The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

With the challenger series for the Americas Cup starting tomorrow, and in response to a promise I made to @beefchips last month, I thought it might be interesting for the non sailing fans among us to get a bit more context on what's going on and why you might be interested. Warning: this is looong - it ran away on me.

What is the America’s Cup?

It’s a yacht race (more specifically, a “match race”, of which more later). It’s the oldest trophy in international sport, having been competed for since 1851 (it’s also one of the ugliest trophies). The America in the name doesn't refer to the US of A, but to a boat called America which won it in a race in England in 1851 and took it home to Rhode Island, where it stayed for about 130 years despite numerous billionaires' best efforts, until a rude and obnoxious Australian took it off them, having threatened to steamroller it and call it Australia's Plate. Which, to my everlasting disappointment, he then wimped out on once he had his hands on the thing. Since then, it's been tossed back and forth between Australia, NZ and the US, despite valiant efforts from the UK, Italy and a few other nations. Currently it’s held by New Zealand, and they will be defending in in Auckland harbour in March.

The Cup is generally regarded in the sailing world as one of the pinnacles of sailboat racing: only the best of the best (backed by the richest of the rich) need apply. “One of” the pinnacles because sailing, like motor racing, has a number of flavours which don’t overlap much (how do you compare open-wheeler racing with rallying?). The America’s Cup is arguably sailing’s equivalent of Formula 1: sprint races on a closely controlled course, using massively fast, expensive and fragile machines which have been designed to exploit the loopholes in an everchanging ruleset, supported by huge teams with 9 digit budgets.

Why should I watch it?

Because it’s the best of the best doing their thing, which is worth watching in any sport. But also because it’s spectacular and captivating racing even if you’re not really into boats, provided you understand enough of what’s going on to “get it” (that’s what this primer is for).

Americas Cup have invested heavily in media-friendliness, so the TV coverage has great visuals - cameras all over and a whole bunch of virtual analytics to make it clear what’s going on. With in-cockpit cameras and microphones you can also get something of a feel what it’s like from the sailor’s perspective (and for more on that, it’s worth reading this and this).

The speed of the boats and the extent to which they push the limits also leads to spectacular “offs” – boats can leap clean out of the water before crashing to a stop, and they even capsize on occasion (on any other boat this size a capsize leads to disastrous damage and possible loss of life: on these things, well Team New Zealand has done it three times so far that they’re prepared to admit to, and each time been upright and undamaged within a few minutes thereafter). It’s risky enough that crews have to wear motorcycle body armor.

Also, the races are short (20-30 minutes), so watching them’s not too much of a commitment and if one race gets lopsided and boring, the next will be along soon.

Where can I watch it?

For TV coverage in your area see https://www.americascup.com/how-to-watch. Online, it looks like they’re planning to livestream it free via Youtube, Facebook, and www.americascup.com, and on-demand replays will be available on www.americascup.com. Or if you’re really local like me, you can go down to a harbourside park and watch live for free – a couple of the courses are within a hundred yards of shore.

Races are held afternoons NZ time, so evening to late evening the day before US time and something completely unsociable European time.

How does the event work?

Part of the mystique of the Americas Cup is that “the defender sets the rules”. That’s not completely true according to the letter of the Deed of Gift which governs the event: the defender gets to say where, when, and what the race format is, but in terms of the boat itself, a challenger can in theory just show up in pretty much whatever they like, which is what Michael Fay did in the 1988 race (and promptly got his ass whipped by Stars and Stripes who took “whatever you like” to the next level and brought a catamaran to what had up till then been a monohull race, unleashing the arms race of the next couple of decades).

In practice what happens nowadays is that the winner of an event lines up a friendly challenger who issues their challenge the instant the last event is won. The challenger and defender then negotiate the event rules and design rules. In return for being the “challenger of record” and getting some say in the rules, an inside line on designing to them, and some revenue from the challenger series, that challenger promises to hold a challenger series to determine who will actually sail for the cup. Ultimately, that arrangement leaves the playing field a bit tilted in favour of the defender, but not exorbitantly so: if they push things too far the challenger of record can always withdraw their challenge, leaving the field open for someone to issue an “unfriendly” challenge.

