - I cannot agree, I do not know of the high performance grand prix multihulls that tack slowly, can you direct me toward those HIGH PERFORMANCE GRAND PRIX multihulls that tack slowly, I seem to recall the last time that the AC was won by a cat (yes it has previously happened) that Stars and Stripes tacked fairly effortlessly, but I may have ben on drugs at the time, I was much younger.

Anyway friend minisalor I suggest your assertion is without foundation, do you wish to debate your point of view with me whilst providing some emperical evidence to support your assertion?

Heres the history on these the cat in the cup.

Valencia - 13.01.2006
1988 - STARS & STRIPES US-1 CATAMARAN

The long silence of the San Diego Yacht Club following Dennis Conner's victory with the 12-metre Stars & Stripes on February 4th, 1987 in Fremantle is often cited as the reason behind the 1988 America’s Cup. Taking literally the words of the Deed of Gift, the New Zealand banker Michael Fay, impatient with American foot-dragging, sent a challenge contrary to all expectations on July 15th, 1987.

His challenger would be a 90-foot monohull, pushing aside the 12-metre class that had been used in each Cup since 1958. Taken aback, the Americans rejected the challenge but Fay asked to the Supreme Court of the State of New York County to intervene. On November 25th, Justice Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick confirmed the validity of the challenge.

With just 10 months to prepare, the Defender decided upon a radical option. John Marshall, the chief of the Sail America Foundation design team, announced on January 22nd, 1988 that the defender would be a catamaran. The Americans had only eight months left to conceive, build and test a defender capable of repelling the assault of Fay's ‘Big Boat’.

The American decision was simple on one level, yet at the same time was complex. It was obvious that the multihull choice was likely to be interpreted as a provocation and would generate a new legal conflict. But from a sailing point of view it was simple – the Americans didn’t have the time to catch up in conceiving and constructing a big monohull. Instead, it was easier to opt for a catamaran, which was sure to be faster, more elusive, and with a LOA limited to 60 feet (18.29 metres) it would be able to be built quickly.

On April 15th, 1988 (the immense monohull New Zealand had been sailing in the waters off Auckland since March 27th) John Marshall confirmed that two catamarans were in the process of being built. The first one would be fitted with a soft rig, the second with a hard rig. Conceived in record time, Stars and Stripes, the Defender catamaran was a successful marriage merging cutting-edge naval architecture with aeronautics. For this, Marshall co-ordinated a team comprising exceptional people like Gino Morrelli, who since his youth was fascinated by multihulls. He very quickly became one of the best American specialists and accepted without hesitation the challenge of the America’s Cup. With Bruce Nelson, Britton Chance and Bernard Nivelt, he drew up the catamaran. As expected, two 60-foot boats were built, one of them soft-rigged, following Morrelli’s design. The other one was hard-rigged with a winged-mast, a specialty of Dave Hubbard and Duncan MacLane (who had previously worked out this mode of propulsion on 25 feet-catamarans (7.72 metre) belonging to the C-Class, as the famous Patient Lady.

The 1988 Challenge eventually was sailed on September 7th and 9th off San Diego. It would be useless to hold forth on the ‘mismatch’ on the water. The Stripes & Stripes crew won easily. One matter was certain, this dramatic turn of events put an end to the 12-metre era and opened the way for the present International America’s Cup Class boats.

.