Americas Cup not worth watching

 Ok, so it's been a while. What's little me doing? Busy sailing in first life, and busy looking after the kids. Well, and playing Minecraft with them, but this... this deserves a comment. 

Probably the ugliest mug in the world

 

Anyone read Scuttlebutt? Do it now - Read Scuttlebutt - click here!

And let me again refer to Jane Fossets quote! She said it first, and she said it best:

 "Weird plastic critters skittering across the water". (- Jane Fosset)

Amen to that!

Here's a few burst from that Scuttlebutt post - and they are about the Americas Cup and the (current) boats:

• Complete irrelevance
• Bizarre sideshow
• Seems to be a bit of action missing
• this diminishes the spectacle of the sport
• most exiting part is when they fall off the foils
• light wind foiling is really boring

Yup!

Let's put the sailing back into sailing. Get real boats. Use real rules. Make sailing relevant to sailors - not to lawyers and crazy scientists. 

Where is Heinz Doofenshmirtz, when you need a new type of Inator to stop the madness in Americas Cup? Let's have a MadRaceInator!

Wayyy back in 2011 after sailing with El Megro

 Happy sailing and Strawberry Margaritas. 

(More on Americas Cup) 

PS: Shoutout to Bruce Dawlish racing the Folkboat Rødhætte in San Francisco.

Finally someone said it

- Said what?

- It would be easy not to care!

- About what?

- Americas Cup - read more on Scuttlebutt 

Goodbye fugly mug

 

AC in monohulls

A real sailboat crewed by a real crew of real sailors - as in not bike riders, not weight lifters and not computer experts!!? What? Does that mean that classic sailing skills will be rewarded?

Is this the next AC boat?

What a crazy thing. It's interesting. This may even interest the rest of the sailing world; Question is: Will it attract television? Question is: Who cares if it looks like sailing? More on sailworld...

Foiling in the AC62

It seems today everybody is sailing the AC62. The virtual one that is. I am not really sure what the fuzz is all about. We've seen a thirty-something for tests, the AC45er is there, and obviously we've seen the 72 footer too. The 62 footer should really just be a shrunken 72er, no?

BobbieLin and me checking out the AC62

It's a good looking cat. It's a beta, but not just any beta. Supposedly it is the final beta. Me, I think there's too many problems with the shrouds for a final beta, but I am not really into mesh. Perhaps it's a super-easy fix. Dunno. While still moored the shrouds are nicely aligned with the mast anyway.

Top view

While the AC62 is smaller than the AC72 it is still pretty tall as can be seen on the above picture. There are two dots on the ground. BobbieLin on land and me in the cockpit. Hardly visible. Nuff talk. Lets fly...

Cats do fly...

If there is a manual I didn't read it, so it took me a couple of minutes to figure it out. It started out sailing on SL wind. It's been a while since I tried that. Somehow I managed to set the wind to east and the windspeed to 30. Dunno if that's knots, but I hope it isn't meters per sec. The sheets can be adjusted quite alot, so the wing easily ends up outside the usable angles of attack, i.e. windangle. So beware... there's not alotta speed in this thingy if the wing is 90 degrees to the sailing direction.

...and they can fly both ways!

If winged correctly these boats are fast. The high speed generates so much relative wind that the wing is operated within a pretty narrow range of (apparent) wind angles; Somewhere between close hauled and beam reach. The foiling comes easy. We almost foiled instantly, once I got the wing trimmed, and we stayed up there. In fact it is surprisingly easy to get her foiling; Tacking and gybing while staying up is a challenge.

Speeding is allowed

Speeds are incredible. Unreal actually. We made 50 knots easily. I didn't check cause I was busy steering and trimming, but BobbieLin kept yelling "50 knots is unreal". I absolutely to agree. I mean, we were not sailing in a storm, and most of the time the jib wasn't even unfolded.

