Do you seriously think for one half of one second that the opinions of the citizens of SF come into the equation at all???

Mike

I'd bet a quarter of two seconds?

But...that's...one...half...second..?

haha...yeah...that is kinda the thing isn't it.

I think the smart move would be to have an AC45 event in HI, and keep the finals in SF. This idea of making the AC45 series count towards the finals is interesting; hopefully we won't see the cheating again. I hate the idea that reducing the number of finalists eligible to compete on the AC60s is supposed to make it more like F1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there isn't one final race that is their championship, inviting only those with enough points to potentially win, correct?

I love the fact that Larry is constantly challenging the status quo of the event, but hate that it always seems to be done so late in the process. Change is good, but there's a point that the planning and changes need to stop, and the execution begin.

BTW, don't be fooled, the organizers aren't. Each of these peripheral cities knows their place in the process. They're aiming for (and will be happy with) an AC45 event. I've seen this up close and personal. It's not a bad thing, either, unless one loses their perspective and fails to understand the reality of the situation. Getting wound up about it is a complete waste of energy for any of us here...

Mike

So, the race in Rome and Shanghai would be on 45's?
That can't be right because that would only give 2 months for the winners to build their 60s.
There would be room In Honolulu for 2 more 60' cats, and there are choke hotels.
The wind is offshore there, and there is a barrier reef. You would need very strong binoculars to see them race, and they will have gusty/shifty conditions, but fairly smooth water.

Rome Kirby: “What we did was pretty cool”

The Rome Kirby interview was great. Awesome to see how Spithill's press conferences affected/inspired the team, while the rest of civilization had pretty much written them off. Says a lot for his leadership and the whole team's abilities.

Mike

Reports show benefits of America’s Cup to NZ

34th America's Cup: A Match of three weeks - Part 1 - Regaining time
by Richard Gladwell

"Six months after the conclusion of the 34th America's Cup, Kiwi fans in particular, struggle for the answers as to how Oracle Team USA were able to effect a big performance turnaround, without precedent in an America's Cup regatta. Sail-World's NZ and America's Cup Editor, Richard Gladwell gives his personal perspective and analysis in this three part-series.

Gladwell was on the water for the first eight races days of the Match, flying home on Race Day 8, September 18, which also proved to be the last day on which Emirates Team NZ won a race."

Gladwell is very bitter... The last part about the data sharing is especially rank with contempt.

I always thought that level of data made available under the new coverage technology would be an advantage to the defender. The defender has usually tried to find a way to partake in the challenger series but the other teams usually frown really hard on that. It's the only advantage they have in that they get to test and develop against each other before taking on the defender.

Now, maybe, they may want the defender to take part in the challenger series so they can get a better idea about what they are up against.

However, clearly, even with access to all of that data on TNZ during the LV series, Oracle was not ready to race them when they started...Gladwell admits that Oracle wasn't up to speed early in the match so he kinda kills his own point about how the performance data hurt TNZ with that admission. I think Grant Dalton's earlier statement about how TNZ peaked too early is a more valid assessment of what went wrong. If TNZ had lost a couple races early in the match do you think Oracle would have been digging as deep for solutions?

34th America's Cup: A Match of three weeks - Part 2 - Rules Creep
by Richard Gladwell

34th America's Cup: A Match of three weeks - Part 3 - Under the Pump
by Richard Gladwell

New Board named for ENTZ

The assertion that Oracle factored lower wind limits into their decision to pull the postponement card is incredibly far fetched.

Gladwell is making a bunch of noise about wind speed and wind limits and how it benefited the defeneder - somehow trying to make the point that it was all according to Oracle's plan. Its almost as if he's completely forgetting the fact that ETNZ was operating under the same set of rules for the whole regatta.

More on BallastGate

Richard is on a roll . . .

And that the minimum wind limits were agreed to by all of the competitors about a year prior to the event.

Personally, I thought the ballast-gate penalties were incredibly harsh on Oracle. It was only the surprise twist of the Dalton Rule (the rule put in place that a competitor could be penalized for tarnishing the image of the cup) that allowed the penalty to climb from one (unrelated) series of races to the Cup match. Otherwise, the penalty would have presumably stayed within the confines of AC45 series.

ACWS results had 0 effect on the AC34, so the cumulative penalties were absurd, but it sent a message. Although that won't be the case for AC35.