This time around, the defender is Emirates Team New Zealand, who won it off Oracle in Bermuda four years ago, and the Challenger of Record is Luna Rossa, sponsored by Prada billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. Additional competitors are US team American Magic and Ineos Team UK.

Depending on the proclivities of the defender, the rules may involve a compete shakeup of the boat design rules. For many years until the early 90s, the Cup was sailed in 12 metre class yachts, which were slow and stodgy. When Team New Zealand won it in the late 90s, they began changing the format towards faster monohulls based more on sailing-dinghy design principles. Later, when the corporate-oriented Oracle won it, they changed again towards faster, more high tech and more TV-friendly catamarans, which progressed towards being ever faster and ever higher tech. By the 2017 event, this had culminated in foil-borne dragsters reaching up to 50 knots, a speed which had been world speed record territory only a decade or so before.

Just to give perspective on how fast 50 knots is on water, the support boats for these races are 30-40ft powerboats with 4 or 5 of the biggest outboards money can buy, and they struggle to keep up. It’s right at the top end of jetski max speeds, close on twice as fast as an average recreational water skier would want to go, and about 30% faster than a Littoral Combat Ship, the US navy’s fastest capital ship. Basically, almost nothing on the water short of a cigarette boat can run away from a modern Americas Cup boat at full cry.

However a complaint about the catamarans was that they were too unmanoevrable – the ducking and diving that made match racing interesting to the serious fans had been lost to spectacle, and it had become a drag race. So in the latest event Team New Zealand have changed the rules radically, to try and create a class with the manoeuvrability of the older monohulls but the speed of the foiling cats. This isn’t totally altruistic – obviously it’s in their interest to make it as spectacular and nail-biting as possible to maximise TV revenue, but they also want to win. Radical rules change minimises their budget disadvantage – they’re the least well funded of the teams – and it maximises the benefit they get from knowing the design rules before anyone else and playing with design permutations while working the rules out.

The event format starts with a challenger series (the Prada Cup), which will consist of a set of round robins, a semi final and a final, held between January 15th and 22nd February (full schedule at americascup.com). The defender does not compete in the Prada Cup. The Prada Cup winner then faces the defender in a first-to-seven series on 6-15 March.

The basic race format is that competitors enter a restricted area (“the box”) two minutes before the start, and spend the next two minutes manoeuvring to try and ensure that they get a good start and the other guy doesn’t. This is where most of the close-quarter tactics described below come into play: we can expect to see tight turns, near misses, and penalties being issued. If we see an actual collision, this is when it’s most likely to happen.

Once the start gun goes, the race involves a number of legs (probably 6 but may vary with conditions) upwind and downwind between two sets of buoys (called gates). Competitors need to pass between the buoys and turn around one of them to complete the leg: it’s the competitor’s choice which buoy they go around, which leads to some tactical decisions about simpler and less risky manoeuvres vs exiting in the direction you want to be going in - maneuvering these boats is difficult and if you get too clever you can trip yourself over and look like an idiot.

Since sailboats can’t sail directly upwind, and while they can sail directly downwind it’s faster not to, in both directions getting from one set of buoys to the other will involve zigzagging from one end to the other, giving lots of opportunities for people to screw up and for boats to block each other using the tactics described below.

Depending on wind direction (and shipping conditions: the two most spectator-friendly courses are right across the deep water channel into NZ’s busiest port) the race will be held on one of six courses scattered around Auckland harbour. Races will be postponed if the wind is too strong or too weak - if it’s too strong it gets dangerous, and if it’s too weak it gets too random and skill stops being a factor.

What’s a Match Race?

A match race is a race between two competitors in (supposedly) evenly matched boats (as contrasted with a “fleet” race which has multiple competitors). The fact of only having two competitors means that tactics are different: the objective isn’t just to get to the finish line as fast as possible, it’s to do it in a way that maximises your chances of getting there before the other guy. A move that slows you down is fine, provided it slows the other guy down more. Faking, dodging, blocking are all acceptable – even encouraged – provided they’re done within the rules.