Super duper speedy flying critters all over

Sadly the grid was very bad today. Numerous sims were offline, so we could just take off, get foiling and withing 30 seconds... boom - we'd hit the border of an offline sim. Rather annoying. After a couple of hits I even heard myself shouting foul words. The few simborders we did manage to cross - they seemed to work out pretty good.

Tradewinds to the lee

The overall performance seems good. The boat reacts swiftly to rudder changes and a bit less swiftly to wing trim, but I suppose that's to be expected with a wing this size. Balancing - we were able to move around - that seemed to have minor influence on the sailing. The only real problem seems to be the speed. As with the 45er and the 72er - the virtual oceans simply aren't big enough. In a split second you'd have crossed our biggest ocean in here. Also, even on a very fast computer and line we'd hit stuff that we couldn't see. The system simply could not rez it (put it on screen) before we hit it. Loads of clear water ahead, then boom... stuck in the middle of an applefarm with no warning what so ever. What fun...

see ya laterz

That's not the builders fault. It's a good boat. It is supereasy to get it foiling, and I hope we can find the space to sail it. While we can afford it and probably sail in our little virtual world, I am more curious how much cheaper the 62 footer will be compared to the 72 footer. Will there be a significant difference? Cutting just over 10 percent of the costs will probably not give us lots more teams in the next round of the AC Circus, will it?

It's so big

Quiz time! Guess what arrived in my inbox yesterday? It's a boat. What a surprise... but what boat is it? I am sitting in it on this photo... Yes it looks strange. There are two long and narrow carbon hulls and a "fishy" net between them...

A big hull

Need more clues? Those two hulls share a single sail, but it really isn't a sail. It is more like a wing from a plane of sorts... And it is big too.

A big wing

Ok, ok, the boat-type is painted on the wingsail. What kind of quiz is this anyways? This is too easy.

A big boat

Did I mention it's big? Check this out. That little boat all to the left is the Q-2m. It is around 7 meters. The bigger boat (but still tiny) at the top is the Bandit 50. Big isn't the word. Huge is much more appropriate, though I suppose the J-Boat is even bigger.

Ready for launch

So here it is... Wildwind was out of the game for a while, but I must say they're back. Amazing how much good a little break can do. Hmm... It is not an official release. Not yet. I sailed it a bit but not enough to comment upon it. At least not in an intelligent way, so that will have to wait...

Tiny me

However, I will say that the build looks very good and detailed. I was never into catboats, but I gotta admit this is a littlebit exciting. If the sailing is as good as the looks I'd expect the Blake to be filled with these monsters. Only problem is - if they foil - they will cross that pond in less than two minutes. Honestly, I think the 45er is more suited to our virtual waters, but that won't stop me from trying out the 72.

Oh and that silly quiz question: Will a cat fly if it has only one wing?

Unreal win in AC

After starring down the barrel of defeat for a full week, Team Oracle USA took back control and won the Americas Cup in probably one of the most amazing comebacks I've ever seen. The final race wasn't even that exciting. The defender was just faster. At Tradewinds YC we set up a big screen and had a get together to watch the final encounter. Here we are, fourteen of us at the round table at Tradewinds:

Big screen for the final encounter

Team ENLZ won the start, so hopes were high. They stayed ahead all the way to the second mark where Team OUSA went for a split. I cannot believe Team ENLZ allowed that, but the fact is that ENZL failed to cover on the upwind leg. The result was - obviously - that Team OUSA had clean air, and they simply passed Team ENZL on pure boatspeed. At mark three it was all over for Team ENLZ. They were trailing by almost 500 meters.

Laugh, cry or sail the Zen Ten

So, the Americans won the race comfortably. What an unreal comeback. What an amazing win. Big congrats to Team OUSA. To be honest I was cheering for Team ENZL. Not that I like them more. Ok, Dean Barker is maybe more my cup of tea, but that's beside the point. Somehow I always felt they needed the support. Underdogs as they were with only one boat and way less billions to spend on development. The AC has always been about money, and the 34th AC was no exception. Besides, Team OUSA hasn't excactly behaved well, but you gotta hand it to them. They've worked hard and sailed well these past few days.

