Hi Neil, I'm going to have to side with Charlie on this one. There's no shortage of One Design regattas, perhaps the most relevant having been raced last weekend, the NYYC Resolute Cup, a Corinthian competition between amateur sailors from Yacht Clubs around the globe. All sailing identical Melges IC37 boats. It was very important racing for those clubs involved but received little interest outside of some industry related press.
The America's Cup has ALWAYS been a race that pitted crews and yacht designers and engineers, even from the very first competition. When J Class, 12meter and ACC class boats were involved, there was always a "box rule" that allowed for creativity and design enhancements that would allow for innovation. Without that innovation, we would never have molded sails, carbon fiber spars, or lightweight high modulus yacht ropes that are so popular with today's racers. I've been a big AC fan ever since the 60's and thought back then that Intrepid was the absolute pinnacle of sailboat racing design. I would sit in middle school classes and try to duplicate her lines, her trim tab and rudder, drawing with a pencil using a French curve. It fascinated me how different that boat was than all the other 12meters. Where else but in a competition with virtually unlimited budgets would that sort of innovation be incubated and brought to fruition? Think of how Ben Lexan's winged keel threw the monkey wrench into the world of sailboat design and it still finds its way into shoal draft keels on modern boats. That would never happen if the Cup was strictly a one design event. My only regret is that the Cup competition no longer has a strong foundation with regards to home grown sailors. The free agency of international talent with little regards to national representation has diluted the passion with which our country follows the event. With such a domination of Aussie and Kiwi sailors in the cup, we appear to have lost the will to train local skippers and crew to reach for that gold ring of excellence that was once held by Dennis Connor, Bus Mosbacher, Paul Cayard, and even Bill Koch. How to change that will depend on who winds up winning the Cup in this upcoming addition, but it is somewhat comforting that the US based challengers are using our country name to identify the syndicate rather than their corporate sponsor. Go Defiant! Chuck Gilchrest S/V Half Magic 1983 35 Landfall Padanaram, MA From: CnC-List <cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com> On Behalf Of Neil Andersen via CnC-List Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2019 8:29 AM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com; cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Neil Andersen <neil.eric.ander...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Stus-List America's Cup Sorry, I'm with Charlie. AC races should be about crews, not engineers. I'm all in favor of engineering breakthroughs, but the competitors should all be in the same boat and the race test the crew and cut of their sails. Neil 1982 C&C 32, FoxFire Rock Hall, MD Neil Andersen 20691 Jamieson Rd Rock Hall, MD 21661 _____ From: CnC-List <cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com> > on behalf of CHARLES SCHEAFFER via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2019 10:02 PM To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: CHARLES SCHEAFFER Subject: Re: Stus-List America's Cup Defiant looks awesome. They stated in a video that the boat foiled in her first 90 minutes of being on the water. The video shows her turning at speed and looking very steady proving they are doing many things right. I'm a huge fan of Americas Cup cause it pushes the possibilities of sailing, keeps designers and builders busy, and is very entertaining. Foiling has been around a while but recent developments have produced foils that work at low speeds like standup paddle boards and even surfboards. The other night I watched an hour long documentary of Larry Ellison winning the cup back from the Swiss several years before the foiling catamarans. I also watched a video of a guy in Truro, England (Poldark area) building fifty foot Pilot Cutters in wood and training young people to be builders. BTW, my boat takes her name from an Americas Cup defender of 1920, Resolute. She was short on the waterline with a bigger than normal sailplan and struggled but kept the cup. She was gaff rigged with three headsails and designed by Nat Herreshoff who designed and raced the first catamaran and designed the first fin keel w bulb. If he were alive today, I'm sure he would be testing all the cutting edge materials and designing foils. The new AC boats will be 75 feet long, foiling monohulls, no keel, no centerboards, the foils are attached to arms that rotate the windward foil up to act as a counterweight. Eleven man crews. New Zealand is defending against America, England and Italy, so there will be four boats. The races are in 2021 so they have two years to practice and improve the designs. Chuck Scheaffer, Resolute 1990 C&C 34R, Pasadena, Md On September 17, 2019 at 5:11 PM Charlie Nelson via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com <mailto:cnc-list@cnc-list.com> > wrote: I am not a big fan of the foiling AC boats of any length. However, I love the name of the US entry, Defiant. Win or lose, she carries a great name like many of the old sailing ships of the seafaring nations of the world. Charlie Nelson S/V Water Phantom 1995 C&C 36XL/kcb Sent from AOL Mobile Mail Get the new AOL app: mail.mobile.aol.com <http://mail.mobile.aol.com> _______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
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