In motor racing terms, think of it as a situation where two cars are dicing on a track. If you’re in front, you’re making yourself as wide as possible and positioning yourself where the other guy’s going to have to go miles off the line to get around you. If you’re behind, you’re trying to pressure him into making a mistake while hunting for a way round him. Both of you are probably doing slower laps times than you would be if you had a clear track, because you’re fighting each other not the clock.

There are six main tactics that can be used:

Exploit the “rules of the road” to slow the other guy up. Sailboat racing has explicit rules that ensure both boats always know who has right of way in any given situation. These are a race-specific derivative of the basic rules from back in the days when sailing was the main means of commercial transport: big sailing ships don’t manoeuvre well so confusion could easily lead to tragedy. If you want to know the full set of right of way rules they’re here: https://www.racingrulesofsailing.org/rules?part_id=33. However in summary form, the important ones are:

• When two boats are on different tacks (i.e. the wind is coming from the left side of one and the right side of the other), the boat on starboard tack (i.e. the wind is coming from its right) has right of way
• When they’re on the same tack, if they’re overlapped (I.e. the front of the trailing boat is ahead of the back of the leading boat), the downwind boat has right of way. If they’re not overlapped, the boat ahead has right of way. This can lead to the situation where who has right of way can change in an instant – if I’m overtaking you and am downwind of you, you have right of way till the moment I start to overlap you; after that moment, I do. Deciding exactly when that moment occurred is easier said than done in 75ft boats doing 60mph which aren’t necessarily going in exactly the same direction.
• The first boat to get within a certain distance from a buoy (or other obstacle) has right of way until they’re safely past it

This event has some additional rules.

• There are safety-related ones due to the fact that we’re talking about 6 ton missiles with big blades sticking out the side: mostly these relate to keeping a minimum safe distance. Safety rules override right of way ones: if there’s a safety infringement when one boat has right of way, both sides may get penalised if the umpires think the right-of-way boat could have avoided it by dodging and protesting.

• There are also course boundaries, intended to keep the racing tight and TV-friendly and to keep the competitors away from the spectator boats. Go outside the boundaries and you’ll be penalised. Right-of-way rules supercede boundary ones, so it’s perfectly valid to use your right of way to force the other guy outside boundaries and get him penalised, provided you don’t cross the line yourself.

If you can get in a situation where you have right of way and the other guy has to get out of your way, you’ve cost him time. In an ideal world, you get in the situation where no matter how he dodges, you can get back in his way and still have right of way, forcing him to dodge again: do this well enough and eventually you can force him to a dead stop, then sail away leaving him desperately trying to sort his life out. Even if you can’t force him to stop, just forcing him to change course is beneficial. Every time the boat turns around it’s unpowered for a few seconds and slows down: turn which moves the wind direction from one side of the boat to the other (“tack” or gybe” depending on whether you turned towards or away from the wind) costs about 50-100 yards of distance lost, and it’s also the time when the crew are most likely to screw up, so by forcing him to manoeuvre you may force him into an expensive error. Better yet, if you can create a situation where he can’t get out of your way and you have to dodge even though you have right of way, you can protest to the umpires and he will be penalised. A penalty means the penalised boat must drop back to 2 boatlengths behind the other boat. It can be executed at the time of the penalised boat’s choice, but it must be a deliberate slow-down, you can’t just wait till you get behind anyway and call it job done.

Throw him shade. A boat’s sails are basically a big wing, and like an aircraft wing or a racecar spoiler, they throw off a big patch of “dirty air” behind them. Due to the size and speed of the boats, this extends up to 700 or 800 feet behind the boat, slightly on the downwind side. If you can manoeuvre into a place where you are casting your windshadow onto the other guy, he will be slowed down and eventually will have to change course to escape, which will cost him further time.

