Another Kind of High-Performance Racing

[Nine17]

If you haven't been following the America's Cup World Series, I suggest that you check it out. My wife and I went up for the finals of the first group of Match and Fleet races -- these fixed-foil catamarans have phenomenal performance. They accelerate like sport-bikes and are very high-tech. I've also included a shot of the replica of the original Yacht America which is being used as a high-roller spectator boat. Amazing...

-- David

[Jim Garfield]

I had a chance to see them race when they were in Newport last month. Amazing acceleration, I think they can get to max hull speed in 3 boat lengths in a stiff breeze. They are fun to watch, although it's disconcerting to see them going backwards when caught in irons in the middle of an unsuccessful tack. My folks had a Hobie 16 that i used to sail, so I can relate to cats being a bitch to tack. Interesting to see them back fill the jib to pull them through the tack just like on a small cat.

I'm kind of put off by the circus that the Cup races have become though. I miss the 12 meter boats. I used to live in Newport in the late 70s and early 80s and loved to spend the summer watching the challenger and defender races leading up to the big show. It was a majestic spectacle. It's still a spectacle I guess, but more like the X Games, with whoever has the deepest pockets signing the best hired guns. I liked having national teams with boats/rigging/sails all made in the country the syndicate was representing - it made it easier to know who to root for.

The differences are kind of similar to what F1 was in the 60s and where it is now. Still interesting, and cutting edge technology, but the personalities seem smaller and the series seems a bit contrived, as if they can't shed historical references quick enough.

[Nine17]

Jim,

Great insights -- similar to the ones I just heard from a third-generation legacy member of the St. Francis Yacht Club. This is not yachting -- it's high-tech dinghy racing for the X-Games generation. The AC45's are hyper-fast like modern F-1 cars, but they have that same video-game quality to their short, furious, races. Not at all like watching a skilled foredeck crew trying to gybe a spinnaker on a big monohull in a stiff breeze.

In summer the S.F. Bay has much better wind conditions than Long Island Sound for these boats to tack using those little jibs to make the boat come about without a complete stall, but on a ebb tide the standing waves caused some spectacular flips.

This past summer I saw one of the old 12-Meter boats sailing out of Newport -- power and majesty on water.

-- David

[Jim Garfield]

This is not yachting -- it's high-tech dinghy racing for the X-Games generation.

Lol, short attention span racing I guess. You're right that long Island Sound wouldn't be a good venue for the Cup races, we're a bit further east and the old Cup course was about 7 miles offshore in the ocean south of Newport. Every summer afternoon as the heated air on shore rises, there is a dependable breeze that rushes towards shore to take it's place. It's one of the unique features that makes Newport such a great place to sail, although we don't usually get those big gusty winds like you do in the SF Bay.

In an attempt to make the races more accessible and fan friendly, the courses for the AC45s were set up in the Bay between Fort Adams and Jamestown, so the winds were more fluky than if they had gone offshore. It will be interesting to see the racing when they go to the match racing format with the bigger AC72 boats.

I hope we can get together at a Porsche event in the future and talk about the Cup races of the past. I'll tell you my theory about why I think Conners intentionally lost the 7th race in '83 that gave the Cup to Australia. I figure it had to be intentional, because only an idiot doesn't cover the other boat when ahead in a match race. I mean, I think he's an idiot, but for other reasons....

There are still 5 or 6 old 12 meter boats that sail out of Newport and I still get goosebumps when I look down from the Newport Bridge and see them flying down the Bay.