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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."
An uneducated response here to be certain, but i got mana to burn so here goes...
30-40M R&D, at the end of the day, if the wind don't blow, the wind don't blow, no amount of R&D will make the wind blow.
... 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. --
the REAL story is the parties! I grew up near Newport, RI where the race had been held until the Aussies won the Cup with their very controversial hull/keel design. The design gave them the winning edge, but it also caused some major litigation. Anyway, I digress. In a race year, the streets/bars/etc. of Newport were PACKED with people all having a great time partying. The race itself may be boring to many people, but if it still creates the kinds of parties I remember, it is worth all the money spent (so long as I am not footing the bill).
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
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
...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.
Obsessing over money 'we'* don't have?
Somebody over as OSDN must have had to pay bills last night.
* = That would be the Royal We.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
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
... and before the 2 US teams can even try to compete against New Zealand for the Cup, one of them needs to win the Louis Vitton Cup, against all other challengers.
Only then does the winner get to sail against the Kiwi defenders.
Take a look outside those borders - there's more to the America's Cup than 2 yanks with too much money.
-- You can't give it, you can't even buy it, and you just don't get it!
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
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
that nobody's linked this yet.
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The America's Cup is not held every three years. There is no set schedule. At the start of each cycle, the Defender and the Challenger of Record sit down and negotiate a schedule. This time around, Team New Zealand and Prada decided on a three year schedule. Last time around, Team New Zealand and the New York Yacht Club agreed on a five year schedule. To my knowledge, the shortest schedule was one year (with the New Zealand "big boat" challenge against Dennis Connor's catamaran - what a fiasco!) in 1988.
Second, there are three American syndicates this year. The poster was correct that two of them are backed by Larry Ellison (Oracle BWM from the Golden Gate Yacht Club) and Craig McCaw (OneWorld from the Seattle Yacht Club). However, there is a third American syndicate this time around: Dennis Connor's Stars and Stripes campaign, from the New York Yacht Club. Dennis Connor (aka Mr America's Cup) has participated in every America's Cup going back over 20 years. He's lost the cup twice, and won it four times. This is also the first time in several America's Cup cycles that Dennis Connor has had the money from his backers to support a two-boat campaign, making him very dangerous to retake the cup.
I also want to take issue with the tone of the original posting. Yes, it takes a lot of money to run a competitive America's Cup campaign these days, but that money isn't being thrown away. There is a lot of community service being done by most of the syndicates. Also, the research done into boat design does trickle down to the common man, making sailing more fun for everyone else. Plus, it's a good venue for advertising and since each syndicate by definition must represent its home country, a good way to be patriotic as well. Most of all though, it's a grand spectacle. Why not sit back and enjoy the show?
Halmonster
"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent" --Salvor Hardin
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