Zen Ten and a smile after all

Not that I care much about the result. These races have been unreal in so many ways. It's so far away from ordinary sailing anyway, but Larry Ellisons vision of an exciting race holds true. This has been more exciting than any other AC. At least the ones I've watched or heard of. What's more important is that Larry has come down from his tower and showed us he's got his priorities straight. How is that? Apparently he cancelled his own key note at some inferior database event, because sailing was more important. I like that. A lot. Congratulations to Jimmy, Larry and the team. What an unreal comeback.

Catfight improving

The AC circus isn't completely stranded. Just as we thought it was game over for Team USA it seems they are actually fighting back. Those last few races were marginally more interesting than the first handfull or so. It is now almost a catfight as those speakers so love to say... There is hope that we will see good sailing in the last few races. A Kiwi beating an Aussie in the US.

AC72 stranded somewhere

Good for them. Good for sailing I suppose. However, we still need to see how those AC72 make sailing more interesting. They do alot of the opposite. So far the balance is... hmmm...

Yes, there is a "fantastic sprint" to the first mark. Oh well, to have that sprint you need a halfwind start, and that pretty much ruins the prestart fight. Anyway, they can't really do anything clever in the prestart with those monsters. They turn too slow. There's two downwinds and only one upwind. But the interesting stuff happens on the upwind *). The boats are fast. But they are still slo-mo compared to cars. The boats can capsize. But that does not make the sailing interesting... it is like having a flat tyre in Le Mans. There is a fantastic sprint to the finishline. But it is designed so the boats won't cover or dirtwind each other. There are boundaries on the course to take into account. But that really narrows down the tactical options for the teams. Besides, they can only just reach max speed before the have to tack again. Hmm... Maybe, just maybe the racing would have been more interesting with short up/downs in Melges 24, but then again ... that would look like a real boat race. Who needs that?

*) I know. Great sailors also race downwind. In most of AC races so far it's been the upwind leg that made the difference.

Never tack first

The AC circus is on, and it is - surprisingly - fun to watch. The TV production is pretty good. The speak is - hmm - working hard to make sailing understandable for the masses, except when they confuse the boats. The boats themselves are spectacular, but the sailing itself is rather mediocre. After seven races it seems Team NZL is a bit faster and smarter. Not that they need to be. Here's a little something from race five to illustrate it:

Never tack first

It's in every book about tactics. The full title would be "Never tack first when you round the downwind mark first". The graphics shows what happened in race five, but it shows only half the problems. Yellow is clear ahead and tacks right after the mark. This maneuver has the following consequences:

1. Yellow looses speed and distance to Blue.
2. Yellow looses the opportunity to cover Blue.
3. Yellow allows Blue to choose his own route upwind.

Bad idea. Always watch the follower, then make your move. Most racers learn this before they leave the Opti. The crazy thing is - Team USA was well aware of the cost of that extra turn as they got the lead from forcing Team NZL to do it in race one. To make matters worse Spithill and co even tacked into a massive current running against them? There's no way this makes sense. I mean, they are pros. Right? They simply need to up their game or it is game over for Spithill and co.  

After race five Team USA pulled the "Go easy on us"-card, postponing race six. And for good reasons. They've spent way too much time already watching Barker and Co's behind. Effectively, this move gave Team USA an extra day of hard work, whereas Team NZL got a day of rest. Now, after two more races, - I dunno. Which was better?

Then what? They could start replacing people on key posts on board; That doesn't seem to help a lot either. Question is: Can they make a new team work on such short notice?

Hmm. Then there's boat number two. I am guessing they'll save boat number two for desperate times. Anytime soon now.

Finally there's the option described over at improper course and it is hilarious. Go there and have a laugh. Once done with that, there's Buff Staysail reporting over at Captain JP's. Always worth a read. The drinking game mentioned over there is absolutely deadly.

