Americas Cup World Series day 1

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Initial thoughts during race 1 (Team NZ vs Luna Rossa):

Jesus fuck these things are fast!!! It was screamingly obvious even as they entered the prestart that they’re quicker than the cats.

More manoeverable too. A few shimmies in the start - I think we’re going to see some old-school match race rough and tumble as crews get more comfortable ducking and diving in proximity. Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a prestart collision at some point in the event.

36 knots upwind in 10 knots of breeze! That’s just nuts.

ETNZ achieving 100% flight time in the first race. Luna Rossa dropped it once and it cost them. By the main event it’ll be 100% every time by everyone - if you dunk the hull you’ll lose. Anybody who’s favored hydro over aero in their hull design has taken the wrong tack: it’s irrelevant.

I think we’ll see a lot of deck and cockpit revisions from most teams in the next few weeks - ETNZ’s looks much smoother (and as above, that matters).

Quite noticeable difference in sail design, from what little you can see from the inboards. ETNZ have much more trailing edge separation between the skins - I’m no aerodynamicist but I think that implies larger effective area but more drag.

LR are on more conservative/stable (curved) foils while ETNZ are on more aggressive (straight) ones, but ETNZ still look a lot better controlled both in flight and msnoevres. Some suggestion from the commentators that LR have done issues with their flight control hydraulics to solve.

ETNZ win race 1 by almost 3 minutes. Doesn’t mean a lot at this point, but it’s still a gauntlet thrown down.

More in comments as the day progresses.

[aremmes]

I saw some videos of the practice sessions. I can't believe that a sailboat can tack like a hydroplane takes turns, but they do.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Race 2: (American Magic vs Ineos Team UK)
TV and race control need to work on their coordination - missed the start due to ads!

Ineos have a lot of work to do. They’re slow and their manoevers are clumsy. They’ve been rumored to be off the pace in light winds, but we’re in mid-range today.

American Magic looking smooth and fast. Quite different flight attitude to ETNZ and LR - lots of air under the rear hull. Not sure if that’s hull shape or pitch. They’re flying a smaller jib than anybody else, too.

The crews are bracing themselves hard during manoevres - must be pulling some big Gs.

Whoops, Ineos have bust something. Big nosedive, and now they’re down on the hull and heeling heavily. Sounds like their windward foil stuck down after the tack.

They’ve cleared it but they're 3 minutes behind now: game over.

AM running their foil very shallow upwind - you can actually see the tip piercing the surface. It’ll be giving them extra lateral lift since the foil will be on a steeper angle, but it must be just asking for ventilation. Guess they know what they’re doing...

You can see the wheel kicking the helmsman’s hands around: must be like driving a car with a square wheel.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Race 3: (Luna Rossa vs Ineos)

Veerryy aggressive move by LR in the pre-start - had right of way, got right in Ineo's face and crash-stopped both of them. I was right about monohull maneuverability taking us back to match racing biffo! Penalty against Ineos.

But wrong about hydro not mattering - after that sort of thing, a hull that gets you up onto the foils again ASAP is critical. And Ineos are behind the game here too - LR picked up 500m off the start just by accelerating faster out of that fracas.

Ineos have pulled out and called in their chase boat halfway down the second leg: something broken. Looks like foil control again - they're drifting with 1 foil raised and one lowered.

Certain amount of tension as they're drifting into the crowd of spectator boats - chase boat is slow to turn up. Another lesson for race management here - with no keel, these things drift sideways fast and the course is small. Rescue craft are going to need to be kept close.

Chase boat got them in time.

Commentators are discussing the fact that the foil control pivot system is a one-design part - there'll be some complaining to the event organiser if that turns out to be what's giving trouble.

Some slightly hairy maneuvers by LR as they sail solo round the course to the win - close to a nosedive a couple of times there. They must be trying some different approaches out since there's no pressure.

[barnie]

How are you watching this, please?

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Race 4: (AM vs TNZ)

Unforced error at the start by TNZ - messed up the timing and dropped off their foils. AM start a good 200m ahead.

They look pretty evenly matched for speed, and both pretty smooth. These two are the contenders at this stage of the game I'd say.

TNZ try a roundup and tack at the bottom mark to get clear of AM who are playing the classic covering game. They fluff it and touch down again. Leads now 400m or so.

By a couple of legs later it's down to 150m or so and closing, despite a couple more minor touchdowns by TNZ. Hard to tell if that's down to superior boatspeed for TNZ or just better luck reading the course for windshifts.

Nice move by TNZ to get in front again - hauled them in before the mark and just squeezed inside them around the mark. Followed immediately by getting too clever and trying a gybe before getting sorted and falling off the foils again.

Drag race to the finish - 10m in it 500m out. Hitting 47 knots. American Magic wins because TNZ needed one more gybe.

Verdict: TNZ win on speed (whether boastspeed or wind huntign is unclear, but either way: quicker), but lose on tactics and crew work. Which must be a concern for them because the challengers will get a lot more competition than the defender between now and the Cup: their skills can be expected to sharpen faster.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Bottom line: yes, this looks like being good. Perfect combination of the speed and drama of the cats with the tactics and tension of the classic keelboats. I'm going to need to book some time off work...

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@barnie Live on Free-to-air in NZ.

If you have a VPN or region blocker you can probably stream it via tvnz.co.nz.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

Quite of the day from Peter Burling (TNZ skipper): “Well the good news is we could screw it up that badly and still be in the race at the end”.

[beefchips]

@distraxi, you obv know a lot about this, would you be willing to write an America's Cup primer for noobs? Your race recaps are fascinating stuff!

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@beefchips Happy to. Will try to do it sometime over the Christmas break.

[beefchips]

@distraxi Awesome!

[nowhere]

The fastest thing I ever sailed was a rental Laser 2 which didn't have a spinnaker or trapeze. The foiling boats just seem unbelievably fast and advanced to the point of impossibility to me. I have a book by Gary Hoyt written in the late 80s where he brainstorms and dreams about possible future advances and cover some experimental boats that had already been built at the time. His predictions about hydrofoil sailboats which would be so fast that the aerodynamics would be a serious consideration seemed wild at the time - but it actually happened.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@distraxi I'm sorry...but did you say 47 knots? Where's the motor?!

[barnie]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Modern Ultra Light Displacement boats can far exceed the wind speed. Foils, light hulls, wing sails and such make this possible. Sharp crews and some electronics and hydraulics are necessary to handle these beasts.

First time I felt this was 14knots in 10knots of wind on a beam reach back in 2004. Fscking amazing. Only the gauges told us this. This was on Fossett's Cheyenne with a full crew.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Stacked 4 wide on the poor bloody chase boats trying to keep up with them