I’m hesitant to say (because it seems inexplicable) but is there no thread on the current Americas Cup yacht racing at San Fransisco? Blessed if I can find one.
Which then makes me wonder why? This is a mainly American forum and the Americas Cup is one of those gold-plated sports events which ordinary sailing people can watch and even dream of being involved one day.
Besides, this racing is the stuff of science fiction. Normally if there is a choice between watching yachting or reading the telephone book, the book is going to win but not this time. Boats which literally fly. Boats which sail at 2 1/2 times the speed of the wind.
I loved the America’s cup back in the 80s and 90s when NZ was fighting to get it, then won it. Zero coverage in Australia though so I didn’t even know it was on until some of my NZ friends started talking about it on facebook. Then I saw some footage, and holy crap! those things are awesome!
BTW, the official America’s Cup app for iDevices is pretty cool too.
With New Zealand being a small country with a population of only about 4,000,000 we tend to cherish the few things we can compete at on the world stage. We’ve had success with various forms of sailing for a long time.
Well yes we hold the World Rugby Cup Crown but aw heck, we don’t like to make a fuss. And yes the All Blacks have held the Aus/NZ Bledisloe Cup for eleven years but again we don’t like to say coz our Ozzie friends go all silent and scuff their feet.
Oh and the NZ Sevens rugby team rule the world in that spectator sport.
And ok we won the Americas Cup a few years ago despite Dennis Connor and $USunlimited tried to prevent that but aw heck, coulda happened to anyone.
Leaving all that embarrassing success aside, this current Americas Cup is worth watching by any sports fan. It is fast, uncertain, high tech, and completed inside an hour. My fascination arises because of the ti-maran yachts and the unbelievable things they can do.
The NZ yacht is relieving its bladder on Oracle (as one does) although ungenerous folk insist it was a near capsize.
I completely understand Gatopescado and I’m in your camp albeit with a rudiment of knowledge. Doubtless there is an earnest Youtube explanation merely a click away.
What really cheers me is that in New Zealand there are 8yr old primary school (elementary school) pupils who are following the match racing and calculating angles in the classroom. This is high level physics and these children are grasping it with both hands. They construct models and then using protractors calculate the forces that cause a boat to slip sideways.
Back when I still lived in the Northeast, I would at least hear about America’s Cup but down here in Texas there was not too much buzz.
Until I read this article about the changes for this year, I did not know much about the extensive redesign of America’s Cup 2013. I just knew that it did not resemble what I grew up with.
I used to follow the America’s Cup races but sort of lost interest when America finally lost (a childhood friend on mine was part of the crew of the US ship that year) and they stopped using 12-meter yachts. But I caught a couple of races this year and loved them. The TV coverage is far better (you couldn’t put cameras on the older yachts) and the speeds are amazing.
10 actually and your underselling it - Oracle have come back from 8-1 down to tie it up and take it to the final race. It’s been one of the most remarkable comebacks I’ve ever seen.
I didn’t follow it from the start but I gather that Oracle made a mod to its boat that made it significantly faster. If I was Team NZ I would’ve been worried for a while now as an increase in boat speed makes a big comeback very realistic. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of actual Americans involved in this thing. The only American accents I’ve heard have been the commentators. I presume there are some American crew members but they’re not the ones who get interviewed or have live mics.
Oracle/USA finishes their improbable comeback with a 40+ second win in the final race. Clearly their speed upwind was more than the Kiwis could handle.
