The Next America's Cup in Multihulls

Thank You Erne$to

...amusing piece from Sailing Anarchy

By Peter Huston

The sport of sailing was put on the global map like never before on Tuesday with the launching of the wing on “USA”. Without Larry Ellison’s drive to have fair rules in the America’s Cup this never would have happened.

But the guy who caused all this to happen is Erne$to Bertarelli. Erne$to, you have taken the sport to both lowest depths ever, and now ironically you are also completely responsible for taking it the highest level ever. This piece of massive technology transcends sailing, and Larry Ellison will now have what you crave so much. You might still win the race, if in fact you can stop playing games, and losing, in Court, and that we actually do have a race, a race where the result isn’t appealed. But, unless you have a wing waiting, Larry beat you to the punch with something the world has never seen before. The world may not remember who wins the 33rd America’s Cup, but they are always going to remember Larry Ellison for the wing. Just was said to the Queen, there is no second.

Erne$to, you (finally) gave Valencia the Match this week (or did you?), but you gave San Diego something even bigger. Your actions caused San Diego to be put on the world stage once more with the unveiling of the wing. People around the world watched the show break wide open in the Sailing Anarchy forum, then morph into the live feed from Fox: you probably watched too. The City of San Diego, and the State of California thank you for helping to showcase San Diego on another picture perfect day.

Erne$to, thanks so much for creating the path for Larry Ellison and the dedicated teams members and supporters of BMW Oracle to capture the attention of the world. Every great story needs a hero and a villain. The only question remains: how much longer are you willing to be the villain? What you want is simple, the same thing everyone wants: respect. Even for all the shame you have brought to the sport since July of 2007, it’s never too late to change. Giving in to reason is not giving up. We don’t want to disrespect you, we want to like you, but you make that impossible. Look in the mirror, say “thank you” to yourself, pick up the phone, call Larry, end all the litigation, and get on the with the race. Who knows, you might even win, but if you don’t, a last second gesture of conciliation will go along way to repair your image and regain some respect. But for now, Thank You for the actions that led to the greatest piece of sailing kit ever.

Monster Wingsail

The new America’s Cup yacht from BMW Oracle is a monster. The BOR 90 is the most radical boat in the history of the 158-year-old regatta, resembling a floating skyscraper more than a traditional racing yacht as she towers nearly 200 feet high.

The height comes from a revolutionary 190ft wing sail — a stiff, airplane-like sail that will be trimmed by an engine to generate unprecedented speeds, even in the lightest of winds.

The wing is longer than the wing of an Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger airliner, and covers 625 square metres. Any crew member aloft on the massive vessel looks ant-like, even from close to the boat.

The crew report that the giant sail can turn ten knots of wind into more than 30 knots through the water, a speed of which most sailing vessels can only dream. The wing — built of carbon fibre and Kevlar, and covered with an aeronautical skin — has eight huge flaps that can be trimmed back and forth to catch the best of the wind, making it in theory easier to control and more responsive than a soft sail....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/sailing/article6920755.ece

If you click on their PDF dwg it will enlarge
http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/ttsthemonster2.pdf

Moving On

They came for six weeks and stayed 16 months. But it is time for the BMW Oracle Racing team to leave San Diego in its quest for the America's Cup. After one more week on the water off Point Loma, the San Francisco-based challengers will close their San Diego Bay training base to the west of the Convention Center and head to the site of the actual races.

The actual site of the defense won't be decided until after Wednesday when the NY Supreme Court Appellate Division will hear the appeal by Société Nautique De Genève of the lower court’s decision to invalidate Ras al-Khaimah (RAK) as the America’s Cup venue. For now the site appears to be Valencia, Spain, with the first race scheduled for Feb. 8 - although that, too, could change.

The sides are talking, finally, about mutually delaying the start of the one-on-one Deed of Gift match and extending the required best 2-of-3 series to a best 4-of-7. Whenever, the next America's Cup will match the winged, 90-foot BOR trimaran against the Alinghi soft-sail catamaran - which is currently back in the shed to be modified to meet the maximum 90-foot waterline length or add a second mast to comply with its present overall length of around 110 feet. -- Union-Tribune, full story:
http://tinyurl.com/y9y65bb

BMW Oracle Racing CEO Russell Coutts, who this week said that subsequent modifications to their boat since it was first launched a year ago have made it over 20 per cent faster, added that the wing sail has been a game-changer.

"The wing sail is the biggest single transformation of a boat I have ever seen," he said. "It has turned an astonishing boat into something spectacular."

A few of the latest video releases by both camps

http://www.sail-world.com/USA/index.cfm?SEID=2&Nid=64280&SRCID=0&ntid=19&tickeruid=0&tickerCID=0

Summary Video to this point

Good PR

http://www.youtube.com/v/Y8WoFksO9tI

What Defines a SAIL ?

Just saw this interesting comment submitted to Scuttlebutt by an aero associate of the North loft

* From Paul Bogataj:
Since the Deed of Gift provides the Challenger a "match for this Cup with a yacht or vessel propelled by sails only and constructed in the country to which the challenging Club belongs ...", isn't there another question before one even gets to the issue regarding where the yacht was constructed? Is the wing a sail? What defines a sail? Is it anything that pulls a boat through the water using force extracted from the wind (like a kite)?

Why would there be different words for sail, wing, and kite? They may perform similar aerodynamic functions, but they have different characteristics that define them as different things. Perhaps a sail is something that is flexible and is capable of being aised and lowered along the mast. It seems that here is more potential legal arguing, unless they do not intend to race with the wing.

Curmudgeon's Comment:
Here is the definition from Wikipedia: "A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind...in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing." And, of course, there is the precedent from the 1988 Match when Stars & Stripes (USA) successfully defended the 27th Match with a wing-powered catamaran.

4 x windspeed !

The Daily Sail (subscription required) is reporting that they watched BMWO (now USA apparently) yesterday from a rib, and noted that they were doing 25-26 knots of boatspeed in 6-7 knots ! Hmmm, and Russell Coutts said that he
thought Alinghi would be the faster boat in light air ! (OK he might be
sandbagging who knows) - quite extraordinary !