Perhaps we could help those guys a bit by assembling a handfull of tactical NOTs. Not that tactics seem to mean a lot in these boats. Still, feel free to fire away in the comments...

Sailing today

Something is happening in sailing today. It's changing. Sailing is changing. It used to be a gentleman sport. Being in the game and sailing by the rules was the most important thing. Much more important than winning. When I was a kid, we always took our penalty turns with no quarrel, no questions. Today, it seems grown men have problems admitting they made a mistake.

It's a beautiful day out there

It's happening everywhere. Local races, Nationals, Worlds, Olympics. Ofcource the socalled "showcase of sailing" has the problem too. Right now the entire AC circus is in Limbo, because the Oracle team is awaiting a rule 69 investigation. Yes, it's about rule 69. Gross misconduct. This rule is becoming the single rule of sailing the crowd understands. It was there in Perth 2011. It was murmured at the Olympics 2012, and now it's in the AC circus 2013. What's on peoples mind, what's in their memory, is sailors quarreling about who's being unfair. Not good for sailing.

A perfect spot for contemplation

The reality would - under normal conditions - be the defending team looking at a two year ban from sailing. Isn't that a laugh? Team Oracle unable to defend the title! The AC circus isn't normal. It is a freakshow, and the show must go on. I am guessing they will end up picking a scape goat and carry on with business as usual. After all, - it is Larry's show. Question is: Who will want to be in that show when the host is - hmm - not entirely trustworthy? How can trust be restored? Can trust be restored?

Virtual or real

What seems to be the problem is grown men with too much testoterone. Is there too much at stake? Would it be unbearable to loose? Unaffordable even? Is that what's causing the problems? Are the stakes so high that the participants cannot see clearly and determine what's right and wrong? Has sailing become about winning at any cost? Pathetic, don't you think? Grown men outgrown by their own game? Even if this is just about 2.5kg there is no excuse. Cheating is cheating. The real problem is - what happens at the big games is copied by our kids and junior sailors in those smalltime races and nationals, because their socalled "heroes" are doing it. Now that's bad for sailing.

I think I'll chant Elvtrøms famous sailing philosophy and go sailing in RL. The AC sailors need to chant it too, or they might as well shut it all down. 

Planetside ??

Yesterday I watched a clip from the Extreme Series. Not very interesting. It was from a river somewhere in Portugal. The river was like 70 meters wide; The wind was crazy and turbulent, and it really didn't look much like a sailboat race. However, the speaker kept chanting how big a success this event was and then the camera panned over the crowd. Future of sailing. Duh.

Planetside II Warriors?

Then I read in the paper that Tom "Maverick" Cruise had visited the AC circus arena. Wooohooo. I even found a clip of that too. Tom seemed to like it. I quickly decided not to blog about it; It just seems so irrellevant to real sailing, but then Bea posted the above picture on the slboatporn site with an interesting question. Hmm...

I say: If this is sailing then why the heck do they look like troopers from Planetside II or something? Or is this really a shot from Top Gun?

Coup d'cup failure

Finally someone comes clean and states the obvious. Now it is not just Dean Barker and Vincenzo Onorato; A sports columnist over at Bloombergs is doing it too. Wondering WTF is going on with the Americas Cup.

That auld mug

Here's the link to that Bloomberg column by a Jonathan Mahler. The title is "How Larry Ellison Is Destroying the America's Cup". Talk about disruptive innovation. Gaaaaah. I'll just add: Lets put the sailing back into sailing.

Wildcat therapy

I never really cared much for cats. Somehow they don't fit into the category of real boats. However, this whole AC craze is putting giant cats on my radar like never before. Like it or not, those cats are now everywhere. Jane Fosset once wrote: Weird plastic critters skittering across the water. Gotta love that description.

A weird plastic bug...

However, windsurfers don't fit in the real boat category either, and windsurfing is huge fun. Sadly, virtual windsurfing is far from being an interesting simulation. It's a very physical thing, and the physical aspects are hard to replicate into a virtual world. Besides, the waves in SL are - uhm - wavesurfing isn't really there. Not a problem for cats though. They prefer flat waters...

