The "No Longer" America's Cup thread

Ellison has been trying to build toward making sailing a TV sport. So, faster boats, that complete the races in half the time, in spectator-accessible venues, near shore. He wants to use these same boats each time, so that you're not building from scratch every single time, and you don't have weird races where one team shows up with an invincible boat.

But, by the rules of the trophy, New Zealand can make the next boats whatever they want.

Usually the defender and the challengers negotiate, so that one doesn't show up with a trimaran and one with a traditional yacht, but if they don't, things just revert back to the Deed of Gift: Boats no more than 90 feet long or 90 feet wide, racing on salt water. Those are the only guidelines. Which is kind of how we got here.

 

The TV coverage of this is incredible. The first-down line on an NFL telecast looks sophomoric compared to all the things they put on the screen.

 

Right, which is why the Italians are the challengers. They have been cooperating with the Kiwis and share their vision regarding which type of boats to use. Basically, the defender handpicks a challenger, as a challenge is filed moments after the end of the final Cup race.

Watched a few races from 1992 and 1995. While a geek like me enjoyed watching yachts, they are slow and races took too long.

 

It will be kind of amazing if they do gear down. Going from 50 knots to 15 knots... It would be like tuning into an F1 race, expecting today's cars, and seeing them racing around in Fiats from 1922. My guess is Ellison, at least, would not participate.

 

Remember staying up late and watching the '87 cup and being fascinated by how quickly those guys can do sailboat things. I recall Stars and Stripes blowing out a mainsail and them getting it down and another one up in almost no time. My little tub has a mainsail area of about 80 ft^2 and I have a helluva time wrestling that thing out on the water. Stars and Stripes, its main area was 1,000+ ft^2 ...

 

Watching some of this year's racing I was struck by how much more spectator-friendly it has become. In Bermuda they were practically sailing in a stadium -- there were grandstands right at the finish line.

Back in the old days in Newport, Rhode Island, I don't think you could even see the boats from the shore.

 

This is part of Ellison's master plan to make sailing more like NASCAR for the upper crust.

 

The one-hour doc NBC ran a couple weeks back on Ted Turner's America's Cup run was pretty good, even though I have no interest in the sport.

 

You couldn't. They were miles off shore in Rhode Island sound. Reporters sat in spectator boats for hours upon hours.

While some people may not have known this event was happening, it is really great to watch on TV. They provide you with so much information, including the heart rates of the crew. That's pretty great compared to what it was years ago. It's no doubt the cycling made the difference, and Jimmy Spithill admitted to minuscule mistakes proved fatal in races that were pretty close.

Many people long for monohulls, but I'd like to think that if the America's Cup is going to survive, it needs the same kind of spectator-friendly and TV-friendly format that we saw this year. Monohulls will kill the event, ultimately.

 

Yeah, that's how I remember it. I was there during the Challenger series when I was a kid, and as I recall the only time we could actually see the boats was when they were towed in and out.

Funny how much it has improved.