Stay between him and the target, or stay directly upwind/downwind of him. Because wind speed and direction varies from moment to moment and from place to place on the course, the best tactic for the guy who’s behind is to try and get into a different place on the course from the leader, and hope that wind changes will give you a helping hand such that next time you come together again, you’re ahead. If you’re the guy ahead, you don’t want that to happen, so you either stay directly upwind of him (if you’re on the part of the course where you’re sailing upwind) or downwind if you’re going downwind. That way, any wind he gets, you’ll already have had, so there’s no possibility of him getting an edge. There’s no possibility of you getting an edge either, but if you’re ahead, you don’t care about that. Alternatively, you can try and stay between him and the buoy that marks the end of the leg: that way, to get past you he’s going to have to come through you, which means that eventually you’ll end up (a) in the “sharing the same wind” situation, and (b close enough together that the Rules of the Road tactic above comes into play. So generally speaking, you’ll see the guy behind trying to get to a different part of the course and the guy ahead trying to shadow him from in front.

Tire him out. Manoeuvring these boats takes a lot of power: the sails are huge, heavy, and under massive forces. In the old days that power would have been provided by heavily geared manually operated winches, but in these boats it’s mostly powered by hydraulics, which are themselves powered by a bunch of guys pumping up a reservoir (the “grinders”). Battery power is allowed for some systems (e.g. lifting the foils) but the critical sailing systems are all manually powered. Each manoeuvre depletes the reservoir and the grinders have to work like crazy to pump it back up. This is hugely exhausting – grinders are usually Olympic-class athletes from heavily aerobic sports like rowing, and they can burn through 7000+ calories in a day’s racing. If you back your team to be fitter than his, or simply know his are already more tired than yours because of earlier events, you can try and force him to do multiple manoeuvres in quick succession using one of the tactics above. The more tired his grinders get, the sloppier his moves are going to get, and eventually he’ll make a major mistake due to running out of power at a critical moment. Or he may just make a mistake: maneuvering these boats is extremely tricky even for the best sailors in the world, and they are punishing if you get it wrong – a small error can easily lead to a touchdown that costs you 500 yards.

Go where the wind and current is. Since wind is the power source of these boats, anticipating where it’s going to be most favourable is a major part of the sailor’s skillset. Likewise, the water itself is moving with currents, which vary depending on the geography of the location and the state of the tide. If one part of the course has a current going in the right direction, that’s where you want to be. Regardless of the tactics above, if you think one part of the course is going to be more favoured than another, you’ll go there regardless of what the other guy’s up to: speed always wins in the end. Sometimes it’s glaringly obvious (to the crews if not the spectators) which part of the course is favoured, and you’ll see both boats wanting to be in the same place, at which point all the tactics above start to come into play. Other times, the two competitors will have different views and they’ll head off in their own direction, and we get to wait and see who’s right. Or the leader may do what the follower does even if he thinks they’re wrong, just because staying in the same patch of water as him is the “safe” option (see above).

Have a better boat, or be better at sailing it. Just like in motor racing, nothing trumps raw speed. If you’re fast enough, you can ignore all the tactics above and just turn it into a drag race. Which makes for boring racing, however one of the joys of the Americas Cup is that development continues during the event itself. We can expect all the boats to be faster by the end of the event than they were at the beginning, and the relative change can be dramatic: in the 2013 event Oracle were getting their butts kicked by a clearly superior Emirates boat, and wound up 8-1 down in the first-to-9 event. But the night before what everyone expected to be the last race, they found some extra speed, and came back to win 9-8. Also, the boats’ designs are optimised or particular conditions, based on the designers best guess of what the weather’s going to be like come the event. One boat may be faster (or more controllable) in high winds, while another is better in light ones. Just because somebody’s faster today, doesn’t mean they will be tomorrow.

So what about these crazy “boats” then?

AC75 class boats are 75ft long with an 86ft mast. They weigh about 6.5 tons and have a crew of 11. They are designed to spend most of their time “flying” – with the hull held out of the water on hydrofoils. This allows extremely high speeds – we can expect to see speeds in excess of 50 knots (57.5mph, 93kmh) routinely during the latter part of the competition as competitors reach peak performance. The design rules make some subsystems one-design, or even single-source, in order to save cost, but the majority of the boat is open design within an extensive set of class rules.

