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Billionaire Boys Cup (America's Cup 2003)
morpheus 2001 writes "Wired has a story on
the fight to win the America's Cup
2003, a sailing race held every 3 years. The story carries the
title 'Billionaire Boys Cup', referring to both the competitors and the millions of dollars that it now takes to field a team. This time around the two US teams pit Craig McCaw and Larry Ellison against each other using their respective technological prowess to beat each other and the rest of the world.
The story mentions that all of the teams competing will drop collectively over $700 million, with $30 - 40 million to be spent on R&D (per team)
alone. The story gives an excellent description of how the use of technology and massive databases work in concert to give a team an edge of mere seconds, which can be the difference between winning and losing a race."
Sailing in competition has always been about technology. Raw speed is closely tied to the shape of the hull, rigging etc.
Of course tactics, knowledge / better prediction of the weather and sheer luck are also factors, but none of them are as important as how fast your ship is. In the long run the fastest ship with a competent shipper wins.
Just the fact that it looks more high tech these days doesn't mean technology wasn't there before
beauty is only a light switch away
Record attempts have always been about the bleeding edge. All that has changed is the technology available to push that bleeding edge. I race sand yachts and not so long ago carbon fiber equipment and decent sails were restricted to the record breakers. Now just about anyone with the technical ability can hit 100km/h in standard kit... That's what it's about. Anyone who sails takes for granted the performance on modern sail boats (not only speed, but essentially efficiency in low winds or difficult conditions) - but they only have that because 50 years ago people were pushing the envelope on this kind of thing.
Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
Naah. Sailing is technology - even a raft. Cars are technology too. If you banned technology from sports, you'd basically be left with running and fighting. Not even jumping - what are you going to jump over? Tech. is required to build the obstacles.
Agreed that F1 is dull now, but that's due to the rule changes as much as anything. My own opinion is that everything went downhill when refueling was introduced and it became possible to pass in the pits rather than having to do it on the track.
Cheers,
Ian
Come on torpor...
The America's cup is the oldest international sports trophy in the world. And it was originally won by a boat that was way ahead of the other competitors in terms of design.
There is nothing new in the 'go faster technology' aspect of sailing - it's as integral to racing sailboats as the ball is to a football game.
Throw the technology out, and we'd all be floating round on partially submerged logs, holding up bits of trees in a vain effort to catch the wind!
Mike
Think today's great? Should've been here *yesterday*.
We have the richest poor people in the world in America -- our public housing comes with basic cable. Most of US poverty is related to extreme stupidity, drug use and mental illness -- not due to economic conditions within our nation. If you want to see poverty, head over to the third world. We do not have 100% capitalism due to the New Deal policies which the Democratic party keeps voting to keep in place. And no we do not have true democracy, I should have said Republic. If we had a true Democracy, we could just vote the poor out of the country since the middle class and rich out number the poor by a large majority.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
It doesn't matter how much technology is on the boat or how many computers, you still sail with your hands, eyes, ears, and instincts.
Technology gives you improved perception-- a better idea of what the wind is likely to do, better knowledge of what the wind is doing mid mast rather than just on the deck or at the top, a better idea of what sail trim you should have....
But you still have to use your mind, body and muscles to execute the excellent control over the boat necessary. You make it sound like they could sit at home and tell the boats to sail themselves. They probably could if they outfitted the boats with the autopilot stuff that's available, but they would LOSE and LOSE BAD if they did.
I'm not the biggest fan of sailboat racing-- I think boats are more fun cruising around away from the mass of humanity-- but I have raced and I have raced on relatively high tech boats at a level that -- if sailing were as popular as football is-- would be televised.
All the technology in the world can only give you an idea of what the current situation is with the wind, water, and boat. But you can't win a race knowing the current situation-- to win you have to know the best tactics and use the your best judgement about whats *going to happen* to change the current situation, and execute those tactics flawlessly.
The televised america's cup racing I've seen has been a blast, and rather exciting-- I just wish they gave us more on the boat coverage and less quick cutting of the races.... to hear the crew chatter about tactics and where they think the wind is going to go during a race and then to see how it actually goes and how they handle it would be wonderful.
But so it goes. Sailing is one of the last competitive sports where so much technology is *necessary* to compete at that level, but still so ineffective compared to the human level. Ball games are low tech, hockey is low tech. Technology doesn't matter for them. Formula one racing-- technology makes a huge difference but you know where the track is and you just go-- and there's one driver so he has perfect coordination of his actiosn.
With sailing you have to have both the best technology and the best human brains and the best coordination of your team in order to win. IF you seriously lack any of those, then you loose.
