just read this story. im still not real sure what happened. there was weight added to 2 boats illegally and the entire crew got penalized? might need andy to clarify

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/americas-cup-champion-oracle-docked-202817680--spt.html

Okay. So its all pretty complicated.

But essentially. Back in the qualifiers, with the 45 foot prototype versions of these boats, it was found that illegal weights had been added to a key part of the boat, causing a slight "performance advantage" according to the Americas Cup jury. I wont go into detail as to how the added few pounds actually benefits the boat, unless of course it is necessary.

So the entire team is docked 2 points for the misconduct of one individual, De Ridder, who apparently had instructed shore crew to put the weights in the boats.

Either way, Oracle is going to have a rough time retaining The Cup, since they were already at a disadvantage, and now they lost their wing trimmer.....

That said, I'm a big New Zealand fan, that's who I'm routing for.


Also, I am currently living in Rhode Island, going to school learning how to build these type boats. And making a few Carbon Fiber Datsun parts along the way.

This post was edited by OldAndyAndTheSea on Sep 3 2013 09:22pm

why do they qualify with a smaller boat though? boat racing is complicated lol

yeah this shit is nuts

im gunna try and take the lady up there and check it out, sf is only about an hour or so away

DEFINITELY worth the trip. Seeing those boats in person is unreal. Until you realize how BIG they are and how FAST they are going, it's hard to imagine otherwise...


And the reason why they first did the qualifiers in smaller boats was for a couple of reasons.

First being, that this is the first year that The Cup is using Multi-hulled boats, so they are still figuring it out, IE: the design aspects, which cost so much money.

It's way cheaper to build a 45 foot version of the same boat, and race those initially to see if the design was even good enough for the real thing, and once they figured the design out, they were given the green light to make the 72 footers.

And I have a feeling even more changes will come about, because of a few unbelievable events, and accidents earlier in the races. A dude died, boats crashed, stuff broke...

I wouldn't be surprised if it only got even more complicated. The technology certainly is.