Any chance of America's cup going back to monohulls?

I agree, multihull racing and crews with helmets, is not America's Cup to me. On the other hand, I was never impressed with the 12 M class either. I would like to see beautiful sailing boats, maybe an S&S design around 70-80 feet, built in a number that are circulated among the teams, so the sailing becomes more important than the material..?

Sorry Lars, but that's just boring old match racing. Dull to watch. Would you spend time and money on J24s?

The TV companies want a war and that's what we got in this last challenge. The world watched it and loved it.

I know, people love their apps and computer games, I don't..

Go from faster to slower? I'm guessing not....

Dunno.

Formula1 has just gone that way.

Not really. Any slow down has only been temporary. Unless someone comes up with a monohull that can beat a multi, I don't think we'll be going back!

There are still great monohull races like The Chicago to Mackinac Race .Three hundred thirty three miles long and lots of boats.

Dennise' Conner made it no longer a gentleman's race...

Stars and Stripes design was only part of it.

Seems that 80 mph of the 1960's killed more drivers than the 110 today!

Actually I having lived through those times... in both cases I thought the racing was better, more entertaining and exciting.... and less expensive.

A friend was driving for Ferrari... the pay was about $300... a race!

How the drivers survived was the "can't get to the race scheme" basically, and I know who invented this and was its master, how it worked was you called up all the rich guys that hung around as groupies... saying "I can't get to the race... " most usually a first class airline ticket would be forth coming. Then you would cash in the extra tickets... test more than one groupie would be solicited. Well one day the master of this happened to be inline in London... I just cashed in 5 tickets, my lucky day! But behind me was the master schemer... he said, "Having a drink in the lounge?" So waited what seemed forever... finally he showed up I bought a round proud of my success... saying " I got 6 tickets... chased in 5!" All proud about it. He then said, "thanks for the drink... great... glad you waited it took me awhile to cash in the 42 tickets I had."

Sorry for the couple edits... it's hard to write in english when you are trying to listen to french lady babble... might be something vital you miss and pay the price for later!

One of my sailing mentors was the j24 national champ, more than once.

Nothing reveals the minute technical aspects of sailing better than an ultralight boat. I have spent time on J24's, and it is enjoyable. However, we have moved on to newer technology, such as the Melges 24 which has no winches.

Foils and multihills simply don't interest me.

A girlfriend of mine was the skipper of the World Champ winning J24s, did they get any TV hours. 4 blonde, sort of good looking girls. Nope.

Did the boys on the big, angry Cats get coverage? Hell yes.

I think the 'foiling aspect' was what put me off from following the races so closely this last time.....and even while I love technical aspects of sailing.

I just didn't see how the foiling tech could trickle down into the general sailing designs

+1, and I thought I was the only one, or so my kids told me

That's no different than most other sports...

How do blown diffusers and super-capacitors trickle down to general automotive designs? They don't. But that's not why we watch F1 or WEC.

Many f1 technologies are in most every car produced.

Dual clutch gearboxes, steering wheel buttons, internal engine coatings, lubricants, tires, brakes, etc, are all used in everyday cars, and have greatly benefited from the innovations in F1.

Most F1 teams that are also automobile producers regularly rotate their corporate guys through the f1 program so that they can help bring the innovations of f1 to the consumer car market.

Don't know what the blown diffusers are, but super-capacitors as energy storage devices for electric vehicles are still a very real potential, aren't they?

The problem is the design of the current racing boats are so far removed from a normal sailboat that you really cannot even relate the two. Theoretically the playing field should be leveled and only monohulls or a seperate class for cats and such. It's almost like comparing the Daytona 500 using tricked out sport bikes to the typical nascars that at least still resemble a car and use the same style of drivetrain and saying it's the same race

What's a "normal sailboat"?

And even if you could define normal, why should they be used in the AC?

And Michael Fay's idea to show up with his gigantic mono-hull and take on a 12 meter was a gentlemen's move?

Come on, nobody made the AC more exciting than the polarizing DC, love him or hate him, he helped build the AC stage.