America's Cup

[Duncan Glenday]

Is anyone following the America's Cup?

the Louis Vuitton Cup is underway right now, which will determine the contender. It's down to two - new Zealand and Italy. One of these two (NZ, I think) will then compete against current cup holder Team USA - Oracle.

[scags]

I'll start paying more attention when the finals start. These boats are pretty crazy, and I hope they have the right conditions for the races.

[Duncan Glenday]

Top speed in the region of 50 mph!!

The Americas Cup is is to sailing as Formula 1 is to auto racing.

[Progmatic]

those boats are freakin unbeliavable compared to the boats just about only 30 plus years ago...

Alt_Alinghi_33rdAC_10gt_008795.jpg

[scags]

I believe they only work in a small window of wind conditions- not enough, no speed, a bit too much, and they tear apart. At least two have sunk in the last several months.( one of Ellison's, and an Italian boat)

[Duncan Glenday]

The finals start this week - and I will be glued to the TV...

[rapidfirerob]

I've been meaning to go check them out, but haven't done so yet. It's on the other side of the bay from me.
I hear there is a fairly nice, very expensive new bridge that just opened.

[NogbadTheBad]

These boats are freaking unbelievable.

NZ are dominant

[Duncan Glenday]

NZ 3
US 1
NZ has to win 6 more to win
US has to win 10 more to win

[scags]

I watched one of the races on Sunday- I was amazed at how short the races were. I remember them taking 3 hours or so in the old days. The Kiwis will be tough to beat.

[Progmatic]

What the heck happen there...NZ was up 8:1 and now it is 8:8 with the decider due I believe today...was it a collapse of (as we atheists say) Biblical proportion or is there some home cooking going on?

[Duncan Glenday]

They were on drugs. Must have been. PEDs, EPO, and so on. Oh, wait - wrong sport. There's no Lance Armstrong in sailing!

My take on what happened:

1). NZ had been sailing competitively throughout the Louis Vuitton cup, and were already 'in the groove'. the USA had not sailed those boats competitively - ever - so it took a few races to settle in.

2). The USA boat was just a BIT slower than NZ. Then they changed the jib and made a few other performance tweaks, which were just enough to tip the scales slightly.

3). Changing the tactician from John Kostecki (sp?) to Ben Ainsley was a huge move - and obviously worked.

Bear in mind that in all of the 18 races so far, the losing team has typically been less than a minute behind. It's been very close, and there have been more position changes in this series than in any prior Americas Cup.



The final race will be on NBCSP - 1:15pm Eastern (regardless of what the programming says).

[Duncan Glenday]

The final race will be on NBCSP - 1:15pm Eastern (regardless of what the programming says).

Correction:

The final race will be on NBCSP - 1:15pm Pacific (regardless of what the programming says).

[Duncan Glenday]

WOO HOO - What a finish!