weren't those mark boats last cycle semi-drones? They maintained stationary position using the same principles as today's drones, right?

David, you have to read a little between the lines to see what happened there. NBC agreed to broadcast the events in the initial press release "with financial assistance from sponsors that were lining up" (I paraphrase. The problem happened when the sponsors didn't show up - NBC has the rights and none of the money needed to broadcast. Since they're running as a business and not a charity, they can't just allow the broadcasts to find their way to US distribution through Youtube...so, we're stuck...we get crappy chopped up broadcast of the events and are mostly blacked out online. I hope this was happening so they could save the funds that they DID have to broadcast the real event...fingers crossed.

Agreed. People have been tinkering with foiling for decades (Jake waves at Dave Carlson who's grinning). The modern era of foiling just wouldn't have happened without the AC pushing the limits and widening the performance window. It's still a pretty narrow window, in my opinion, but getting better. I don't think it will be the end-all - just another unpreventable splintering of our fleets as people search for excitement in an ever evolving technical world with ever shortening attention spans.

The last cycle (leading up to the SF finals) had a variety of things for marks.

The first marks were the smaller boats, very sparse and would carry a driver, one crew and 3-4 photographers. These were manually run like any other twin screw. They had telemetry to show the driver the location (selected by the PRO through the system), and the driver had to get the boat there and hold station. Coutts hit one of these in Newport, while rounding during a race. I'm most familiar with these because I was on one during racing in Newport.

The next iteration was a larger boat, which was used for carrying VIPs. They carried closer to 20 people, with a driver, 2-3 crew and additional wait staff crew (as well as a dozen or so VIPs). They each had a galley in one hull. These boats were manually driven into position, but allegedly could automatically hold station. ETNZ hit one of these in Newport, on the way back to the harbor. I was aboard one of these in Newport, but only at the dock, so I didn't see it in action (we were the weather mark, the larger boats were the leeward marks).

After the accident that killed Bart, they did a major safety overhaul of the entire regatta, and while no one had been hurt due a collision between a racing boat and a mark boat, it was pretty clear that was probably only a matter of time.

So, they switched to inflatable marks, literally taking the base from a kid's bounce house, using that as the base for the prototype. They needed something big enough to carry telemetry equipment, be seen from afar, etc. They were manually set with an anchor, and did not have any other means to hold station.

John Craig gave a pretty cool chat about the progression of RC technology at one of the US Sailing meetings a few years ago, and did state that his dream would be to have remotely controlled marks that could hold station, and that he could move with a joystick.

The marks NYYC is looking at are supposed to be towed out, but can then hold station.

I'm sure that at a tech level, there's some similarity to flying drones, but are those capable of following instructions to autonomously go to a specified location without manual (remote) controls?

Mike

Yes - absolutely.

Cool. I always wondered why they were called drones, yet someone always needs to be running a remote.

Mike

And don't forget Wing sails. I saw Randy whiz past Naples yesterday on a wing sail on his way to (presumably - I haven't checked the results) to winning the Everglades Challenge

ouch.

https://youtu.be/zG1EXtyL5t0

I love the comment below the video

uhhhh... who was driving that thing?

Wow. Never thought I'd see anyone who was worse at docking than me.

Mike

Video embed doesn't appear to be working..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DO8EavroaA




[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/4DO8EavroaA[/video]

I want to be a Barry

Racing cancelled for Friday due to 40 knot winds. . .

I just checked the weather at the Bermuda airport, (TXKF) it is showing winds of 21 knots right now (noon east coast time).

Earlier it was showing 14G28.

Is there an upper and lower wind limit in this AC series?

Supposed to be lighter tomorrow, hopefully we can see some racing then.

Is there any way to watch the racing from the US? I don't have cable or satellite TV. I have a decent internet connection and that is it. I'm willing to pay a "reasonable" subscription to a service if anyone can vouch that it works. I don't care to watch LIVE but would like to see it same day delay or even one day delay. Any ideas?

Set up a VPN or go stealth
or
Sling Blue $25 and it is pro rated. You can cancel anytime.

This gets you subscription rights to NBCSN to view on any device or app and replay.

FYI, a lot of the broadcasts are NOT live and will be heavily edited and you have to put up with Todd Harris.

It will be very difficult to repeat what we had in AC34. You will be disappointed. It will be more of what we had in the ACWS, which was horrible.

If you want it clean you will have to proxy from another country.

Your best feeds will probably be UK.

Tried to send this before but hit the Tab and it all went away. Now I'll try again:

Don’t know if this is relevant but I just noticed 6PM 5/26/17 that the Americas Cup Round Robin Races in Bermuda are being covered on NBC SN HD channel 26 Spectrum Tampa Florida. The race today was called off due to 40 Kt. Winds and they were showing the last Cup Race in Cal. Watching wind surfers and small talking.
Looking forward the races seem to be covered and I am recording them on about 1PM 5/27, 5/28, 5/29, 5/30, 5/31, 6/02, 6/03.
Don’t know the real schedule but these programs seem to be covering the races so I scheduled recordings of all. Can always review and delete if necessary.

Terry

There will most likely be some videos put on YouTube not long after the races are over. Check out that Water World link I put in the What's up with the America's Cup thread. That should get you to their latest stuff.