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If they don’t figure out how to stop the catastrophic failures I can’t see this being sustainable. Another complete mast / wing collapse , the foils flying off the French boat like a three foot machete . And then the T bone which chopped the hole in GBs boat . It’s very expensive carnage


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Are the AC75 nearly enclosed and no crossing detracting from the spectator interest?
Could be drones sailed from shore.... :unsure:
 
Steam punk meets scifi
 
America Cup has lost the plot , it’s beyond millionaires budgets to compete, the boats have no relevance to anything another sailor may sail and as a spectator, you see nothing on the water .
The “deed of gift” ( the rules) get rewritten every time somebody gets control of the cup ( billionaires) and it’s a complete Shiite show . I stopped watching in the early two thousands when they declared the boats could only race in seven to twelve kts of wind. It was delays for days , an Australian massive fail in organizing.


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Yet you missed the greatest breakthrough in sailing since the clipper ship. That 17 race event in San Francisco was akin to the moon landing as the contestants learned as they raced.
What amazes me is it is transforming open ocean racing as well.
Money well spent .....IMNSHO
You may criticize the organizers but the advent of sailing with hydrofoils and all the spin offs...from individuals to ocean racers is akin to the Wright Brothers.
Materials science and engineering has advanced tremendously because of the billions spent on the Cup.
It's not only wonderful science ......they are gorgeous too.
image
 
current build cost for a monohull IMOCA 60 foiler is about 9million euros, and there are 11 new ones in construction. Demand excceds capacity to build . I wont dispute the trickle down technology, we have two foiling boats sitting at my club (one WASP and one Moth ) , and Canada has a foiling center for training Olympic sailors in Kingston. Its being run by a friend of mine.
More useful for me has been the improvements to electronics , my autopilot runs on a 6 axis electronic compass, wind sensor accruracy is available to the common man (still 2k for a mast senor) and start line digital display is all a result of Americas Cup. But I still hate the alien spider boats , but without hundreds of millions being blown, lawyers making more money than the sailors and some blatant cheating , it simply wouldnt be the AC
 
The same could be said of F1 and "spider" cars...very alien that could run on the ceiling. 🏎️
That said the divorcing of the crew from the viewing crowd in AC is a loss in my opinion......tho pre foiling 95% of the race was unavailable for viewing. :rolleyes: only the start was immediately engaging.
I think the tech all around is very exciting and the ability to have around the world races in human scale time frames PLUS being able to track and watch and even interact with the contestants is mind blowing.....plus much safer.
Exciting times....🕺⛵
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