[84far]

quote:
You see, I love multihulls. They are without a doubt the most efficient (ie best) way to take what nature gives and travel over the water. The designs approach art and the sensation of sailing them approaches flying while monohulls are more like plowing. I do not hate monhulls (indeed race on some) but multis have always been the fastest, most pretty beasts on the water.

couldnt agree more... everything else before and after that is a..... i dont think he or anyone else that agrees with that get this... u cant MATCH RACE in a 90 x 90' cat or tri... this is about the guys sailing the boat, team work, who can pull off the best move, etc

when Richard Branson join the F1 he only joined so he can help with the use of new fuels that were friendly to the environment.... what are these clowns doing.... who has the biggest..... if they want to spend big, they should put it back into sailing.

if u dont agree tell me why....

far

[K1W1]

Hi,

Maybe I am missing something here.

It reads to me that the Defenders have the right to change the boat rules right up to the last minute and do not have to let the opposition know in advance.

This make it kind of one sided if this is correct.

To have one boat where a lot of the grunt work is done by machine and another where it is done by muscle does not really demonstrate anything cutting edge about the sailing ability of the design.

[Kevin]

The Deed Of Gift is one hell of a convaluted legal document, but I do believe that the design has to be finalized 6 months before the date of the race.

[brian eiland]

There are too many sailing rules. It is a popular contention, and some feel it holds the sport back. Rules experts point out that despite the girth of the rule book, it is only the 14 rules in Part 2 that are relevant on the race course. To provide a simpler rules guide, Scuttlebutt posted in March 2009 an abbreviated rules publication by Ken Quant titled "The Basic Sailboat Racing Rules All Racers Should Know". US SAILING also provides a simplified, pocket sized rules guide to help.

Now the America's Cup defender, the Swiss Alinghi team, is coming to the rescue as well. For the next Match, they have decided to eliminate six rules from the rule book. Among them is Rule 53 - Skin Friction. The rule reads, "A boat shall not eject or release a substance, such as a polymer, or have specially textured surfaces that could improve the character of the flow of water inside the boundary layer." Without this rule, what is it that we will see on these maxi multihulls?

The uproar last week at the Swimming World Championship was about the new generation of body suit that is 100% polyurethane, admittedly better and soon to be banned from that sport. So that is one option. What about air hockey?
How cool would it be for tiny air jets along the hull to lift the boat up and out of the water? Better yet, how about bow jets emitting a substance so the hulls glide through something more slippery than saltwater? There has to be some kind of chemical that is faster to sail through than saltwater.

The America's Cup has always been a source of technology break-thrus that trickle down into the sport. Let's hope this isn't one of them. --
Scuttleblog, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/08/rule-53.html

[AMG]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Better yet, how about bow jets emitting a substance so the hulls glide through something more slippery than saltwater? There has to be some kind of chemical that is faster to sail through than saltwater.

This is what we did already in the 60:s...

[YachtNews]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Better yet, how about bow jets emitting a substance so the hulls glide through something more slippery than saltwater? There has to be some kind of chemical that is faster to sail through than saltwater.

Wouldn't that be at the expense of the ocean and sea life?

[brian eiland]

BTW to avoid confusion it was not me specifically that suggest this release of foreign fluids to improve friction losses....that was a quote from a Scuttlebut blog that rumored that situation.

[brian eiland]

Alinghi 5 was launched on Lake Geneva by the world's biggest helicopter on 9 July; the culmination of over a year's work. Central to the design and ongoing development are - among the 27 other team members on the design team - Grant Simmer, design team co-ordinator; Rolf Vrolijk, chief designer; and Dirk Kramers, chief engineer...

...interesting interview here in Sept issue of Seahorse Magazine

[brian eiland]

When you compare testing time versus competition time, there likely are not too many events with such an extreme ratio as the America's Cup. With this next event being held in revolutionary maxi multihulls, there is significant interest in what the teams are doing, and among the burning questions is whether they will use a hard wing sail.

Wing sails are standard in the 25-foot C-Class catamarans, and the Stars & Stripes team tested both a soft and hard sail rig on the 60-foot catamarans used in their successful 1988 defense. However, for either of the teams to use a wing sail in the 33rd America's Cup, they would have to first overcome some hurdles: short development time and the non-sailing logistics for the unprecedented rig size.

Said BMW Oracle team CEO Russell Coutts, "We are working on a wing in depth, however, the complexity of handling a wing of this size would be a significant challenge."

By sheer coincidence, the last time someone tried to develop a hard wing sail for a multihull might have been Ben Hall for his 18-foot A-Class Catamaran, whose company - Hall Spars & Rigging - has been building the masts for the BMW Oracle Racing trimaran.

Ben completed the rig prior to the 2007 Worlds, and in retrospect, he notes about his wing, "It was one thing to build a complex lightweight structure and another thing on how to make it go fast on the racecourse."

