Ever since the schooner America turned this thing into the Americas Cup it's been about showing up with something your design team thought of that the other guy's didn't. The only time people get weepy about it and starting talking about a "match" is when they find out they missed the mark. Yacht America was sufficiently different in its day. We've had long overhangs, winged keels, twisting rigs, odd shaped underhull appendages that aren't really part of the hull, etc, etc, etc. If people really wanted a pure match race to determine the best sailors it would gone pure OD along time ago. But it's not what is truly the essence of the Cup.

There have been lopsided, no tactics, horizon fest, speed decided races in the monos. For the mono crowd to blame this solely on the multis is living in denial.

I think A5 lost their one opportunity in race 2 by letting BMWO go at the crossing. I also wonder if they misjudged where the layline was. Initially it didn't look like BMWO was on the line, but it looked a shift and there they were - they just seemed to read the conditions better. But if A5 had adjusted a little they maybe could have forced a situation to their benefit. Armchair sailing on my part for sure...

Comments made by the designer from A5 during the A5 post race 1 conference made me start to think that they thought they had it all figured out based on their Lake Geneva experience. I think they failed to do their design homework. The boat is beautiful, but some things were just off enough. After seeing different elements of the undercarriage bits striking waves I think I know where the call for restrictions on wave states came from. Where did they think they would be sailing?

No pity for them being a small landlocked nation, they played that getting into the AC in the first place, and it worked through two ACs.

I was impressed with the sportsmanship of BMWO. I was initially impressed with the A5 sportsmanship, a few points off in the end for blaming biased court decisions.

For the most part I enjoyed the SA coverage, but I also liked the coverage on ESPN360 with Jobson and Smyth. I've not been the biggest fan of Jobson for his take on multihulls, but this was a good combo. In the end he said he needed to get to West River to try an A-Cat! We shall invite him and await his visit... The SA commentary was great, but degenerated around the last mark rounding (recordings of how EB had no "secret weapon"), but hey, that's SA.

I'm not sure I can get too excited about an AC that turns back the techno clock (I want one of Spithill's backpacks with head up display sunglasses!), but hey, it will be sailing, so I'll probably watch anyway, and grumble about how the monos have destroyed the cup...

I hope that BMWO gets donated to the new Sailing Hall of Fame in Annapolis and they give folks rides for a fee. I'll spend many weekends getting back in line.

In the end, cheers to both teams for bringing what they had and laying it on the line. Cheers to the folks that presented it us on the interweb - it was disappointing that it wasn't on TV, but honestly, in the end, the coverage was far better this way than it could have been on TV. The only thing missing was onboard cameras (why ban that EB?).

Is this a growing Dutchie trend?

I'll be nice, so check your PM. Goodbye

Just a small observation about putting wingsails on small cats. Seems like it would take up a lot more room on shore, because the wings would have to be laid down, wouldn't they?

Jake,

Potential problem points that I remember of my head are :

BMWO could use a single slotted wingsail because they can fly a reacher on the downwind legs. Classes not allowing that typically use the more complex 2 slotted wingsails.

Upwind the advantage of the wing compared to the soft rig is not that much according to Bob last time.

Main benefit was the drive off the wind (as BMWO also appears to confirm) but the advantage was to some extent lost in fleet racing. I can't remember exactly why, have to look over the comments by Bob on this forum.

On the A's the wing just weights more and incurs drawbacks that way. These boats are already very lightweight and the heavier wing may lead to additional pitching.

I also seem to remember Bob commenting something like the wing is more sensitive to disturbed air.

Main point that stuck in my mind was that fleet racing negated much of the advantages of the wing. I immediately recognized that these issues are not encountered in C-class racing or the current AC.

Again, all this from the top of my head.

Wouter

So now you think it is in our genes ?

Yes we Europeans are all degenerates. Or socialists, whatever you Yanks think is worse.

Can I get some love as well ?


Wouter

What I want to know is how a German funded New Zealand run Australian skipperd Yacht won the cup for the Americans!!??

What I want to know is how much $ BMW put in? I'm guessing very little and they were kept on board for their expertise and possibly as a show of good faith for future events.

now the boats will go back to being boring

Those 13 mile reaches were friggin' boring on a 90' multihull, hope they don't try them with 10KSBs!

Look at this opportunity differently and you and I could be on every ride. They will need someone with multihull experience take others out for those rides I wouldn't mind being the one to be the first to pitch-pole that thingy...with helmet, shoulder pads, video camera, and parachute. Well maybe not.

During the 32nd AC, BMW had a significant amount more money into the team than Oracle did. I would think this campaign would have been similar or they wouldn't have taken them on as a sponsor again.

what really sucked? My bro went to have his car worked on at a BMW dealer, and THEY DID NOT HAVE THE RACE BEING BROADCAST ON THIER COMPUTER.

THEY DID NOT EVEN KNOW THAT THERE WAS AN AC MATCH. I mean, %&^, they're charging $300 for a spark plug to pay for the DoGzilla, at least they should SHOW the dang race in the waiting lounge....

Who was driving in 2007 when Alinghi won the cup??

These are professional sailors.

I'll give you all of that but the German funded. I'll bet they put in a pitance of what this thing cost. My guess would be well under 10%. Possibly more like 1% of the cost. My guess is that Ellison used his wallet to fund this one.

I think they should have a few more races just for kicks. I'll bet that some of each crew would love to sail the "other" boat... What other sea-miles do these boats expect to see? Use 'em! generate some PR about multis. Take them on the VX40 circut (even as static displays) or ORMA series.

I say that any sailboat capable of going 3x windspeed is worth seeing up close. I'd even pay a little money to see it up close, or a lot more to sail on it!

Bring it to a boat show and watch your attendance double...

The helmsman was Ed Baird (American) the skipper was Butterworth (Kiwi).

I have had the pleasure of sailing with Ed once. Laid back, nice guy. As Randy said during their coverage Ed should have been on board..... I like to think he didn't care for the crap that was going on and is happy he wasn't a public part of it.

Good point. We can sail it around giving the tourons rides! Get 'em to hang off the back of the windward ama just like the BOR crew! Think it'll fit under the bridge? We can be the first multi on a Tuesday in Galesville with a mast taller than Roger's!

I thought James Spithill an Australian was skippering BMW Orical, which is great good luck to them all.
A little sad though, Its a long time since it was just the name of the country on the side of the boat and they all had to be real cidizens of the country

I have been thinking about this and some other odd manuvers in terms of BMWO's laser wind mapping system(Dopler LIDOR). A dopler LIDOR should be able to read windshifts and predict when they will arrive. Alinghi may have tacked on the Layline but BMWO may have tacked on where the layline would be. When BMWO first tacked the birds eye view anaimation showed BMWO below the layline. It was only after Alinghi tacked that the animation showed BMWO on and then later above the layline.

When I first heard about the dopler LIDOR, I thought mapping a square or a circle up to a mile away would be nice not a killer. As watched the race I started thinking instead of just mapping square on the course, I would map a narrow rectangle in front of me to see what is coming at me or an arc to see what it looks like ahead and to the sides in order to see what my alternatives look like. With this information and the right software you could predict whether tacking to cover would pay off. OR you could just use it to predict puffs and lulls and be ready for them. BMWO was always real smooth almost never getting caught by a puff. A huge advantage with a wing on a reach (or downwind?) PLUS a LIDR in this mode would see shifts ahead and when they would reach you.

All of these things depend on the right software and some way to display it so that it is meaningful. I think I would rather have this and a smart navigator to interpret it and ask smart questions than a slightly faster boat.