America's Cup - 'Flying Boats' in New Zealand 2020

Its been a long, long time, but I remember a book in our city's technical library titled 'The 40 kt Sailboat'. The author laid out the airfoil vs hydrofoil stuff, extrapolating from proas and ice-boats. IIRC, he'd published the book privately as the yachting community derided his notions...

Perhaps it planted a seed: Racing catamarans began out-running 'ski boats', and I watched a car-topper 'HobbiCat' under mainsail-only casually humble a flock of racing dinghies despite their jib, main, spinnaker and trapeze.

Like my brother and I with our kayaks, Its owner had been rather rudely ordered off the water to clear the way for a prestigious regional regatta. After four or five groups of dinghies variously set off for the distant buoy, the owner set down his long drink, pushed his HobbiCat six feet off the beach, clambered aboard, dropped the centre board, grabbed tiller and hauled the sheet. Swoosh. He went clear around the outside of the field, came scooting back past the near-apoplectic 'Commodore' and 'finish' cannon. Was settled in his deck-chair, enjoying the rest of his drink, which still held some ice, well before the first of the racing dinghies arrived...
 
After the third day of racing, the US team's American Magic leads closely followed by Emirates Team New Zealand's Te Rehutai. They are reaching over 47 knots in 12 knots of wind in 75' boats and enter and complete turning maneuvers at full speed. These are the first ever races for these new high tech sailing hydrofoils and this is a tuning up and learning phase for all of them. Boats have been stopped by software, computer, and mechanical issues. A lot of modern airplane in these boats.

All of the full races are available in the US here on YouTube:


Race Day 3

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH4nSA-96xA&t=389s
 
Truly amazing to see what is being "flown" and the racing is spectacular - the course seems too small!

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
We`ve come a very long way since the famous winged keel of australia II back in the 1983 americas cup race.
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But it wasnt until the 1988 americas cup that we saw the first multi-hull with a wing type sail,stars and stripes 88
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Heres a good shot of the 2 competing boats in the 1988 cup,ones an enormous 130ft mono-hull kz1 and the other a 60ft catamaran.
 
Learning curve: Hasn't one just flipped ?? Luckily, there a lot less damage than capsizing a classic mono-hull...
 
New Zealand's Te Rehutai stuffed its bow and slowly went over, but was quickly righted and sailed. American Magic just suffered a far more severe crash and may have problems continuing.
 
American Magic had a crash that will make it difficult for them to continue unless they can get their boat fixed quickly.

Sail or Die ( https://www.facebook.com/livesaildie.official/ ) has a detailed discussion of the event.

The race was held in heavy shifty conditions near the limits of where they would cancel the day's event. There were rain squalls blasting through and American Magic got caught by one of them and it was seen that the lee running backstay was not eased and the mainsail could not be fully eased out to depower and that lead to the boat flying and crashing. Sail or Die has videos and pictures of American Magic being recovered and hauled out revealing a big hole on the port side forward of the foil pivot.

https://www.livesaildie.com/livestr...Bff7xwyy217lfrdSd6UOPUkVPqgwgWePahIKPG2_QGWog
 

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The Prada Cup series is underway to determine who will be the challenger to the defenders Emirates Team New Zealand. The US boat was eliminated in the previous series after crashing and damaging their boat. The competition is now between Ineos Team UK and Italy's Prada Pirelli Luna Rosa to be the first to win 7 of 13 races.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGULFCJGnVY
 

Plans are already underway for the next America's Cup!

The 37th America's Cup. The Kiwis sign with the English and reveal the path to the next Cup

The America's Cup is barely over when we are already preparing for the next edition. The English will be Challenger of record. The Cup will be contested aboard the AC75 flying monohulls, but each challenge will only be able to build one boat. It will require a crew of which all sailors will have a passport from the country they represent. And the events will not necessarily take place in Auckland, or even necessarily in New Zealand!

Emirates Team New Zealand confirmed this night with a statement in Auckland which was more than rumors about the identity of the next Challenger of Record as well as the terms under which the 37th America's Cup would be run, of which the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is. again the Defender. Unsurprisingly, it was with the Royal Yacht Squadron Racing represented by INEOS Team UK led by Ben Ainslie that the New Zealanders did business.

Teams will be limited to building a single new AC75 for the next event.

A single event authority will be designated to be responsible for the conduct of all races and for the management of commercial activities related to the 37th America's Cup.

The Defender and the Challenger of Record will review and agree on a meaningful set of campaign cost reduction measures, including measures to attract more Challengers and to help set up new teams.

A new crew nationality rule will require that 100% of the racing crew for each competitor either hold the passport of the team's yacht club country as of March 19, 2021, or have been physically present in that country (or , acting on behalf of such yacht club in Auckland, the venue of the AC36 events) for two of the three preceding years prior to March 18, 2021. As an exception to this requirement, there will be a discretionary provision allowing for a non- quota. nationals in the race crew for competitors from "emerging nations".

There are a number of different options, but it is expected that the location of the match will be determined within six months and the dates of the races announced in the protocol, if not before.
 

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