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Oracle USA

Is there any sitting place on the Rocky Jetty? :)
I suspect it's gonna be more crowded on the weekend..
 
AbsolutEnduser said:
Is there any sitting place on the Rocky Jetty? :)
I suspect it's gonna be more crowded on the weekend..
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Yes, but bring a pad or a jacket you can crumple up and sit on.

Tons of moto parking; I'd suggest at Fort Mason, $10 for all day as all the street parking is 2 hours only. :thumbup

A small cooler with food and water, camera, binoculars and you're set.
 
My900ss said:
I think you are missing his point. Its not what it takes to own a baseball team vs. an America's cup sailing team. More so what it takes to do it yourself on the weekend. You can play baseball for little outlay of cash, where as to sail a catamaran takes a little more cash and space.

I don't agree with him as it would take more $$ to race a local stock car event than sailing a boat, yet Nascar is wildly popular. Its a skillset and access thing not $$. If you are not a good sailor it is both dangerous and maybe not so fun. If you do not live near the coast or a lake you have no opportunity. You can still have fun playing baseball, football, soccer etc and not be good at it, in addition the space to play is never very far away.
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nascar tie in: people drive cars every day so they think they have a shot at nascar?
 
GAJ said:
Oracle actually had a lead in the first race...for a few minutes.
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They've actually had the lead in several races. Maybe up to 4, or even more? Spithill is a fantastically aggressive starter and has has the lead to mark 1 on several occasions, and held it to mark 2 as well.

They've even increased (or caught up as it may be) on the downwind legs as well.

Far outweighing that, though, is that their upwind performance is terrible. The 3rd party analysis is that the Oracle hull was designed from the beginning for downwind speed of a *non* foiling hull, i.e. thinner. ETNZ designed their speed for upwind and tacking (fatter to maintain momentum, also a self-tacking jib) sacrificing downwind efficiency, which was mitigated by the foiling. In other words, ETNZ designed their hull for upwind efficiency because it will be foiled out of the water downwind. Why Oracle didn't redesign with the updated foiling rule interpretation, I don't know.

In my opinion, Oracle only has one hope for winning. They need to round mark #2 with such a lead that ETNZ cannot get the upper hand in a starboard/port upwind situation. If they can just manage to get to mark 3 with as little as a CH lead, they'll win the race.

But what we're seeing is that ETNZ will close on the third leg, pull up alongside (metaphorically) and get ahead on starboard tack. Once this happens, they have the advantage and their match racing skills go, um, unmatched. Actually, I want to take a little of that back. Their match racing skills are not rocket science. They're not pulling any strategies that aren't common knowledge. Their upwind speed is just getting them in a position to *use* those strategies.

On slower boats, there could be some match racing downwind, too, effectively giving the trailing boat an advantage. But these boats are multiplying the wind, therefore the apparent wind is forward, furthering the advantage to the lead boat.
 
The boats going downwind are incredible as they get up and out of the water and sprint forward.

If anyone is thinking of going, for sure go Saturday just for the spectacle.

There may only be one race on Sunday if the Kiwis sweep tomorrow.

Mind you, the T-shirts might be half price on Sunday!
 
Am I understanding this correctly, but there are only two boats racing, and one of them is not competitive?
 
UDRider said:
Am I understanding this correctly, but there are only two boats racing, and one of them is not competitive?
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Pretty much, but heck, miracles happen and the spectacle alone is worth it.
 
DNF.
 

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UDRider said:
Am I understanding this correctly, but there are only two boats racing, and one of them is not competitive?
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There are only two boats because this is the finals of bracket eliminations. Believe it or not, these races are actually closer than the previous rounds. :laughing As slow as Oracle may seem, they're still much faster than the Italians and Swedes.

One is faster in some areas, and the other is faster in other areas. But one of the boat's faster is area provides a significant advantage over the other boat's faster area.

Kind of like racing a 600 against a 1000. So the 600's goal is to pull away far enough in the technical/twisty section that the 1000 cannot catch up and pass on the straightaway. But it is not. :(
 
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HellFyre said:
There are only two boats because this is the finals of bracket eliminations. Believe it or not, these races are actually closer than the previous rounds. :laughing As slow as Oracle may seem, they're still much faster than the Italians and Swedes.

One is faster in some areas, and the other is faster in other areas. But one of the boat's faster is area provides a significant advantage over the other boat's faster area.

Kind of like racing a 600 against a 1000. The 600 is trying to pull away far enough in the technical/twisty section that the 1000 cannot catch up and pass on the straightaway. But it is not. :(
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Wut... it's more like racing a 600 vs 636 really. I mean the boats are.
 
Both boats can attain a higher top speed than my first motorcycle! :laughing
 
UDRider said:
Am I understanding this correctly, but there are only two boats racing, and one of them is not competitive?
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Yes, the America's Cup is only between two boats. The defending Champion is always one of those two boats. The Challenger, as was stated earlier, gains the status as challenger by winning the bracket races full of other hopeful challengers. Thus you always have the #1 and #2 teams in the World competing.
 
We're renting out our house to the shore chief (and his family) of the Swedish boat. He told us the worst day of his life was having to saw the boat up, so that it would fit into a dumpster.
 
HellFyre said:
:laughing Easy there, guy; I didn't burn a flag. And yes, I was comparing Ellison's spent dollars to the dollars spent on a baseball team, or as 900SS mentioned, a NASCAR team. 'Murica :thumbup
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Yeah, but most American's can't relate to yacht racing nor spending millions of dollars on it.
 
OldMadBrit said:
I hoped that an exciting and spectacular AC Series would bring high speed sailing to the Bay permanently. However, the super ego's involved and the utter incompetence of SF pols and planners helped turn the event into a slow moving train wreck.

Its also really sad that despite being the "local boy", Ellison's reputation has many in the Bay Area rooting for the opposition.
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Good point about egos and such - probably why I'm sort of turned off, despite enjoying sailing. Then again, egos have run abound with AC since the beginning of time, I understand, so maybe it's just me.

IRT Ellison, I understand that even if they won this year, SF was not going to have AC on the Bay again...I'm told it was too much of "The Larry Show" for their preference...

My900ss said:
I think you are missing his point. Its not what it takes to own a baseball team vs. an America's cup sailing team. More so what it takes to do it yourself on the weekend. You can play baseball for little outlay of cash, where as to sail a catamaran takes a little more cash and space.

I don't agree with him as it would take more $$ to race a local stock car event than sailing a boat, yet Nascar is wildly popular. Its a skillset and access thing not $$. If you are not a good sailor it is both dangerous and maybe not so fun. If you do not live near the coast or a lake you have no opportunity. You can still have fun playing baseball, football, soccer etc and not be good at it, in addition the space to play is never very far away.
Click to expand...

A while back when I took sailing lessons, a friend described sailing as such: Put on a suit, stand in the shower and tear up $20's. He described sailboat racing as the same, but it was tear up $50's. As for Oracle USA - tear up $200MM (really).
 
UDRider said:
Am I understanding this correctly, but there are only two boats racing, and one of them is not competitive?
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That's a terribly accurate way of putting it...but yeah...ironically, the team that spent the most money is losing (I watched one of the races and they were a full minute behind at the finish)
 
TheBoatDude said:
That's a terribly accurate way of putting it...but yeah...ironically, the team that spent the most money is losing (I watched one of the races and they were a full minute behind at the finish)
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Historically, that's actually a pretty close finish for AC. But then again, some of the older races were up to 4 hours long.

So, I guess the summary of all this is... to each their own.
 
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