Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Billionaire Boys Cup (America's Cup 2003)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the toys-for-tots dept.

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."

7 of 283 comments (clear)

  1. About as boring as Formula One is now... by torpor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... and I mean that: Formula One is boring.

    Bringing in all sorts of high tech crap to make your boat/car go faster is one thing.

    Sailing using your hands, eyes and ears instead, is something entirely different.

    Given the choice between watching a bunch of Rich Borgs re-compile their trim calculation program in between tacks, and watching real men sale real boats, I'd take the real boats.

    And I come from Perth (near Fremantle). We were *proud* to have made a technological dent in the history of the America's Cup, but frankly I think it was a bad, bad day when technology trumped the Americans. It just gave them fodder they needed to destroy the true spirit of sports like this.

    Americas Cup = Formula One = Robo Wars. Same thing, different toys.

    Yawn.

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
    1. Re:About as boring as Formula One is now... by barnaclebarnes · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I went to school with Dean Barker who is Team New Zealands Skipper.

      You can hardly say that it is just technology that wins. This guy has been sailing Optimists and P Classes since he was a young lad. You can hardly call a 1947 and a 1923 desgined boat state of the art. The optimist is a complete pig to sail and he still won in that, even though all the boats were one design

      What makes him a good sailor is years of skill, practice and a city where sailing is part of your school ciriculum from when you are 10 years old.

      Also technology is making the sport a lot better to watch check out the Virtual Spectator software. cool.

      Rock on Team New Zealand and hope we can keep the cup again!

      /b

      --
      [Please type your sig here.]
    2. Re:About as boring as Formula One is now... by stinkyelf · · Score: 2, Interesting
      there is a way to go into the future though... the AC yachts are leadmines

      boats which are as heavy as the AC yachts will always be restricted by their waterline length as to how fast they can go, to go substantially quicker you need to get rid of the lead!

      boats such as skiffs and foilers will have no trouble beating the AC boats, they'd absolutely slaughter them for less than the cost for one of those mainsails mentioned in the article. Unfortunately the rules will never change to allow interesting boats to race, why would a team that has just won suddenly decide to give away all the advantage they have?

      if it was to change to interesting boats (see above) then we could all visualise the forces involved and think up our own cool ways of minimising the drag, increasing the righting moment etc.

    3. Re:About as boring as Formula One is now... by zaphod110676 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Here! Here! I'm from the US but all the evidence I see puts the best sailors in the world in New Zealand and Australia.

      I especially admire the national spirit and pride behind New Zealand's boats (not to leave out the Australians, I just can't remember a specific.). I remember either one or two cups ago when the Kiwi boat had a spinnaker signed by school children from all over the country. That was quite a symbol of national support. Most kids in the US don't even know what the America's Cup is.

      As for who's better, New Zealand or Australia, I guess we'll find out in next year's cup.

      --
      To Do: 1. Take over world 2. Pick up Milk and Bread on the way home
  2. As a sailor... by rimmon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...I like to point out, that most sailors I know (that includes myself) are not really interested in the AC. There're races wchich are way more demanding, no matter if you look at the technology or the human efforts.
    Sure thing, these machines are really awesome, at least for 5 hours of consecutive sailing.
    But the the real thing, at least in my opinion, are long distance races.
    The Volvo Ocean Race, Cape Town - Rio, Jules Verne Trophy and so on.

    The greatest thing about the AC is not the real sailing but the High Tech Stuff that drips down to other races and classes.

  3. Don't mind the Us Navy.... by axis-techno-geek · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Pay no attention to the US navel vessel charting all the currents and making very detailed charts (for the US teams only). Can't have any of those darn foreigners holding the "Americas Cup" now.

    Wonder how much that cost the tax payers.

    --
    This is not the sig line you are looking for... -- Old Jedi Sig Line Trick
  4. Racing as a skill by MosesJones · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Watching One Design races is much more interesting on these short (less than several days) races. Every boat is identical so its purely down to the skill of the sailors. This makes for tight races rather than the first race making clear who has the best boat.

    And for real interest watch old working boats racing, slow as hell and there is always a crash or near crash.

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi