I'm guessing that's a translation problem. At any rate I got the impression he was referring to possible damage during qualifying, that wind on the bay would be quite high at that time and much reduced later in the year when the Cup is actually run. I was glad to read he was calling for divers, air bags and the like.

The AC was not about money and bleeding edge tech when it was being done on 12 Meter yachts. It was also about as fun to watch, as watching paint dry.

Then the Aussies came up with that new keel design and it started evolving into a a high tech development race.

Then they changed the boats to AC boats, to go faster, and then Ernesto changed them again, to open class multihulls. That's when it became about who's got the most money.

30 years ago, in the 12M days, the New York YC had a "Defender Series" just to decide who would drive which 12 M to defend the cup, remember when Ted Turner and Gary Jobson won it? Then NYYC hated "The mouth of the south" (Ted) but he was the fastest driver, so they had to let him drive.

I like to see the fast cats racing, but with so few teams able to put up a credible boat, I think it will come down to Oracle vs. Emirates Team NZ. The AC 45 series was much more interesting, but with that many fast teams, LE could lose the cup if it were held on those. I think that's why he wanted to push it out to where very few could afford to compete.

I just wish they would bring back the nationality rules.

Shortly after Turner won the AC he became active on the TheMightyHobie18 for a short time. Anyone know what happened?

And what kind of air bags were being considered for the 72s? I agree that automotive style bags aren't appropriate but I was thinking something like they use in salvage work, attach it to the sunken hull to keep it afloat. I can see that that might have an application to rescue a trapped sailor.

If I understand correctly beam failure caused Artemis's destruction, if so at a minimum they would need to rejig their beams on the second boat. I think the boat is supposed to be designed by the nation it's representing but they could give the kiwi's a call and see what their layup was as they seem to quietly go about their business

they had some initial damage to the boat when they first launched the platform. I didn't get much detail but it seems to have had something to do with a mistake made while towing or rigging the boat somehow. The boat had to go back into the shed for repairs and was out of commission for some time. I believe this damage was in the area that ultimately failed...so it wasn't necessarily a design flaw.

I believe they hoisted by the beam without any pre-load down force , where the mast would have been. As it was designed for sailing with wing up and massive downforce loads, the opposite caused a problem.

If flying 72 foot catamarans are becoming are now a reality, can flying motorcycles be far behind?

This guy already has put a 9 cylinder radial airplane engine on his bike!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hirsRnytTkU

I think his prop is a little undersized.