I think your comment is quite unfair to sailors. It's true I've been brought up on sailboats and raced mono hulls competitively until my mid 20s, but I raced and sailed all sort of boats including Tornados. A matter of fact I can't think of any of my sailing friends who doesn't think cats are the bomb. Its not us again them...edt wrote:Most sailboat owners hate the catamarans, they think there is no grace, no tacticsnicor wrote:Watched a few races, the boats are super cool, but admittedly I miss the tactics and crew work that comes with the mono hulls. I don't like the location too, It's a drag race to one side of the course. Bring back the 12s I say..
good job NZ
Everyone else in the world looks at these ac72's and thinks "Wow! Sailboats are fun. I didn't think I would ever watch a sailboat race, but I'll watch these, what are they called, ac somethings?"
Which is why the sailboat owners are gonna lose. This is the best america's cup of all time, there is no question, most popular most watched, best for the sponsors best for the non-sailing audience, best for people on shore to watch -- being able to watch from shore not a priority in the sailing community.
Traditional sailboat owners still have the Olympics to watch with the finn and the 49er laser, 470 and the rs:x windsurfer.
I do not understand ordinary sailors, that's for sure. I love these new boats, sure I love the 49ers those are beautiful too and the 12 meter boats are wonderful to watch, but I just don't understand why they are all about watching the horse and carriage when the race car just got invented.
I understand the kiwis will eventually win, oracle is in too deep a hole to climb out. But I just want to watch one more day of racing, go oracle you can do it!
The way I see sailing for the most part is more like chess match, with lots of tactics and manoeuvres to gain positioning. The super fast cats lose this and its because of the speed and the speed they lose during maneuvers: they're so fast that when you have to throw in just one extra tack or jibe, your competitor is moving so fast and you lose so much momentum, you basically lose the race. On a monohull, you can keep the momentum from tack to tack and benefit from the shifting wind directions. An analogy (over simplified): catamarans is like a drag race, monohulls is like f1 race.
But apart from the incredible speed i do find it a bit of a yawn fest. No tacking or jibing duals, no close maneuvers, crews can't trash talk each other anymore. These cats build so much apparent wind their sails are fully trimmed all the time. Jibes are simple too, just pull the sail over to the other side, no pole work. Never changes sails on the fly...I can go on.
I love these big cats, but I just don't think match racing is a good format for them, but hey that's just my opinion. Let's see which direction NZ would like to take it in the next AC.