how "affordable" were the 2007 boats in those days? I thought it was prohibitively expensive back then, too?

They pulled those boats out of the water quite often, too..


Was that the cycle where the Aussie boat sank, or the NZL boat kept breaking booms and the "hulla" debacle?

And it's not the boats that cost the most, it's the teams (crew, trainers, coaches, bartenders, etc). Are today's AC teams that much cheaper to run? Doubt it.

So, smaller boats (and teams) might make things more affordable. OD might even make it "fair" in terms of equal potential performance of the foiling cats (I'd prefer Box Rule, but then it becomes another potential arms race), but to what ultimate end? To give short-attention span couch potatoes something to look at? To sell more AC SWAG?

My opinion is that this AC cycle (and others) have had huge trickle down benefits to sailing in terms of R&D of design, materials, techniques, etc.

I mean, really, who's going to plunk down $100 M to develop a huge wingsail "just because"... or a massive 72' foiling cat.

There are lots of people pushing the envelope (Speedrocket, Hydoptere, etc), but I think the AC brought "street cred" to all of those folks by putting it downtown San Fransisco.