Even if it is sailed on cats, it will be so remote from what we all do that the general public will not see any comparison.
It could even back-fire in the way that cat sailing is done by a lot of guys that think they are more important than they are and that money/politics wins races!
The cat that did sail in the Americas cup was pretty much labeled a cheat and not a proper racing boat in many circles.
I was going to compare this to the VX40 racing that is going on in Europe but we are beginning to see cat sailors crossing over and even VX40s lining up against F18s on start lines. Much to the VX40 fleet's credit.
[I know, its not called VX40 now is it]
I don't know that I agree with that. The 1988 AC was viewed as unfair because it was. They were two uneven boats racing against each other and it was a wash but the negativity had very little to do with the fact that one of them was a catamaran. In this case (hopefully), we should see two similar breeds go up against each other and could see some pretty dramatic high-speed racing.
Jake,
I've asked a fair few people about this (including US mates) and then general consensus was :
1, The US could not believe that Fay was right and could dictate what boat must be used
2, Once the US had realised this, it was too late to build a 90 footer to take on TNZ
3, So the US spent time on working out how they could pick holes in Fay's challenge to allow them to sail something else
4, They decided they could win in the courts if they sailed a Catamaran if they sailed in such a way that they did not win by too much.
5, They then proceeded to sandbag all around the course to try and pursuade the general public that the boats were of similar performance.
IMO, did the AC a massive amount of damage.
Most of the non sailing people simply said "oh, the one when the yanks cheated and used a Catamaran".
Sorry Jake, but the people I talked to really did think the US cheated.
I feel it was bad for the AC, but in order to win, and if I had been boxed into a corner by the NYYC I would have attempted to use a cat.
