I guess that is it. But aren't they tough and didn't they take some good sized seas? Why are these boats so fragile?

Doug

"ocean course" is the phrase the deed uses.

"Why are these boats so fragile?"

Good question. Cory Friedman has a good theory on why the Alinghi cat is underbuilt for Valencia in Feb. I think the jury is out on how strong BMWO is, but they seem pretty confident, and just by looking at it, I would expect it to hold together better than Alinghi.

Mike

Some new pics taken today, Larry's boat is huge btw. (compensating for something?).
Alinghi going back to straight boards for tomorrow, there seems to be a clear threshold between using curved and straight boards in different conditions.
http://picasaweb.google.com/TonyMels/ACValencia11210#

weather tomorrow looks weird. You've got 20 to 22 offshore with little to nothing on shore. By 1pm it dies around the race course and gets very fluky.

the start is delayed 2 hours tomorrow to 12 noon local - 6am est.

grrrrrr.

They must really trust their forecasting ability. If your forecast was right ,there goes tomorrow. No surprise.

We have the world's best sailors out there, but they can't race in 17 and 1.2 meter waves? It was an absolutely beautiful day yesterday. As mentioned before in this thread, we had the **** Hour with the designers and engineers of the USA 17 wing that answered a lot of questions about USA 17 handling the conditions. If there are any questions about why these boats aren't out there, one should ask EB or the PRO. Waterbug, I think they answered your questions yesterday.

I put up a new story today about what we are up to and what I think of what's going on which has new info about tomorrow.
America's Cup Gone Less Than Wild

they need to forget this every-other day stuff! If a race isn't started, they need to try again the very next day. If they do finish a race, THEN give a lay day.

I'm thinking that the teams are kind of enjoying the break. They've all been working ridiculous hours for a couple of years now.

Well, Valencia's mayor did want to postpone the start to 2/12, this is sort of working out that way...

Mike

yeah...except that everyone is starting to leave town.

It would not have been possible to sail two races anyway because Monday was impossible sailing weather.
Very few people where out 20nm yesterday so IMHO it was impossible to tell what the weather was like out there if you only where out 1nm like most people.
Fact is that sailing in Europe in winter sucks, today I got practically sand-blasted with a 30kt freezing wind and tomorrow is not looking to steady either.
Sailingwise the event would probably have been much better of in RAK.

JC: Do you know how to go see BMWO? I heard there is a bus going in the morning? Do you have any more info?

"Sailingwise the event would probably have been much better of in RAK."

I disagree. It would be better if both boats were built to race on the ocean in moderate to heavy breeze and seas. As others have mentioned, there are multihulls that race around the world, so it can be done.

Too bad the "sail to the regatta on her own bottom" phrase isn't used anymore. Oh wait, the Cup would never have gotten to this point...

Mike

One reason these boats are more fragile is because they were built to the lightest possible weight as light air was a distinct possibility for a race. Secondly it hard to compare the dependability of an ORMA Tri to a try with a 7000 square foot main sail (wing). I am not good at conversions but my understanding is that the wing around a couple of hundred feet long? Whats an ORMA tri? 125? 100??

Sorry Jake I missed that. As has been said I guess the PRO thought conditions weren't suitable. It could also be the privilege of being defender and being able to appoint the PRO......

They did take their own sweet time to modify the NOR but it was modified.

Hard to say. Most of those guys seem to approve of Harold Bennett. However, if the conditions are just slightly less tomorrow than on Wed you can expect them to start complaining quite publicly.

Is it back to a 4am start local time (EST)?

I think they've all ready postponed 2 hours 6 am . See top of this page.

And, according to JC the word is the black boat is going out tomorrow regardless.