Just watched the first race (bit of insomnia). Closest race so far. Great stuff.
If you haven't been following Oracle USA received a penalty for their boat design breaking the rules. They receive no points for the first two races, win or lose.
Looks like removing the right to appeal jury decisions has come back to bite them 
2-0 up - boys looked comfortable today.
Might seem like a stupid question, but did they have to end up altering their boat to comply or just the penalty?
[edit] Never mind. i took the time to look it up myself 
Go the Kiwi's
Show the rest of the world what we can achieve from the bottom of the world
Only seven more to win
Cheers
Kiwial
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..
Just watched the first race (bit of insomnia). Closest race so far. Great stuff.
If you haven't been following Oracle USA received a penalty for their boat design breaking the rules. They receive no points for the first two races, win or lose.
The interesting thing was the rule breaches concerned the AC45 boats, they were pretty serious breaches but 250k in fines and 2 points in the main AC72 series seems a bit harsh to me.
The first two races were great, super close and OTUSA have been pretty aggressive! The boat speed between ETNZ and OTUSA is much closer than the previous matches...I'm not sold on which one has the edge yet, I tend to think ETNZ has an upwind advantage, OTUSA maybe a touch of an advantage downwind. You can't deny though that in the first two races ETNZ's teamwork made the difference, so so slick 
18-sec deficit on the 2nd leg was turned into a 29 sec advantage at the end of leg three - massive difference in boatspeed - some amazing skills from the TNZ and Dean Barker is dominating. 3 to -2!!!! Game on.
where was our extra boatspeed in that last race - looks like its game on now. 3 to -1!
What a boat. Gybes without dropping below 30 knots! Sails in 5 to 33 knots with the one rig!
I'm still getting up to speed with this new spectator sport.
So the boat handling members of the crew use electronics to distribute the hydraulic power generated by the grinding crew members. But the design rules don't allow storage of energy other than in small springs, computer batteries and shock chord. That's not fair, no wonder the grinder crew are puffing and blowing keeping the hydraulic lines constantly pressurised.
www.sailingworld.com/racing/americas-cup-34-power-oil/
Has it got much to do with Countries these days? It's more like the "Oil industry" vs the "Computer industry". Who ever has the most money , wins ...
geez that was great to watch. USA almost fluffed it in Race 4 when they brought the leeward foil up too early on the gybe.
Select to expand quoteMacroscien said..
*snip Complete nonsense to use exclusively crew muscle to power pumps , then hydraulic ram.
What about wind power ! Small wind turbine could power hydraulics pumps.
Because that's the rules. When class rule for these boats was proposed they came up with the fastest boat that could be powered by humans by why of grinders etc without powered assistance. BOR90 etc in the last up had complete powered hydraulics, simple generator or two in the hull, boom, easy, crew just chills playing with switches; there is no way you could sail that boat without powered assistance. In this cup they ditched all that, they are allowed electronic switching of the pump output circuit/s etc but there can be no energy storage, IE in a pressure accumulation vessel, it must be flowed by the pumps, by the crew, as required. I think this is a good thing, it's real sailing!
Select to expand quoteCJW said..
Because that's the rules.
agree , rules are good as for today but if you looks into near future things may change again.
Even today if you compare Americas Cup boats A.D. Auckland and now San Francisco , race didn't loose anything on attraction for public, sailing skills required. Just opposite IMO.
One competition is rowing where artificial propelling will be appealing, but Americas Cup is about boats and technology.
As long as propelled by wind that is fine with me.
The problem is that in the future instead of the muscular athletes crew could be made of skinny guys and girls to save on the weight.
It is interesting to see how AC boats had slim from 189 tones to 5.9 tones for AC72 
The ability to grind is not the determining factor in this cup, both teams would have a suitable amount grinding fitness in reserve, sure it's hard work but look at ETNZ, Grant Dalton is on the grinders, the dude is 56yo. To call it a rowing race is just ridiculous, what do you think they did back on the 24m-ish monos...they used grinders. The only cup where they had full powered hydraulic assistance was the last cup, which while the boats were incredible, was a total fiasco. I think having manual grinding is a good thing (without accumulation). The design and technology in those hyrdo circuits to allow for maximum efficiency and control would arguably be far more sophisticated that if you could just whack in an electric pump and a few solenoids.