...skittering across the flat waters of SL

Now, where was I going with this? Ahh! Cat sailing can be fun too. If you've followed my scriblings, I suppose you knew that. I had great fun with the Hepcat; I kinda liked the Wildcat35, and lately the Nacra17 has gotten a lot of attention. In fact, I've received complaints that the Nacra17 gets too much attention.

The Wildcat 45

This here is the Wildcat 45. It's a pretty wild thing. It is big, it is detailed, it is fast and it is fun. It might not have totally realistic sailing engine, but it is much better than the predecessor 35er, which had a somewhat strange interpretation of apparent wind. However, the most interesting thing about it is the trimmable wing and the adjustable flap. That's pretty close to the real thing:

The wing and the flap

If you wanna go wing sailing, the Wildcat 45 is probably one of the best options if not the best available on the virtual sailing scene. It is not just a toy. Work must be done to sail it well. Besides the steering, there's a flap to adjust, and it is also possible to move around to optimize the heeling angle, i.e. lift the windward hull out of the water. 

Steering and trimming...

Here's the virtual sailors: Me trimming and Erasmus deeply fokused on the steering. At least that's what he said :-D 

... to maintain high speed

Looks pretty good, right? There's a lotta detail on this boat. Sheets and lines run everywhere, and the wake is pretty good too. Scroll back a few shots and you see there is also a genakker. The speed sensation is there too, but the steering appeared a littlebit too computergamish to me. It felt like shifting directions in small abrubt moves, - not a smooth linear curve. Perhaps it was just Erasmus being new to the boat, I dunno.

More trimming

One thing I noticed though. It seems the AC45 is relatively slow at turning, almost like a real cat, and that's a nice touch. Again, I really cannot tell if it was Erasmus being new to the boat, but it seemed to be a good and realistic implementation of the turning angle versus sailing speed. For details on the performance, polars and stuff see Janes take on the Wildcat.

Cat-ch a bird?

Overall this is a fun & wild cat and it loves to sail at high speeds. I won't compare it to the Nacra17, because they are very different. However, they're both huge fun to sail. They both require work to sail fast, and they both require the crew to work a bit; Also, they both seem to miss out on WWC features such as currents, windshadows and local variations. That aside, I think it is a fun virtual sailboat. Maybe, just maybe, I could learn to like cats better; I just need more virtual cat therapy...  

AC72 too big

Interesting read on Dean Barkers blog the other day. The foiling AC72 is a fantastic machine, but apparently it requires too much manpower; It is the not sailing crew, Dean is referring to. It is the shore crew.

Too big even for Americas Cup?

Here's a quote: "The catamarans are great but the AC72's are just way too expensive. Not only is the design and build of the new boats extreme, but then you need a small army just to launch and retrieve the boat each day let alone the work to maintain it."

My first reaction was: Whoa, finally something that's too big and expensive for "Ellisons Cup". Then I calmed down and it occured to me: Maybe this will help move focus from laywers and crazy scientists, -  back to the sailing? Probably not

Read it all on Dean Barkers blog.

Another thought: Larry could buy SL and hold the "Ellison cup" in there. In the virtual world any individual  can  launch and operate a monster like the EC72, err... AC72. No biggie. Then the rest of us can have Americas Cup back. With sailboat sailing.

The Beast

There's been so much talk about these boats. They've been massively promoted in RL. I've watched them sail on TV and on the website. I've talked to people sailing these things. I have also met people sailing them in SL, and now... I finally tried one.

The Beast at Tradewinds

I am talking about the AC45 cats. A few days back I was at Tradewinds YC messing with the Babysloop. As I stood there, Wendy Ohare landed one of these things right next to me, - on the beach. I probably stared, and Wendy probably noticed, and so she offered me a ride.

