Foiling is going to become boring to general audiences as well.

I think the coverage was what made it worth watching. It allowed non-racers to make sense of what was going on.

how "affordable" were the 2007 boats in those days? I thought it was prohibitively expensive back then, too?

They pulled those boats out of the water quite often, too..


Was that the cycle where the Aussie boat sank, or the NZL boat kept breaking booms and the "hulla" debacle?

And it's not the boats that cost the most, it's the teams (crew, trainers, coaches, bartenders, etc). Are today's AC teams that much cheaper to run? Doubt it.

So, smaller boats (and teams) might make things more affordable. OD might even make it "fair" in terms of equal potential performance of the foiling cats (I'd prefer Box Rule, but then it becomes another potential arms race), but to what ultimate end? To give short-attention span couch potatoes something to look at? To sell more AC SWAG?

My opinion is that this AC cycle (and others) have had huge trickle down benefits to sailing in terms of R&D of design, materials, techniques, etc.

I mean, really, who's going to plunk down $100 M to develop a huge wingsail "just because"... or a massive 72' foiling cat.

There are lots of people pushing the envelope (Speedrocket, Hydoptere, etc), but I think the AC brought "street cred" to all of those folks by putting it downtown San Fransisco.

Four teams confirm full support regardless of venue

"the teams Luna Rossa Challenge, Artemis Racing, Ben Ainslie Racing and Team France – jointly with the yacht clubs they represent – confirm their full support to the event, regardless from the host venue that will be selected."

You've got two choices.

1) make the rules so that the challengers have a decent chance of winning the whole thing.

2) make it cheap enough that rich people want to play for the sake of playing (like most of us do on weekends on a much smaller scale)

The issue is that no singularly wealthy person would allow #1 to happen unless they wanted to otherwise be done as the Defender. The issue with #2 is that doing that would affect the singularly wealthy's person ability to keep #1 from happening.

The whole AC concept is flawed in this regard. The way the DoG was written, it was never intended to be a fleet of boats racing for the cup. It was written so the race would be one rich guy against another rich guy in a pretty cut-throat manner. Clearly, even that is incredibly flawed shown by how long the USA initially retained the cup (which is amazing that challengers continued to show up). The fleet concept and commercial concept are a bit of a round peg in a square hole in this regard - another way to inflate some egos by putting on a show.

That said, I do believe that catamarans are quickly finding wider acceptance in the larger yachting community and the AC is helping with some of that. I can attest that I've seen some shifting landscape the impressions of traditional sailors toward our cats and it's seemed to pick up pace since the last AC. It's been happening gradually over the last decade but we're not quite the "novelty show" to them that we used to be and we're being seen more often for the high performance machines that we sail instead of the yacht club riff-raff that just wants to reach back and forth. The modern F-boats are also helping with that perception.

I do hope the AC figures out how to balance the egos, commercial viability, and competitive nature of the event but I don't think they ever will in this format under these rules. So, hopefully, they can just find a way to keep it entertaining.

then leave it like #1 and push all the performance envelope edges.

Opting for #2 will just make it one more OD event.

Ainslie and Artemis are horribly under funded and I suspect France will have the same issue and I'm confident Larry is pretty happy with that situation. The cup gets way more cred than it deserves.

I'd be more inclined to believe that interest from the monohull community has come from a grass roots effort of multihull sailors integrating with their local yacht clubs and sailing centers. We no longer are the riff raff (sort of) that hang out on the beach and don't mingle with the single hull boys and girls.

If you want the monohull community to respect our game then you better respect theirs! This sentence isn't directed at you Jake I know it doesn't apply to Mr. J22!

Right On, Dave. MORC or IOR experience has not hurt either. Many of the modern catamaran aficionados are from the keelboat culture or one - design dinghy experience, and they have adopted multihulls for the same reason we have - the joy of high speed decision making and covering as much ground as possible... now 'in the air.'

Joint Statement from the Teams; Luna Rossa Challenge, Artemis Racing, Ben Ainslie Racing and Team France, who will be challenging for the 35th America’s Cup.

Following the announcement of Team Australia – representative of the Hamilton Island Yacht Club, Challenger of Record of the 35th America’s Cup – of its intention to withdraw from the competition, the teams Luna Rossa Challenge, Artemis Racing, Ben Ainslie Racing and Team France – jointly with the yacht clubs they represent – confirm their full support to the event, regardless from the host venue that will be selected.

