Upwind Foiling - the new game in town?

Don't want to derail this thread too much but even die-hard android enthusiasts hated the X2. It was a hastily thrown together product with little to no aftermarket support from the manufacturer. I had three of them since they kept dying. The new androids (since ICS) are amazing, and 80% marketshare globally speaks for itself... (Apple only has 13%)

/thread-derail

Sunday's Race 2 replay.

“We had an issue yesterday with a spectator boat and a mooring buoy that caused a little bit of damage to the daggerboard and a rudder,” Ainslie said. “We thought we fixed it – we raced yesterday and it wasn’t a problem.

“It’s a shame because we were having quite a nice prestart and it would have been a good race. I guess it’s a learning experience for us,” Ainslie said.

America’s Cup Tech Run

Video interview with Ray Davies regarding hydraulics and their upwind foiling during the race.

Another nice piece on the guy who brought us Liveline.
Stan Honey Article

Thanks Philip, I'll be tuned in on NBCSports...I hope they'll be showing it, and I hope the boats don't break.

Tim, I don't know if NBCSports or YouTube is airing it, I haven't checked anybody's schedule yet. This is a make-up day.

Back to New Zealand's stuffing...I think the foil angle did contribute to it by allowing them to foil so high that the rudder foil was too close to the surface. Once the rudder foil lost traction the boat simply teeters on the board. Once it pivots so far, the board goes from lifting to pulling down and "splash".

I guess that's possible, but then again the angle probably doesn't matter IF the rudder comes out of the water, it's going to pitch no matter what the angle was. If adjusting it would have kept the rudder in the water ,then maybe you could blame it on that.Look at how Ainslie's boat stood up when it lost it's rudder. That shows how much downforce they provide.
I still think it was an issue of being way overpowered, Barker even called the gust right before the stuff.
To expand a bit. makes you wonder if the "Battery problem" with the hydraulics doesn't stem from water intrusion ( shorting the battery) from the stuff. Just a theory.

There's no doubt to me that the breakage they incurred on Sunday was due to the stuff the previous day.

Like Jake said, the loads alone on the rigging must have been immense - I wouldn't be surprised at all to see ETNZ continue to have technical issues.

In hind sight, wouldn't it have been much safer, and perhaps even minimized some of the breakage, if they had simply allowed foiling and allowed some type of adjustable elevator/flap on the foils to control their ride height, like the Moths and most other foiling boats are using?

Watching these guys learning to foil, with no control, is like watching the Wright Brothers learning to fly! And they crashed, a lot, until they figured out their elevator control system.

So now that we KNOW HOW to fly, why not just let them FLY!? With some CONTROL!

Well Timbo

The rules were specifically written to disallow foiling. One team figured out how to work around the rules that the defender was planning on working around before they were able to actually work around them.

Does that make sense?

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More on "Ballastgate"
Rule 69 hearing and CONFIDENTIALITY ORDER

Great piece. Rule #1. HAVE FUN!

Why aren't these kids on waves?

I've long suspected that to be the case. The story being broadcast is that everyone was chasing NZ after they started foiling. However, from the very beginning I think the rule was written to make foiling very difficult but not impossible. I'm pretty sure Oracle had already planned to foil. If they REALLY wanted to disallow foiling, the rules would have been written that way. You could say something simple, like "no underwater foils should have horizontal components" and that would be the end of it. The thing that does surprise me is that Artemis was later to the foiling game than anyone else even though they were the challenger of record. They must have been caught by surprise on the foiling thing.