Americas Cup 2017

[mrgybe]

[konajoe]

The racing seems to be the same as the formula racers on this forum describe. Bare minimum tacks and jibes. Nobody tries to tack or jibe away from the boat in the lead, because the faster the boat/board, the more penalty there is for tacking and jibing. Long boards, and other slow boats, are the only ones that try to take or jibe away from boats ahead of them, to get into different wind conditions.

[DanWeiss]

[DelCarpenter]

Now that Emirates New Zealand with its bicycling grinders won America's Cup, is the normal muscle power difference between men and women less of a factor? (I'm assuming bicycle style grinding will sweep out arm powered grinding.)

I'm wondering about nw30's assertion, that any sport would suffer with a mandate requiring a 50/50 mix on a team. Let's assume the performance level at least in the early years would go down, but interest from women in the sport would go up. I believe that scenario would result in a large increase in public interest in the sport which would be a significant gain for the sport.

[westender]

Do the AC boat owners think they need to grow the sport or expect any gain from the racing other than winning or advancing the technology? Unless you have a product to sell, who cares about the packaging? Is there a cash prize or big trophy?

[mrgybe]

[B737]

thread drift:

I thought you guys might appreciate this. We were flying EWR to SFO years back, flight attendant came up front and wanted me to check on something in first class. I went back and to my surprise saw this being strapped into a seat. i spoke to the 'handler' and discovered it was in fact the Americas Cup trophy being transported to sfo, it even had its own first class ticket was really cool to talk to the handler and learn the traditions involved with its transportation.

and yes that is a custom louis vuitton case slumming it in a 737

[dmilovich]

My dissatisfaction (brought up on page 1, above) about the AC not including women rests on my idea that the Americas Cup should be a universally appealing event. Nothing more, nothing less.

For reference, y'all take a look at the excerpted wording below from the "Deed of Gift" (Wikipedia) that established the Cup challenge and see what you think the intent was and the possibilities could be:

"This Cup is donated upon the condition that it shall be preserved as a perpetual challenge Cup for friendly competition between foreign countries."

"The Club challenging for the Cup and the Club holding the same may by mutual consent make any arrangement satisfactory to both as to the dates, courses, number of trials, rules and sailing regulations, and any and all other conditions of the match..."

Would a 50/50 male/female crew be faster or slower? Who cares? It'd be more fun to watch (for me, anyway), appeal to more people and inspire more female sailors. More sailors in the world would be a good thing. I love sailing in all its forms.

@B737 - Great thread drift, thanks!

[mrgybe]

I understand where you are coming from, but respectfully disagree. Would the NBA be more fun to watch with 50/50 teams? How about the NFL or NHL? Would that increase the audience size.......or the reverse? I don't see any shortage of women watching men play those sports or calls for women to be linebackers. Most sports fans want to see the very best and it is the sight of unparalleled excellence that inspires people to take up a sport. Mediocrity in pursuit of diversity is likely to have a dampening impact on audience appeal, and I, for one, would certainly care if the boats went slower because the crew's effectiveness had been diminished. The intent of the owners is clear.........they want to design and sail a boat faster than anyone else on the planet and they will do what it takes to make that happen. That's the allure. I don't see any case for telling them how they must spend their own money.

[swchandler]

One has to ask, would ballet, opera or orchestral music be the same if the owners and promoters played by the rules we do in sports sometimes?