Set sails - uhm and wings

Didn't think twice, so here we are waiting for lift off. Wingsail and everything. Me very excited. So, she pulls the sheet and wrooom... it took off like nothing I've ever experienced. I mean really... the Hepcat was fast but this...

Wrooooom...

Within seconds we were at the starting line south of Dex, barely missing the mark, as we approached it so fast it simply popped out of nowhere. I can almost understand why Larry and his boyz choose to look like Bob the Builder, whenever they're at sea. It's a scary machine.

The unidentified flying object

Speed is obviously everything with these boats. No wonder they can't cover each other. No wonder there is hardly any boat to boat infight except at the marks. It is simply impossible to do a safe leeward tack. Besides, the course is so narrow, they can barely accellerate to max speed before they need to tack to avoid the hitting the boundary.

At full speed

In fact most of the close race as we know it from fleet race is non existant. These boats race so differently they even use different rules. So maybe they get a lot of attention from average Joe, but to a seasoned sailor the AC just isn't interesting anymore. It is not sailing. It is something else. It is sailing redesigned to compete with NASCAR. What a strange idea.

The wing

Here's a closeup of the wing as seen from my position. Pretty well made with the sections and the see through and all. The details are generally very good. Hull, mast, wing and everything looks great. The instruments are somewhat disappointing though. Dunno if they plan to make it better, but green text flowing mid-air on a super racer like this? That's not really up to par. Below is another shot taken from where I sat.

The onboard view

The most amazing thing however, is how well it handles sim crossing. When we sailed, I didn't once think about lag or anything. It was only afterwards it struck me... I didn't notice the sim crossing. At all. That's really something, as most other builders struggle with that at much lower speeds.

Helicopter view

I wonder what Corry did. Corry Kamachi, the builder. Is there a trick. Hmm. She probably knows stuff after building the WildWind boats for years. Too bad she stopped doing that. I haven't tried any of the other WildWinds, but if they are anything like this one...

Yeah!

But for now, - let's have another go round the sea south of Tradewinds. I know, they look weird and they're slow at turning. True, the AC circus is becoming just that, - a spectacular show which faintly resembles boat racing. Still, - for an afternoon cruise it is a refreshing, exhillerating and tickling experience. There is only one other boat that has this effect on me...

Update: Don tells me this is really a 35' cat built to wet our appetites. I thought it looked a little small for a 45'. Also, I understand the work on the AC45 goes on. I am very excited to hear that. The AC game might not resemble classic sailing much, but it sure is spectacular and it looks like fun.

More on the AC circus...

Buff Staysails TV-show

The AC circus is moving faster than any other sailing event I've ever heard of. Some people like it; Some people don't. In the latter category we find Vincenzo. Me, I still dunno what to think.

The new Sailrocket? E.T.'s dad? No, it's the AC45...

The editors at Scuttlebutt aren't quite sure what to think either. In a post called "Just what America's Cup needs", they talk about sugar over substance. I think "All candy diet" would have been a better title, but nevermind. While we're all hoping for the better, another blogger takes us to a sneak preview of the upcoming AC circus in a post called "Buff Staysail's ACWS TV show". It's soooo funny.

Oh, and if you look up the Sailrocket and start thinking: Yeah, life begins at 40 knots, then think again. It could be that life starts in a foiling monohull at 30 knots.

Back to sailing

So Vincenzo Onorato backs out. It's really not a subject that fits on this blog, and then again... It is all about the sailing isn't it? Let's see what he said, Vincenzo:

Back to sailing, or is it too old-school?

"In our sport, men in blazer have overcome by now those in oilskins, I'm a man in oilskin and when I go in the sea, I want to win. I’m not interested in a hopeless challenge, I would lie to the sponsors, to our fans and last but not least also to myself."

I think I like that guy. Let's get the sailing back into sailing. Let's get rid of the suits, so that we can compete (wo)man to (wo)man. I so prefer to win with sore arms and wet feet from sailing over a sore throath (and bank account)  from talking to my lawyer. Or is it too much old school? I think not.