Cats for the AC it is... Alinghi must face BMW

They're sheeted in pretty hard for a bear-away move, eh? <img src=

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Dude, it was out of their hands.... literally.

I love it....

Great picture John! While the rudders were out of the water I wonder what would have happened if the sheets had been released as soon as it started to stuff. Perhaps it would not have dug in hard enough to pitch over.

This reminds me of a great tale about Dennis Connor capsizing the stars and stripes multihull with a bunch of folk on board as he cut his multihull teeth for

that

Americas cup.

Chris.

A couple of things. First he said it was out of his hands after the rudders were out. This is a fair enough insight but to bear away and not trim BEFORE stuffing was a probability is a newbie mistake.

The idea these guys are going to try and get mono sailors up to speed so to speak defies any common sense.
It is like taking a rally driver and putting him into a Formula one car and asking him to compete with drivers who have been in the cars for years.

The technical term for that I think is STUPID.

It just shows the astonishing arrogance of the mono guys.

I can just see them trying to come down late when they realize they won't go across the top of a starboard boat, accelerating but not being able to get it to answer the helm enough and slicing right through the starboard boat! Excellent TV indeed!

I hadn't really pondered it before - but you're absolutely right. These guys are crazy if they think the monohull skippers who are used to having tons of lead under them are going to be able to seamlessly transition to boats as light, nimble, overpowered, and unforgiving as multi-hulls. Clearly in this case, the sails weren't eased enough for a bare-away manuever...we've all probably been there and done that a time or two on our relatively tiny personal multi-hull monsters.

So who do you get that can drive you beast around the course and be as fast or faster than anyone out of the box? (Smyth/Booth/me/etc.)

So who do you get that can drive you beast around the course and be as fast or faster than anyone out of the box? (Smyth/Booth/me/etc.)

It looks like Jake is wanting a new job <img src=

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You know, I am relatively busy, but if they want me, I could probably rearrange my schedule. It would be difficult but I'd help them out, no problem. Anything for my country and all that...
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Say Rick, have they contacted you for a clinic session yet?

Start 'em out on Waves, move 'em up as they progress!

Seriously, though, Alinghi should have quite a bit of multi guys to help out, given their Lake Geneva campaign. But that seems to be very light air flat water with boats that are optimized heavily for just that set of conditions. So maybe they thought they had more of a handle on it for the lumpy stuff in a big tri - it's usually when you're a nooby but think you're not that the problems hit. I'm not sure if releasing the sails once it's stuffed like would help - the jib might help as you can release it far enough. But the main is the evil sail in this scenario - it's the big sail trying to leverage you end over end, and you can't always release it far enough to save yourself.

The best way to stay out of trouble is to not start out there.

Given the money being spent and the prestige at stake, starting with the basics might be prudent.

Someone needs to remind them a slower, more carefull bare away is faster than swimming...Still, these Alinghi guys do race cats, right? They should know better.

Who was driving? Who was on the traveler and mainsheet? How much insurance do they carry? <img src=

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Perhaps they need some of the solo Tri skippers out there to teach them how it's done? I'm guessing the big Tri's don't behave -exactly- like big cats. Maybe they should hire Ellen McArthur? <img src=

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There's an idea! What if she won!?

Yeah, but blazing across oceans is different that the refined requirements for being fast around a race course.

True that, but how many big Tri's race buoys? I don't know if the French do that or just go for speed.

Still, I'm sure Ellen could teach these mono-clowns a thing or two about sailing big Tri's. I'm sure she's had to do more than a few quick bear-offs, alone, at night, in the big ocean. <img src=

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I am trying to exercise restraint and not make fun of them too much.. you know, that very unsatisfying

lets not be reduced to their level

in how they make fun of us attitude.
Altough I do love it <img src=

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While the ORMA60 circuit was operative they ran both inshore buyou races and offshore races, so yes, they sure know how to operate the beast in tight

beer can

racing.

Not to diminish Ellen, but I dont think she is the most experienced inshore multihull racer. When going around the globe, they dont do as many manouvers as when going around the cans. A jibe or a tack a day, perhaps more often if they are really working hard?
I would be very surprised if not both Alinghi and BMWO have signed up the best from the Tornado fleet and the ORMA60 fleet. Hmm, perhaps that is one more reason for Alinghi to postpone the race, to have more time with the best teams on the water. The olympians are probably focusing 100% on the games now and dont want to loose 4 years

just

to get into an AC one-off match.

I think all the sailors have already been chosen for the Olympics, and there are lots of awesome catamaran sailors who did not make the final cut in their countries. So all those people should be available.

I was just thinking racing a big tri around the cans is maybe a little different than racing a cat around the cans, especially when it comes to bearing off at A mark. A cat will have two hulls, each has to support the entire wt. of the cat sailing on one hull.

The Tri, on the other hand, is going to be a little heavier per same length, and most likely have smaller ama's with less displacement, so when you do a quick bear-off at A mark, you are pushing the smaller ama (vs. one hull of a cat) down and under water. If you have a cat driver who is used to pushing a fatter hull down harder, and all of a sudden he is on a tri, well, maybe that's what happened.
But that is just a guess, unless we were on board to see exactly what was going on, we will never know exactly what -or who- caused it.

I don't think you can adequately train a mono-racer to top level trimaran buoy racer in less than a full year of hard buoy racing though.

I'll be Randy wouldn't have flipped it... <img src=

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I know for fact there are people helping that will also be at the olympics.

Well that's hardly a secret is it?

I am a bit surprised that this happened to team Alingy since IMHO they have a lot more multihull experience in-house (Luc Dubois, 4th at the latest A-cat worlds. Their Decision 35 program etc).
Maybe the guys from Alingy did it on purpose so to show the judge that they really are not ready to race in October '08 (They are not that evil are they?).

Alinghi cat
http://sports.webshots.com/photo/1114817499044983535josJOb?vhost=sports
http://sports.webshots.com/photo/1114817180044983535RIadxk?vhost=sports

http://www.morrellimelvin.com/sail/racing/sailRACE.php?WEBYEP_DI=3
They also have a fair amount of Tri experience as this one that Pete Melvin and Gino Morelli designed.

I didn't know if it was or wasn't. Man that is a bitchin boat. Can I have one?

That thing really bridges the gap between a catamaran and a trimaran...it's really a catamaran with a center stiffening pod that's not really designed to be in the water. The pod helps get some really high forestay tension for weather work.

Looks like Oracle just lost a VX40 rig 😛

Ouch...
From SA:

BMW/Oracle can't quite get it right either - here they blow the rig out of a new X 40 last weekend in Valencia. Apparently they stuffed the boat into a wave and dropped the rig. Here they cut the rig away and send it to the bottom of the sea. Here's a quote from one of the team members:

Sailing in Valencia last week in a new X40 cat and the front beam snapped in half and dropped the rig. We saved the boat but the tow back 4 miles to port in 40 mph winds was gay."

The Morelli&Melvin boat looks very similar to

Happycalopse

, is it the same boat?

Bummer about the BMWO X40! Large amount of damage in short time now. Wonder how much was boat/structure and how much was handling on the last case.. Who was manning the boat?

Is anyone else absolutely horrified that they would let the sail and mast go to the bottom? I can't fathom why, when they have support boats all 'round, they can't salvage the materials for other uses or to look it over carefully to determine why it failed. I'm stunned - no wonder the budgets are absurd. Everything is disposable.

Absolutely horrific! That is wrong on a lot of levels... but just shows how much money is being thrown around. How much do you think that was? Easiliy 40-50K I would think.

Not to mention the fine for littering.