Many America's Cup fans say this is their best source of information.
You’ll soon be seeing the first AC72 races! Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand will face off in their AC72s in the early round robin races of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Like in pre-season football games, they may not count towards the championship, but they are great fun to watch. Same goes for Oracle Team USA – they will race two boats in house, sparring to make sure the team is ready to defend the America’s Cup in the match in September.
America’s Cup Race Management released today the new race calendar for July. Remember that the safety recommendations called for dropping two rounds robin to give teams more time for maintenance. Artemis has announced they plan to launch their new AC72 during July.
“Learning that Artemis Racing is focused on getting to the start line is truly great news,” Barclay said. “I don’t think we can expect them to be ready for the first races but I’m certain the America’s Cup community will support them in every way possible.”
ACRM has scheduled five rounds robin. It’s virtually certain that Artemis will not race in the first three, so they would be scored “DNC” (did not come) on dates marked with a red “X.” The point would be awarded to the other team. We hope Artemis will be ready to race in the last two rounds robin, but if they are not, the races on dates marked with red “?” will also not be run. That would leave only five days of racing in July – Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa would race each other on those five days.
Oracle Team USA will run training races with their two boats, so we will see more than five races. You can download the full calendar from ACRM here.
Artemis can chose not to race until the semi-finals in August. No one will be eliminated until the end of the semi-final. Even in the original schedule, the rounds robin did not count for much – just the seeding for the semi-finals. With only three teams, the top team from the round robin phase can chose to go straight to the LVC final while the other two teams race in the “best of seven” semi-finals.
Two weeks ago, when we learned that two rounds robin would be dropped, I took a guess at what the new calendar would look like. See my guess and my reasoning here.
Replay all ACWS races. Adjust playback speed, rewind, fast forward. See North at top or wind from top. Review the tactical moves, protests and penalties. Set boat trails to “All” to see the course each boat sailed.
America’s Cup fans with iPhones have a new way to get insider info and to experience the competition. The Cup Experience Club gives you a digital membership card that uses “Passbook,” an app built into every iPhone. More info.
Open this page on your iPhone and tap “Get your Pass.”
Be sure to tap “Add” to put your pass in your Passbook.
We’re getting some exciting video from fans with
their “amcams” and from the teams. Here is Luna Rossa, working on maneuvers. In all the videos in this article, you’ll see why the discussion about foiling concerns the “transitions” even
more than straight line speed.
From Andrew Wisner’s YouTube channel:.
In this video posted on Friday. ETNZ fans will be happy to see their
team in front and looking pretty smooth with well choreographed crew work in
the maneuvers. OTUSA fans will like seeing the speed USA 17 can generate.
Next we’ll look at a recent video from Oracle Team USA,
posted on Friday 24 May 2013. It’s
only a couple of minutes long, but, if you look closely, you’ll see a lot of
interesting details, including some focused on crew safety. You’ll hear Tom
Slingsby talk about how they are experimenting with choreography during gybes.
Now let me show you what to look for:
At about 10 seconds into the video, you’ll see the bright orange patches
and sleeves on the crew that make them more visible, if somewhat less
aerodynamic for now. It also looks like they are wearing climbing harnesses –
maybe the harnesses combine with the self-lowering equipment mentioned in the
safety recommendations.
At about 39 seconds into the video, you can also
see that the soft fairing on the aft crossbeam is now covered with transparent
film – another of the safety recommendations. This angle gives you a good
appreciation of the slippery aerodynamic shape of USA 17 – there are no
diagonal cables or struts underneath.
In the photo above you see the crew all lined up in
the port hull. The next photo, at about 13 seconds into the video shows them
facing fore and aft and low in the cockpits to reduce drag. OTUSA has taken great pains to reduce windage.
Now, let’s look at crew work during a gybe. In the
photo above, helmsman Jimmy Spithill is in his usual place, but below, at about
1 minute into the video, you can see Tom Slingsby has taken the wheel while
Spithill and wing trimmer Dirk De Ridder start crossing to the other side. Tactician John Kostecki is furthest to
the right, in the cockpit behind the wheel. Watch him in the video – you’ll see
him move forward to handle wing trim during the gybe, at about 1:08.
Here is another gybe, with a slightly different
choreography – Slingsby helms while Spithill crosses over to take the wheel and
Dirk De Ridder trims the wing.
Preparing for a gybe also includes lowering the
daggerboard on the windard side, which will become the new leeward side. In the
next two photos, Spithill has crossed sides while Slingsby helms. Watch the
video at about 1:11 to see the daggerboard dropping.
