America's Cup - 10 days to go!

We sailed into Valencia yesterday from St. Tropez (wild ride!) just in time to see A5 get towed out and break the jib halyard. Really impressive looking monster. Yes, it's wide and the mast they had on did look a little stubby. It looked like they had the 3DL sails on. Had to go into the harbor before they started sailing:(

USA17 was on its mooring when we were there and probably didn't go out until the seabreeze came in. Beautiful sailing day for them yesterday afternoon! They amount of RIBs and support boats these teams have is sick.

This is easy. You make sure every tank in the hull is full. That is the max ballast.

Ah ha. For those in AUS I found it listed live on TV. It's on Foxtel Eurosport channel programmed at 6.30pm Monday night.
Warm the set and cool the tinnies.

Alinghi has planned to be able to take on and dump ballast irrespective of measurement. It's almost certain that if they completely filled all of their ballast tanks, their boat would sink it's hull along it's entire LOA making it 115' and exceeding the 90' limit. They can't fill them all or they will not measure in. They're not supposed to fill them past the point they used to measure although they will probably be able to pump the water around to various storage tanks in the hull, dump it, and reclaim it from the ocean.

Layline is being resurrected by the original NC owners.

I didn't realize what the ESPN ISP thing was. I do remember seeing a notification that my ISP was a member of ESPN360 but I didn't really understand what that meant at the time. If you are in Europe, it's very likely you will have free television coverage on Eurosport.

Freak - you suck for being in Spain. bastard!

One problem with the espn360 is it doesn't seem to offer full screen. I thought I read somewhere it would be offered full screen. Maybe another feed?

I should have started a new thread on this stuff.

New rulings from the IJ came out early this morning on a couple of other issues:

1) technology. Alinghi had inserted some new rules that would keep BMWO from using a laser/flux capacitor wind detection device that can map the wind field in a particular area up to 1 KM ahead of the boat. The IJ ruled that BMWO is free to use the device. Alinghi had unfairly disadvantaged BMWO with the rule change.

2) Wind Limts. If you recall earlier, Alinghi had a 15knot wind limit (measured at 60 meters elevation!) and a 1 meter wave height limit (39 inches). With these boats racing offshore on a course of 20 miles (potentially 400 square miles) this would make it extremely difficult to get any racing in. Alinghi's boat is also pretty optimized for light wind. BMWO argued that this limit disadvantaged them as this rule has continued to change to the detriment of their design. IJ ruled - NO PREDEFINED WIND LIMITS. Racing is at the discretion of the Principle Race Officer. This is great news and will be vital to seeing a genuine race series uninterupted.

3) Skin friction reduction systems / polution. Alinghi inserted a rule in the NOR published last week that anything that is discharged from a boat is considered trash and trash in the water is illegal. This now meant that Rule 53 - which prohibited skin friction technology was effectively back in place AFTER Alinghi fought and won in court to have it thrown out (along with the rules prohibiting engine power during racing). IJ ruled that BMWO can use their skin friction reduction system as long as it is not harmful to the environment. (we still don't know exactly what that system is). Score for BMWO

4) race start time. The deed of gift says that the defender and challenger are to agree on the start time. Alinghi arbitrarily picked 10:30am without consulting BMWO. This is a pretty prissy issue as there's only so much daylight in which to have what could be up to a 7 hour race. Race committee set racing to start at 10:06.

IJ score card (I'm scoring the start time also as a tie since it's really a silly issue).

BMWO: 6
Alinghi: 1

I could not get it to work with safari on a mac and emailed ESPN (answer below). I did download Firefox and it works great even full screen. Now I have to figure out how to link it to my flatscreen tv.
Hello,

I apologize for the frustration.

The Move Media Player is not currently compatible with the Snow Leopard OS and default Safari browser settings. You will be able to view the player if you switch to a Firefox browser or run Safari in 32 bit mode.

To change Safari to run in 32-bit mode do the following:
1) Open the Finder
2) Navigate to the Applications folder
3) Select Safari
4) GetInfo on Safari. (Done by Right Click/CTRL+CLICK and selecting GetInfo, through the File Menu, or CMD+I)
5) Select (enable/check) the checkbox for “Open in 32-bit mode”
6) Close the Safari Info window
7) Restart your Mac

There is a work around as I ran into this issue last summer with my ISP. First, create a new account from a cellular connection, then when they ask who your ISP is, you must tell a white lie in the interest of sailing. List an ISP that is on the approved internet provider list. You will now have successfully registered and will have a user name. You will now be able to log on to anybody's ISP and view 360. My experience with the 360 experience is that it is total crap.

