... dang faster than most Parkers!!

DaleH · Sep 25, 2013

Did you see the speeds that these new design catamarans that are sailing (flying?) in the America's Cup? :?:

By using daggerboards with a hydrofoil mounted off the bottom of it, they're able to raise the complete hull OUT of the water and achieve speeds to 50mph! Holy toledo!

TomS · Sep 25, 2013

Ive been watching them race off and on over the last several weeks.

The final race for the championship will be this afternoon, going to be exciting as the USA has come back from an 8-1 deficit with 7 straight victories to tie it up.

As Dale pointed out, "this isn't your grandfather's America's Cup".. these boats are very fast and the races are short and easy to follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJJc_8Y1o7M

Replays and highlights of the races can be found on the Youtube channel I posted above.

-- Tom

Brent · Sep 25, 2013

Team Oracle wins AC

GREATEST COMEBACK IN SAILING HISTORY!

Harpoon · Sep 27, 2013

No rod holders though

Megabyte · Sep 27, 2013

I have a friend who owns a 44' Swan (a former race boat), and keeps it in San Fran Bay, known for it's wind.
The other day she had her boat out, but the AC boats were 'grounded' due to the wind speed.
She was telling me that the AC boats won't race if wind speed is greater than 20 knots.
Why? Because they are so fragile they will break in heavy wind.

I likened it to what NASCAR and NHRA have become.
NASCAR motors are built to last 500 miles, and some don't even make it that far before scattering parts.
In NHRA, Top Fuel diggers and Funnies rebuild motors and clutches between every round!
Talk about expen$ive!

Racing these 'sailboats' has become a joke.
My friend thinks they need to go back to monohulls that can race in any weather.
I tend to agree.