Read on for Ben's full report:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0810/

[yipster]

phew, that boat can hardly get better. aspect ratio or wingsails is one thing
deltawing vortex with angled thus more leading edge another etc etc
but looking at the pics they have planty, did you see that guy up in the mast?

my super rig dreams were recently woken up tho by a THERE IS NO SUBSTITUE FOR CUBIC INCHES
one sail has the efficiency but having planty THERE IS NO SUBSTITTUE FOR FREE SQUARE INCHES

[brian eiland]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

..courtesy of Scuttlebutt

Stored power… that is what all the fuss is about. Alinghi wants to use it, but is not yet ready to disclose the rules that would permit it. Too much time would give BOR the opportunity to create their own system. The fact is that Alinghi, because she is a catamaran, may have to use stored power to be competitive. Here are some comments on the subject from esteemed multihull sailor and designer Pete Melvin of Morrelli & Melvin:

[i]“On the Alinghi cat, it appears that they are going with hydraulic winches and some hydraulic cylinders for other controls such as shrouds, forestays, and possibly mainsheet.

ENGINE NOW ADDED TO CUP CHALLENGER
(October 13, 2009) - Following three weeks of modifications, America's Cup challenger BMW Oracle Racing trimaran BOR 90 emerged today from the boatbuilding tent at the team base in San Diego. The latest iteration of the giant trimaran the team will use to challenge for the 33rd America's Cup boasts new features which will be worked up on shore, before the boat hits the water for more testing near the end of the month.

Most significantly, and in response to the new rules issued earlier this year for the 33rd America's Cup by the Defender, SNG/Alinghi, the team has modified the BOR 90 cockpit to accommodate an engine. For the first time in the history of the America's Cup, the Defender has altered the racing rules to allow using an engine to replace human power on board the race boats. Since the Cup's inception in 1851, and in almost all other yacht racing, only manual (human) power may be used to trim sails and do other work.

On BOR 90, the engine will primarily be used to drive hydraulics for trimming the enormous sails - the mainsail alone measures nearly 7,000 square feet - that propel the boat. Alinghi's insistence on the use of engines has resulted in the team having not only to add an engine and related gear, but to redesign the boat's cockpit on the center hull. With the engine, there is no longer a requirement for the grinding pedestals and sailors ('grinders') who until now provided the human power for the boat, so the cockpit has been reconfigured.

[brian eiland]

HULL COATINGS
By Stu Johnstone
I read with some degree of amusement the article in Scuttlebutt #2948 - WILL THE RIBLETS RETURN? In particular, because the ISAF RRS-53 has allegedly been dismissed for America's Cup #33? Riblets from 3M were one thing. "Hydrophilic coatings" are quite another -- e.g. the mythical "artificial dolphin skin".

There's a lot more to the story on coatings and intrigue in the America's Cup
than just the "riblets".

In 2002, I was working with friends at a major Midwestern university on the use of nano-particle technologies in batteries, capacitors, fuel cells and combinations thereof. One of the most remarkable "chance" meetings took place when after contacting George David via "Tomac" (Tom McLaughlin at North Sails), I was put in touch with United Technologies then Chief of R&D --UTC was researching how to make better "inorganic" fuel cell membranes.

What came out of the discussion with our team and the UTC R&D guys was the fact that our nanoparticle coatings (consisting of 8-10 nanometer size particles made in my basement lab) were extremely "hydrophilic"-- e.g. the opposite of hydrophobic (like beads of water on wax). We then tested a hypothesis that our coatings might make water flow faster and perhaps also produce a thin coating on a boat that would act like the mythical "dolphin skin"- the ultimate sailboat coating. Here's what happened and why it got mixed up in the America's Cup 2003 challenge in Auckland, New Zealand.

Read more: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/....cgi?post=8414

[Pascal]

and we still have that little issue with the location chosen by alinghi... the DOG is pretty clear about racing in the Northern hemisphere in winter without even getting into the security issues in RAK. Next court hearing in 2 weeks...

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by brian eiland

Alinghi's insistence on the use of engines...

Not that I had any respect for them at the start of this fiasco, but if I did, they would have lost every last shred of it with that demand.

[84far]

hi all, i was just reading a bit on the americas cup... i think it was in 'Yachting' magazine, anyway theres talk of it going to one of the middle eastern countries? it also had some good stats on both boats. BOR 90, like reaching 26kts in just 9kts of wind, it will also be a better boat tacking. also when the boat tacks they have a thing called (i think) 'self helm'? so basically the boat tacks by its self so the skipper and tacktician can run across. they also had a pic on it leaning right over, and the skipper is on a open platform strapped in... 6 stories above the sea... thats impressive! alinghi, theres talk of her going to hard foiled sails, and that she will out last the tri in a tacking dual due to the motor, (that gets up to 100t of pressure in the winches), but if BOR 90 gets the motors, as u guys say, she may have the upper hand. its all getting very interesting

cant wait for the first port and starboard crossing

far