The really novel part of the design is the foil system. Here's an explanation of what’s going on with these:

Sailboats work by wind developing lift on their sails just like an aircraft’s wing. And just like an aircraft wing, the lift is generated perpendicular to the sail (plus some drag pulling backwards). Since the wind direction seen by the boat (apparent wind) is the sum of the actual wind and the wind generated by the boat’s own speed, for boats which can travel much faster than the wind (which these can), this means the apparent wind is always coming from in front of the boat, no matter which direction you’re travelling in. This means that the sail, which like an aircraft wing sits at a few degrees angle of attack to the apparent wind, must be aligned somewhere close to along the length of the hull. This in turn means that the vast majority of the lift generated isn’t forwards in the direction of the boat’s travel, it’s sideways. This sideways force is doing two things: trying to tip the boat over, and trying to make it slide sideways.

In a traditional boat with a keel, the surface of the keel acts as an underwater wing which stops the boat sliding sideways, and the weight of the keel keeps the boat from being pushed over. In a sailing dinghy, a centreboard provides the resistance to sideways movement but the resistance to tipping over is by moving a counterweight (the crew) to the upwind side.

In the previous generation of foiling AC boats, the catamarans, there were four foils, two on the upwind side and two on the downwind side. These cmbined I various permutations to provide the necessary lift, resistance to sideways slip, and (in combination with the weight of the widely separated hulls) the resistance to tipping over. However the disadvantage was that with the foils widely spaced and (at least 3 of them) in the water all the time, the loads on the boat were widely dispersed requiring a lot of structural strength at the extremities. This meant high polar moment of inertia, which as anyone who’s driven a land yacht (or an Audi) knows is bad for fast cornering. Additionally, putting the foils so far out meant that when you turned tightly, the outside ones were suddenly moving much faster and the inside ones much slower, which puts a lot more drag on the outside ones (resisting the turn) and reduces the lift of the inner ones, limiting how hard you can turn before you drop the inside hull in the water and stall. Net effect: the foiling cats were basically oval-course racers – hellish fast in some approximation to a straight line, but don’t take to being tossed about. Boring.

In the AC75s, there are three foils, one either side of a (single, relatively narrow) hull, and one at the back, at the bottom of the rudder. Each of them is a Tee shape – a central arm with a wing either side. The rudder one is fixed in place, but the central ones can pivot around a shaft just inside the hull , allowing them to be rotated through an arc to lift them out of the water. The foils are massively heavy – they’re solid steel and weigh about a ton and a half each: half of the boat’s total weight is the foils. This is made possible by the fact that pivoting them so close together and so close to the mast base means that the structure which transfers all the loads is compact enough to be practical, and relatively light. It also means that, with all the mass concentrated close to the centre of the boat, the polar moment of inertia is tiny compared to the catamarans.

As the foil is pivoted around the shaft, a few things happen. Firstly, it gets deeper into, or rises out of, the water (duh). Secondly, the wing of the foil “banks”. When the arm is fully raised, the wing is fully vertical, and when it’s about 75% lowered, it’s horizontal; between those two, it sits at various angles, changing the ratio of upwards force to sideways force it provides. Thirdly, the position of the centre of mass moves in an arc too. When the arm is raised, the mass is as far as it can get out from the boat, while when it’s fully lowered the mass is almost directly under the boat, where it can act as a conventional keel and provide stability even when the boat isn’t moving.

In normal sailing, the downwind arm is lowered, and the foil on that side is in the water and providing lift. You can rotate the arm to make the foil lower and more horizontal or higher and more vertical, to vary the foil’s effect between lifting the boat out of the water and resisting sideways slip. The upwind arm is raised, and that foil is hanging way out on the upwind side of the boat, with its weight providing a big cantilevered force to stop the boat tipping over. As the wind changes and you need more or less counterbalance, you can rotate the arm up or down to bring its mass closer or further from the hull.