You're wrong-- The americas cup is still about real sailors. Anyone who enters the americas cup without the stamina and fearlessness and judgment of a free climber combined with the technical prowess of your average programmer is going to loose.
It is not a sport for the idle wealthy, weak, easily scared or technically ignorant.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Yeah - F1, the one we both agree is dull today.
When computer-designed models were being stuck through wind tunnels, F1 was still exciting. Remember the Piquet/Prost, Prost/Senna Prost & Senna/Mansell battles? All good fun. And technology was high.
Then the artificial restrictions started coming in. Active suspension was banned (Lotus brought in active suspension in the 80s). Traction control - banned. Telemetry - certain forms banned. Planks of wood started getting nailed to the bottom of cars. Tyre technology was thrown backwards when slicks were abandoned. Turbos - out. Six-wheeled cars? Not allowed.
Unless there are clear safety reasons why a device should not be used (Brabham's suction fans spring to mind), in my opinion in a tech-based sport you should just step out of the way and let people get on with it.
Ironically, all these restrictions were brought in to help the smaller teams who had no budget. They are much further off the pace today than they were at the technological heyday.
Cheers,
Ian
Australia in fact have WAY more sheep than us.. (NZ) 200 odd million I do believe.??
this is not a flawless plan.. this is inspiration
Sorry to say this, but normally the best sailors still win the America's Cup. This is why once it finally made it to New Zealand, all the New Zealand sailors got bought by foreign conglomerates. New Zealand's not a rich country, but not only does it boast many of the world's best sailors, it also has one Bruce Farr, one kickass sailboat technologist. So we got a double edge. Not now though, cause Russell Coutts and others all belong to Japanese and other outside interests.
Just look at the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly the Whitbread Round-the-World Yacht Race) and you'll find New Zealanders on every single boat. Not bad considering there's only 3 million of us.
Some days I'm so patriotic it scares me. Go on,f find an Australian to mod me down
toeslikefingers.com - because
I also admire these solo racers.
However, one must not forget that they are not really alone. They are in constant contact with people on land that will study the wheater and suggest better route. They people on land will also have a list of the things that must be done on the boat to keep it in top shape.
Yes, they are alone in handling the boat (and suffering all the bad thing that can happen on the boat - especially in the south) but this is really a team effort.
Torpor's on to something, tho'. Technology is what these sports are all about, but too much of it takes it out of the realm that the average person can relate to. Years ago, auto racing was so much more fun because the fans could understand all the development that was going on. Did engines work better in the front or the rear? Which was better, tube frame or monocoque? Pushrod V8 or OHC V-12? Could tires develop more than 1G of grip? (a lot of physicists scoffed at the notion, until some drag racers just did it).
Now, it's all about getting a tenth of a percent less underwing pressure in medium-speed corners, or adjusting the enigine management mappings to suit the circuit, tweaks and tunings that we never even see.
Likewise, when Aus2 won the America's Cup, there was a new keel, you could look at it, you could play Monday morning engineer, you could try to understand why it worked better. Good stuff.
There's probably no way to go back to the past, tho.
Team New Zealand currently holds the America's Cup. The challengers all compete in the Louis Vuitton Cup for the right to challenge NZ. The complete list of challengers is available here.
As sports go, you'd be hard pressed to find one with more history, integrity, and passion than sailing. If you've never been in a sailboat race, then you have no idea the exhiliration that sailing provides. There is nothing like it.
No matter how many millions are spent, sailing is still much more art than science. How do you know where the wind is going to blow next? How can you know what your opponent is going to do next? Sailing is equal parts skill, training, and smarts - with just enough luck thrown in to make sure it never gets dull.
This isn't tiddlywinks, either. People get hurt, and people die. I was once almost knocked out and thrown overboard when a spinnaker pole came crashing down on me while I was working foredeck. When a 10-knot wind fills 300 sq. meters of sail, you're talking about some serious energy that has to be dealt with.
And if you're still not convinced how hardcore this can be, check out this site. One person. One boat. All the way around the friggin' world. There's a simple beauty there that is rarely seen in the world these days.
I'll tell you what the 'effect' is! It's pissing me off!
As they do have obituaries regularly. People are lost at sea all the time. Some are merely injured, but it is easy to be in life threatening situations.
You say "splash" as if the water is warm. Where I sail, inside of 15 minutes unprotected in the water you are looking at serious consequences and possible death.
When you've been in a small boat in 50 MPH winds and 5-10 foot seas, then you can come tell me its nothing like rock climbing.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Money helps but it also comes down to ideas and being a nation of sailors.
Get your red socks on
No red sock campaign