The four teams, who have so far made clear their involvement, also reiterate their commitment to co-operate in a constructive way with the Defender to the sporting and commercial success of the 35th America’s Cup, with the aim of bringing this event to the peak of the world’s professional sport in terms of media, show, public and the intense sporting competition which has always characterised the America’s Cup.

The teams look forward to establish a constant dialogue with the Defender Oracle Team USA with the intent to fully preserve the principle of “friendly competition between foreign countries“ – one of the core elements of the Deed of Gift that rules the America’s Cup – and to co-operate actively with the Defender to adapt the rules where need be and outline the America’s Cup World Series calendar, as well as the format of the Challengers’ Selection Series and of the America’s Cup finals.

Max Sirena, skipper of Luna Rossa Challenge, declared: “All the elements for the success of the event are there: after the 34th America’s Cup it is no longer questionable how spectacular the full foiling wing-sail catamarans are ! Neither is questionable the excitement, intense competition and high-adrenaline this racing offers ! ”

Ben Ainslie, Team Principal of BAR, commented: “We are really focussed to help build a successful and sustainable America’s Cup for the future. The America’s Cup is about pushing the technical boundaries of the sport through continued innovation. The AC62 will again be incredibly exciting to watch, both on and off the water, all the ingredients you need for a great sporting event.”

Iain Percy, Team Manager of Artemis Racing, stated: “The next America’s Cup is likely to be the most competitive, exciting and sustainable ever. We cannot wait to compete.”

Franck Cammas, skipper of Team France, declared: “We believe that the format of the next America’s Cup will bring a friendly but fierce competition between the best sailors on the most spectacular machines the America’s Cup has ever seen. The 35th America’s Cup will confirm a new era for sailing, but also for the sport in general and the related technologies, with the most intense competition possible and Team France will be proud to be part of it !”

Cagliari, Portsmouth, Alameda, Paris, 25th of July 2014.

We are in agreement. All I'm saying is that it doesn't hurt our cause to have the AC on catamarans because it does increase our profile.

This:




NOT this:



Maybe it's because I've lived in or near Newport for my entire life, but I don't think so. It's the oldest trophy in sport, and men have all but gone insane trying to win it.

The cup and its history are critical to our sport. I choose to embrace the quirkiness of its rules, craziness of the changes, and lunacy of the spending for the incredible spectacle that it is.

Mike

Gladwell's Line: America's Cup - Joint Statement is a curious note

'The Breakfast TV attack on the team in the New Zealand media by Oracle Team USA, caused serious problems for the team and will not be easily forgotten. The reason for this and other similar episodes have never been explained, and the motives are questionable at best.

When asked why the team had not appeared in an America's Cup promotional video which featured comment by by four Challenger teams, Team NZ CEO, Grant Dalton retorted 'why would we want to blow smoke up Oracle's butt?'

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It would also seem that a new San Francisco venue has comeback onto the America’s Cup horizon, with Alameda being reported by Stuart Alexander, as having sent their credentials to ACEA. The report was confirmed by US sources.

Alameda is governed by a different civic body, and was the base for two of the Challengers, Artemis and Luna Rossa, in the 34th America’s Cup, who were housed in an old seaplane base.

Shifting the teams across the harbour to Alameda, would still allow the teams to compete on San Francisco Bay, which has in the past been cited as the preferred venue of the Challenger group.

Well maybe San Francisco waters will host AC35

Statement from the America’s Cup Teams Meeting

more here with proposed race course areas at venues

Oracle boss Sir Russell Coutts bars former Kiwi team-mate from America's Cup meeting in London

I wonder what's going on with that Kiwi "rejection"? Seems weird.

Seems like there is some 'politicking' going on, both for the venue and for the challenger of record....

I thought, at first, that perhaps it was just that NZ hasn't officially joined the event by paying an entry fee like the others and that the media was typically blowing it out of proportion. However, there was at least one other competitor at the meeting that hasn't paid any entry fee...so that's not it.

I have a feeling that something fishy is going on or that something happened that we aren't yet aware of.

AFAIK The kiwis haven't officially committed to entering the event until a venue is announced.

Thats why they weren't invited.

Six new additions to BAR

Interesting to see so many references in the BAR release about bringing the Cup "home" to GBR. I wonder if that's just a marketing slogan, or if the citizens feel that way.

Still rather shocking to me that for all of the planning and control, there's any doubt at this stage who's next in line for CoR. Stunning to me that Oracle wouldn't have tidied that up right from the start after losing M. Latino last time. Risk assessors must have said, "Nah, that could never happen again!"

Mike