When manoeuvring, you rotate the upwind arm to drop the foil into the water. This gives you an extra lifting surface and sets you up for this being the “working” foil once you’ve turned, but it also brings the mass closer to the centreline, reducing the moment of inertia for maximum manoeuvrability. You might also rotate the downwind arm downwards beyond its normal sailing position, to bring the centre of mass closer to the boat, re-orient the foil for maximum lift, and bring the two foils close together to minimise the differential speed effect.
The net result of this is that the AC75 is incredibly manoeuvrable for its size and speed. If you watch cockpit footage of the crew during manoeuvres, you’ll see they’re bracing themselves hard against the cockpit wall – these puppies actually pull significant G’s during a turn.

As this is the first generation of boats to this class rule, designers have not yet converged on the “optimum” solution and there are some substantial differences between the competitors.
Major points of difference include:

• Hull shape. The hull needs to act both as a boat (for light wind conditions when you can’t foil, and more importantly to enable accelerating as fast as possible onto the foils if you come off them), but also as an aerodynamic appendage. It also needs to provide the maximum amount of stability at low speed: the foils’ weight helps with stability, but when you don’t have enough speed for lift effects to add stability, you need all the help you can get from the hull to be able to drive the sails hard and accelerate. When flying, the hull is basically the lower wingtip of the sail, so its job is to minimise the creation of tip vortices and all the other drag-inducing stuff that goes on at the end of a wing. To that end, the object of the exercise when controlling the boat in flight is to keep the hull as low to the water as possible to minimise the size of the air passage under the hull and reduce those wingtip effects. The requirements of high stability, low hydrodynamic drag, and effectiveness as a wingtip are somewhat mutually exclusive, hence the different (and strange) hull shapes of the contenders.

• Foil shape. The foil arms are one-design, but the foils themselves are free. As with aircraft wing design, there is a huge range of tradeoffs to be made between stability, optimum operating speed, lift/drag ratio, and angle of attack tolerance. There’s also some major design issues around interaction with the sea surface: for minimum wetted area and maximum side force you want to be running with the foil elevated to the point where it breaks through the surface, but then sudden ventilation and loss of lift under heavy load or wave action becomes a real risk (as any windsurfer who’s let his fin get ventilated will have bruises to prove, he says from experience 🥴). We haven’t yet seen a convergence of thinking on this – the different contenders have different foil shapes and sizes, with or without wingtips or central bulbs. The number of foils allowed is restricted to 6 sets for the competition, and some contenders are believed to have used their full allocation already while others have a couple more design iterations up their sleeves, so this is an area we will see relative performance changes during the competition.

• Cockpit layout. There is a tradeoff between aerodynamics and ease of use for the crew – deep cockpits favour low drag and reduce the battering crews take from working in (literally) hurricane-force wind and spray , but make moving around harder and reduce visibility. There is also a tradeoff around job allocation and movement of crews. Some jobs are better done from the upwind or downwind side of the boat, but moving is risky, un-aerodynamic, and takes you away from your job for a few seconds. In some teams we see people moving from side to side of the boat after turns, while in others the people stay put and swap jobs depending one which side the wind’s coming from. This is a relatively easy thing to change, so we will probably see cockpit layouts and crew allocation change during the competition, with resulting confusion.

• Control systems. This is the secret weapon – it’s not visible to the spectator but if there’s a large and unexplained change in performance this is where it’ll be coming from. Some non-critical systems are allowed to be automated, but all key systems such as sail and wing trimming must be manually actuated. However they’re allowed to have guidance systems which tell them how to set the controls: a readout might tell a crew member to set the rudder foil trim to 3 degrees, but the crew member has to actually twiddle the joystick to do it I(and decide whether to obey the computer or not). The actual layout of the controls is also evolving: there are old-school ropes, wheels and levers, but also buttons, touchscreens and joysticks, and we’ve even seen someone on one of the boats apparently using a Playstation controller. There’s also a lot of off-boat technology such as weather simulation supporting the crew. Again, a lot of this is analogous to F1: the guy holding the wheel on the day is only the pointy end of a huge effort.

What about the crew then?

