The new America's Cup AC45 wingsail powered cat sets sail for the first time, checkout some cool pictures of their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/americascup
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=55585&id=119505771409198

Holy smokes - flying a hull on the first test flight out of the barn. Cajones!

You know that "cajones" means "drawers", right?

Well I wouldn't try that without pants.

Great looking boat, would be better if all 5 of the crew were on the wire

Bloody long tiller extension if they were all out :-)

yea haw! looks awesome.

Video is up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUy0ikkwt-k&feature=player_embedded

Thanks for posting. It is going to be outrageous. Not a drag race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0qXv1-ImGw&NR=1

Raw footage without the music. You just get the sound of bow spray and crew chatter...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn_L6qGdUHo&NR=1

Longer TV spot with interviews.

That thing is seriously fast downwind, check the video on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150095433132410&oid=166891610014560&comments

Wow! What's your best guess of their actual speed?

Can you imagine being on the cat that was passed toward the end. Talk about an awsome experience that must have been. I think the only thing cooler would be crewing on the AC45.

They said it hit 29.9 knots on the 30 knot day. Color me unimpressed at the moment since man people have hit 25-27 on our beach cats.

I'm not trying to pick a fight so please don't let this get out of hand. Just looking for a low key, straight forward discussion of the two types.

Hitting a high speed and holding it over any distance are two very different things.

Are you saying that a modern beach cat is as fast as the AC 45? If not, what comparison are you making?

Yeah but look how much wind there is in that video, i'm guessing around 18-22? IMO the true wind/boatspeed ratio is what counts.
Not sure how fast it is in the video but certainly in the upper twenties (1 hull length/sec=+/-27kts).

Tony: the 29.9 was clocked on a day where it was blowing 25 gusting to 30+ apparently.

Undoubtedly the low end of the wind rating this thing goes like a raped ape. I guess I'm just wondering what the top end of its performance is.

Wow you are hard to impress! Watching it blowby that beachcat and tri like they were parked on the beach was pretty amazing to me...

Not in 25 to 30k we haven't. I've hit mid 20's downwind in high teens with puffs on the N20...but this thing's ability is not just in speed but efficiency - the polars (height and depth) are out of this world both upwind and downwind.