But it seems to me that in the past years and computer and material science have advanced it has become more about the engineering than the seamanship.
I think it started when the US put a catamaran in the race which technically followed the rules. It positively wrecked everyone else.
After that it has all become about the ship engineering. The crews are still top notch (of course) but they are winning with boat design and not better seamen.
I may well be wrong. Certainly we see these AC75 boats are very difficult to handle. The ship that goes off its foils even just a little loses to the team that doesn’t. So maybe I have to take all of that back. It is in the crews.
Tl;Dr I don’t know anything about this. But I think it is fun to watch and speculate.
These boats are all or nothing. First team to make one mistake and the other boat gets a several hundred meter lead. And that’s it. The lead team does not need to sail as aggressively so unlikely to make a mistake and the trailing team, working harder, closes the gap but at these speeds they come nowhere close to being a threat again. A few minutes later and done.
I’m afraid this may sum it up. Would be great to see some close combat and down-to-the-wire finishes, but I’m not betting we will.
When it’s over, I’d pay a lot for an hour’s ride aboard any of those things. But based on what little I know of the cost of fielding one, I’d guess they’d have to charge multiple thousands of dollars to break even.
So the Prada Cup has started. This is the regatta to determine which of the three challenger boats will go up against New Zealand for the America’s Cup. It starts with 4 round robins that determine seeding in a set of match races to determine the challenger. The UK boat that was struggling in the pre-Christmas regatta has jumped out to a perfect 4-0 record after the first two round robins, while Italy took the first race of the US and in the final race of the second round robin the US was looking like taking their first win with a decent lead over Italy at the end of the 5th of 6 legs of racing. Then this happened (hopefully the timestamp works, otherwise jump to 2:47:00)
Glad no one was hurt. I would not want to be that captain. I get these boats are very hard to sail and they race at the very edge of capabilities but still…that’s probably $10 million gone (it looked like I saw a buckle in the hull as it went over…I’d be surprised if that could be repaired but I am certainly no expert).
According to the graphic, they were doing 45 knots when they lifted and nearly became properly airborne! I know they’re doing up to 50 knots in these things, but jeez it looks amazing in rough water.
Here’s a video showing some of the aftermath. There’s a giant hole (looks over a metre square) in the hull on the port side just ahead of the foil. The US team is going to have a hell of a time getting a boat ready for next weekend. I understand they have a second hull (actually their first AC75 hull, they’ve been racing the second) but a lot of its parts were transferred to the race hull. No idea whether patching the hole & repairing whatever interior damage is more feasible than getting the other hull race ready. After going 0-4 in the first half of the round robins and now having no boat things are looking pretty bleak for the Americans.
Lots has happened. The American boat forfeited its remaining round robin races but was miraculously repaired in time for the Prada Cup semifinal (winner of the Prada Cup goes on to the America’s Cup to face defending champ NZ.) But though Magic was magicly seaworthy in time, she wasn’t the ship she’d been and got swept by the Italians. Then the UK boat completed it’s Jekyll/Hyde routine. It had lost every race in the exhibition regatta before Christmas, then won every race in the Prada Cup round robin. In the best of 13 final against the Italians, however, Team UK managed only a single win.
Now the America’s Cup proper is underway. And where in the previous matches there was a lot of lopsided sailing, we appear to have a superb matchup. Italy and NZ are locked up at 3-3 after 6 races in a best of 13 format. The boats appear to be very similar in speed, and lots of the races have come down to pre-start maneuvers putting one boat at a slight disadvantage.