The crew has 11 members. Who does what varies from crew to crew, but in general terms there are usually three people whose full-time job is sailing the boat: helmsman (who steers the boat and is usually also the captain), flight controller (who looks after the trimming of the foils) and sail controller (who looks after trimming of the sails). The remaining 8 will be splitting their time between grinding (pumping up the hydraulic systems) and intermittent jobs such as sail handling during manoeuvres or reporting on the wind or what the opposition are up to. Of these, most likely 6 will be primarily grinders and two (tactician and auxiliary sail trimmer) will mostly be sailing the boat but able to put their heads down and muscle it out for short periods if necessary.

Some crews may swap those jobs from person to person depending on what’s going on, for example on Luna Rossa, they have two guys who alternate steering duties depending on which way the boat is going, which avoids somebody having to move from one side to the other when the boat changes direction (steering is almost always done from the upwind side, because that’s where visibility is best).

What happens when somebody wins?

They turn to their carefully selected challenger, accept the next challenge, have an enormous party, then take the Cup home and start figuring out how where they’ll find the money to defend it and what they're going to do to the rules to make it harder for the other guys next time round. See you again in three or four years.

[ClassicDatsunDebate]

@distraxi
Because of your earlier posts, I watched a couple of races. It was very entertaining. Plus no one in the crowd was wearing masks so it didn’t seem like 2020 down there. The technology in those ships is crazy, and the strategy development over the race is neat to see unfold.

There’s something I love about watching live sports from Aus or kiwi land when it’s late night Vancouver time. I’ll watch a Swans/Hawks game or even something goofy like beach soccer league if it’s live. It’s kinda like my own asmr or something.

[beefchips]

@distraxi Wow Distraxi this is fascinating, thank you so much for putting it together! And especially for providing links to watch... now I'm looking forward to watching tomorrow. Cheers!

So are all the races match races, or are there fleet races involved in the tournament as well?

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@beefchips its 100% match racing. There was originally a plan to have “warm up” tournaments in various parts of the globe which would have involved fleet races, but 2020 put paid to that.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@classicdatsundebate I don’t even own a mask. COVID just isn’t a thing here, apart from the perennial concern that it’ll escape border controls. But as long as it doesn’t, life here’s just like this time last year.

[beefchips]

@distraxi said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

2020 put paid to that.

yeah travel's tough... I guess you all don't want a bunch of globe-trotting teams to come down there and bring you virus either

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@beefchips The teams are fine - they turned up months ago, sat out quarantine, and are getting on with things. Lack of tourists is a problem though (for the city, which paid big time for hosting rights, if not for the teams)

The big issue with the warmup series was the massive cost of shipping boats and teams around the world and then maybe finding that your destination country is in lockdown and you can’t hold the event.

[jminer]

@distraxi This is an excellent and very detailed write-up! Some of it definitely went over my head but it was a great read. I’m sure to read through it again as I try to catch some of it live too.

[Vondon302]

@distraxi Great write up. I caught some of the challenge races on YouTube the other day. I'm not much of a sailing fan but racing is racing. I was wondering about some of the terms and how those crazy boats seem to fly. Thanks for clearing a few things up for me and I'm definitely tuning in for more.

[BicycleBuck]

@distraxi

EXCELLENT POST! I've been lucky enough to learn to sail and spend a little time on catamarans, but it's been a long time since I've been on the water under sail. I think it would be a lot of fun to learn foiling on a Moth. Tiny, fast, but expensive! That's really the last thing I need - another expensive hobby. Still, it looks like great fun!

[futureNDowner]

Fantastic post! I've always been theoretically interested in the America's Cup but never watched it. Being born and raised in the mid-west means I knew absolutely nothing about sailboats. You convinced me to make time to watch it this year!

[3point8isgreat]

This is awesome!

Reading through one of the articles about the grinders, it surprises me that they use their arms. Is there a rule saying they have to be hand cranks?

I get that they can train them to a crazy extent. But aren't legs going to have a higher max output and endurance when similarly train?

I dont expect bicycle races to switch to arm power any time soon for example.

Or better yet, why not figure out some sort of arm+leg device?