And are you seriously arguing that the old monos as sailed in Aukland are as spectacular as these boats...have to be taking the piss. The AC has never been this spectacular, much smaller course, close to the spectators not 10km offshore...and you can't deny these are the most spectacularly sailing boats the AC world has ever seen...by a mile.
Race 1 vid of Joe Newton (Yeppoon boy) going overboard on race start. Wouldn't want to be doing 40 knots when slipping over board
Race 3 was a cracker.
. A question on the rules. NZL got a penalty at the first mark for not leaving buoy room. But don't they need to do a tack and gybe to discharge it? It looks like they just kept on racing?
I watch the highlights too and they didn't show it. I'm assuming they did their penalty which is a 270 degree and not a full turn in match race.
Select to expand quotesausage said..
Race 1 vid of Joe Newton (Yeppoon boy) going overboard on race start. Wouldn't want to be doing 40 knots when slipping over board
Looks like G-forces from the boat turning gave him too much momentum......
Select to expand quoteIan K said...
Race 3 was a cracker. . A question on the rules. NZL got a penalty at the first mark for not leaving buoy room. But don't they need to do a tack and gybe to discharge it? It looks like they just kept on racing?
They just need to lose 2 boat lengths to complete penalty.
Its Funny but I did my apprentice ship at barlow marine & we made the old coffee grinders that actually won Australia the Americas cup & then because we had the recession we had to have & our dollar was dirt cheap & just about every overseas boat that raced in the Perth Americas cup had Barlow winches saved freight & was cheaper buying here .
We were so inundated with orders they put up a $26000 bonus if we made them all on time to be divided up in the I think around 140 workers.
The factory manager would lock the door to get so every body would have stay until we hit the daily target & Australia didn't get there winch order in on time so they had to buy from overseas at an exorbitant price compared to everybody else .
Its come a long way since the winged keel .
I have seen the current round of sailing & gee those people are flying .
Its a funny really Alan got us the Americas cup
But
Clive is building the titanic
Select to expand quotelongwinded said..
They just need to lose 2 boat lengths to complete penalty.
That makes sense, explains NZL's exaggerated swerve to windward after the close encounter. I assume the race refs can use a bit of discretion and signal "play on" via the onboard beacon when they've been judged to have dropped back far enough.
Select to expand quotelongwinded said..Ian K said...
Race 3 was a cracker. ?rel=0 . A question on the rules. NZL got a penalty at the first mark for not leaving buoy room. But don't they need to do a tack and gybe to discharge it? It looks like they just kept on racing?
They just need to lose 2 boat lengths to complete penalty.
I didn't know that. Thanks.
NZ just won race 5. USA tactically f#@ked up the downwind gybe into leg 2 and handed NZ the lead . 5 more wins for NZ and I'm going to Auckland to watch the next AC.
Oracle just called for a postponement to race 6 so all over for today. I think they're getting rattled.
They are rattled !! As a one eyed kiwi reporter has said.....Smashed by bans, fines and loss of points, they have now had it slammed home to them that they have a boat that is vastly inferior to Aotearoa when it comes to upwind work.
I liking the look of things but am not getting ahead of myself just yet. We need to win 5 more and then need 10 - so a long way to go.
Ted,
As you mentioned the telling stats were in the upwind leg as follows;
Ave Speed NZ 22.6 USA 21.43
Max Speed NZ 29.79 USA 28.98
Distance sailed NZ 7696m USA 8238m
No. of Tacks NZ 7 USA 8
Geez they really did f#$k that bottom turn watching the replay. Feeling for Joe but great to see the Kiwi's smacking USA's ar5e.
Max speeds for R5 NZ 46.94kn USA 44.93kn
Anybody found a website for the race highlights yet? The full 2 hr replay is a bit much to sit thru when you know the result.
I'm hoping the next technological innovation is a canting rig. It's probably the main reason windsurfing held the speed record for so long; being able to lean into the breeze.