Apple sells DVI adapters, i have one
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB570Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA3Ng&mco=MTA4NDU0ODY

Thank you Jake, your relay has brought this event much closer to home for me, and all the legal positioning info has shown me a lot about the nature of the event

Sail-World.com will also be providing a daily email newsletter from the event. If you are not getting up at 4am EST to watch, this may be a good source for a text summary (with pictures) of the mornings happenings when you get up in the morning. Richard Gladwell has been very involved with the 33rd AC and has written several very good articles about the happenings to date. It will be a good read. To sign up for the newsletter, go HERE.

I'm going to create a new thread with a more appropriate subject line for the next update.

Tawd: I'm at about as much of a loss as you. I can get the replays to work but the live stuff - it don't work.

360 works fine for me and there is a full-screen button. I'm using Chrome - didn't even need to use the IE app.

I was emailed some additional information about the start time issue. Apparently the start has been 10:06 all along (as set unilaterally by Alinghi). BMWO asked for noon because a 10am start would be more likely to see light air and favor Alinghi. IJ ruled that since things had been completely absent of mutual consent prior to now, that SOMEONE had to set a start time. 10:06 sounded reasonable...so 10:06 it is.

I'm changing my score on that one...it's not a tie...Alinghi wins the start time challenge (although, it is a very small issue).

IJ Score readjusted:

BMWO: 5.5
Alinghi: 1.5

I couldn't get Chrome or Firefox to work with it...but I've been having trouble with Firefox on Windows 7. I could hear sound with Chrome but it wouldn't show me the window that had the video...So I guess it's to each their own!

Alinghi is doing a full practice round today, almost flying a hull in only 4kts of breeze:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_U6Cp5x-Sbr8/S2mIsR8nV2I/AAAAAAAAKRg/iImyBs7BdAk/s1600/DSC_7599_1.JPG

BOR was practicing yesterday with crew placement. Falling of would be like falling from a building:

Checkout the guys on the left transom, WOW:

I guess you'll be <img src="<>/cool.gif" alt="cool" title="cool" height="15" width="15" /> rockstarring <img src="<>/cool.gif" alt="cool" title="cool" height="15" width="15" /> it to hard to keep us common folk in the know. <img src="<>/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked" height="15" width="15" />

Sounds like an incredible experience.

I've got the 360 to play full screen. If your looking for cup coverage..... if it's not happening, it's not live so no feed.

SA will have good coverage <img src="<>/wink.gif" alt="wink" title="wink" height="15" width="15" />

And JC is the co-host, so we can expect at least one truly multi-savvy commentator. Hopefully Randy can help make Jobson's coverage as interesting.

Jake wrote:

1) technology. Alinghi had inserted some new rules that would keep BMWO from using a laser/flux capacitor wind detection device that can map the wind field in a particular area up to 1 KM ahead of the boat. The IJ ruled that BMWO is free to use the device. Alinghi had unfairly disadvantaged BMWO with the rule change.

OK, I'm not sure that I get the point here. How exactly would outlawing this device disadvantage BMWO? Unless Alinghi has one, the use of this device would give BMWO an unfair advantage over Alinghi. Disallowing it, or giving one to each tean, would be the only thing that would make it a level playing field (on this issue).

Was BMWO's case that it was unfair that they had spent the money on this device, and then Alinghi changed the rule so they couldn't use it? That seems like a stretch to me.

Mike

It was unfair because, the original NOR Alinghi put out allowed it. BMWO invested in the technology, assuming that Asslinghi would be doing the same, and then they find out that its outlawed in the new rules.

Thats whats unfair about it. Same goes for the skin friction system.

You can't announce a game by a certain set of rules, then find out which rules are going to be exploited by your competitor and change them all.

What do you guys think about the device itself?
Lets say someone shows up with it for the Tybee or Texel, ban or allow?

Anybody wanna place bets on how long it takes JC to pop Clean upside the head? Actually he's got alot of restraint, look how long he dealt with Chuck. <img src="<>/shocked.gif" alt="shocked" title="shocked" height="15" width="15" />

Per RRS, I would say No:

53 SKIN FRICTION
A boat shall not eject or release a substance, such as a polymer, or
have specially textured surfaces that could improve the character of
the flow of water inside the boundary layer.

I meant laser wind tool thingy.

I'm not in favor of it for races governed by class rules.

But the AC is about the technology. SO DO IT.

Alinghi had to make a section or rules go away so they could use an engine and ballast. Those rules opened up pandoras box on what BMWO could do.
The You can't limit design because it violates the Deed argument may bite them on the hind end. This provision allows for the use of just about anything short of a prop and jet .

The Alinghi team owner Ernesto said in an interview that he will sail the boat himself.
If you had a $100m boat wouldn't you want to drive it yourself too?

Until they get behind anyway.