[functionoverfashion]

@bicyclebuck said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

@distraxi

EXCELLENT POST! I've been lucky enough to learn to sail and spend a little time on catamarans, but it's been a long time since I've been on the water under sail. I think it would be a lot of fun to learn foiling on a Moth. Tiny, fast, but expensive! That's really the last thing I need - another expensive hobby. Still, it looks like great fun!

My father in law really wants to get a foil kit for his Laser. Seeing how I have summers off now, I might just have to convince him to do that. After which I'm sure I'll be buying a newer laser because his probably won't stand up to the abuse... but baby steps. Baby steps.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@3point8isgreat said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

Is there a rule saying they have to be hand cranks?

Yes, there is. Last time round leg power was allowed and everybody used what was effectively exercycles, but this year it’s arm power only. There were safety concerns over the bikes I believe - harder to move in a hurry if you need to.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@functionoverfashion said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

My father in law really wants to get a foil kit for his Laser.

You can get foil kits for Lasers now? Cool! I used to compete seriously in Lasers - might have to consider buying one again just for fun purposes.

[3point8isgreat]

@distraxi Ahh that makes sense. I vote for rowing machines then. Keeps with the nautical theme.

Just started watching the December races on YouTube. I had no idea these things turned so tight. I thought they would need forever to turn.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@bicyclebuck said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

I think it would be a lot of fun to learn foiling on a Moth.

There’s a few sail on a lake where I windsurf. Talking to the guys (and watching them) it sounds like they’re not easy boats to sail at all.: very little inherent balance. You need to be pretty good in non-foil boats before you try one.

[BicycleBuck]

@distraxi said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

@bicyclebuck said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

I think it would be a lot of fun to learn foiling on a Moth.

There’s a few sail on a lake where I windsurf. Talking to the guys (and watching them) it sounds like they’re not easy boats to sail at all.: very little inherent balance. You need to be pretty good in non-foil boats before you try one.

As with all fun things, someone has to rain on my parade! Duly noted, though. My wife and I attended an event at the nearest yacht club where we had a chance to watch a couple of groups out learning how to race. One group was kids in Lasers. The other were in larger vessels, but they were far enough out that I couldn't recognize either the boats or the crew. It rekindled the fire to sail, but the hour-long drive back home quenched it again.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@bicyclebuck said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

someone has to rain on my parade!

The bit that rained on my parade talking to them was the cost. Sheesh, those things are expensive! Like lingerie- the less of it there is, the more expensive it gets...

[BicycleBuck]

@distraxi said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

@bicyclebuck said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

someone has to rain on my parade!

The bit that rained on my parade talking to them was the cost. Sheesh, those things are expensive! Like lingerie- the less of it there is, the more expensive it gets...

As all fun things are.

[liam]

@distraxi Fabulous write up! I remember being in downtown Auckland during the 1999-2000 cup and seeing all the super yachts in the marina right downtown - pretty spectacular.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@liam said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

I remember being in downtown Auckland during the 1999-2000 cup and seeing all the super yachts in the marina right downtown - pretty spectacular.

Yes, I recall that as well - we used to refer to the marina as "the Georgetown Yacht Club" (Georgetown being the capital of the Cayman Islands, the tax haven where most of them were registered). My wife was working in offshore finance at the time, for a company which provided financial structures to the 1% of the 1%. Her employer was technically the "owner" of a good proportion of those yachts - I remember her having fun wandering round going "oh yes, we own that one. And that one. And that one..."

Nothing like that this time round: it's pretty much locals only. Shame, it gave the place a really great vibe for the previous ones.

[bison78]

@distraxi

If I recall correctly, it was NZ who suprised the other competitors by using the "exercycles", while the other competitors that year were still using arm power.

[bison78]

Nice writeup.

I saw a couple of the races in San Francisco.

Have you been following the Vendee Globe? Single handed around the world in a boat that is capable of 30 knots. One of the competitors had to deliberately slow her boat because it wasn't rated for more than 30 knots.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@bison78 said in The 36th America's Cup: a primer for noobs:

Have you been following the Vendee Globe?

Yes, I have. If America's Cup is F1, Vendee Globe is Dakar on a motorbike. Totally. Fricking. Insane.