It's killing me how Alinghi refuses to come to the table on this. Frankly, I don't think they have any choice to any other date and that the courts will second that notion especially given the number of times BMW tried to offer up several date options up until the last motion by Alinghi. BMW did indicate going into these negotiations that if the date was going to move that Alinghi would have to barter with something...location of the event, parameters of the event like a max wind speed, different race series (than the three specified in the deed). Why won't Alinghi negotiate ANYTHING?

In my opinion, Alinghi is trying desperately to get the event in Valencia in 2009 to try and meet some contractual obligations they made when the boofed this whole thing up in the beginning.

Grant Dalton, of Team New Zealand had this to say yesterday:

The latest say that both teams will be using large trimarans. American boat is said to be close to completion in anacortes washington, while the swiss boat is designed and in construction in multiplast .

Anybody else see this quote?

"It is possible that Bertarelli will tell the San Francisco-based team to send a courier for the trophy as he has no intention of being bullied into a match in October."

Lol, what would that be like? "F it, you take it!"

My 2.5 year old little girl behaves better than this!
and cuter too <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Any information about the boats is welcome. We NEED to know more about them. I guess they will race on scaled up Open 60s with rigid wings, possibly with a raised central hull.

Too bad there's no time to develop a scaled up Hydroptére with a rigid wing...

ALLL that is very, very, top secret at the moment. I wouldn't expect to hear anything until we get to a point where each team is committed to a particular design philosophy...perhaps 4 months from the event?

First we have to hear the ruling from Cahn about the date - they are supposed to have a hearing next week and hopefully the ruling will follow shortly thereafter.

Unless Multiplast has moved to Switzerland, this has to be wrong.

He probably means Decision, builders of the last Alinghi IACCs.

From XSRacing:

Don't Send A Monohuller to do a Multihuller's Job





Saturday - March 29 2008 - 0830 PST - Here is a press release about Foncia being capsized today by the Alinghi Team. By the account from Ed Baird, it's obvious that Ed does not have a clue about multihulls. He describes the incident as if it was 'out of their hands' when they capsized in just over 20 knots of wind. Don't tell the multihull skippers who cross the oceans that their Open 60 tris can't stay upright in 20 knots...it may scare them from ever sailing again!

This is not the only report of multihulls capsizing with beginners at the helm. One source described the Extreme 40 capsizes like watching Lasers sailing downwind in 30 knots of wind. We have had numerous other reports from multihull 'teachers' trying to teach the monohull rock stars how to sail a multihull, with 'upside down' results. If they continue trying to teach rookie's how to sail 90-foot multihulls, this could be an exciting America's Cup after all! Here is the press release from the Alinghi Team:

Foncia capsizes off Lorient - Alinghi crew safe 2008-03-29 AT 11:30 this morning, in 20 plus knots and a lumpy Atlantic swell, the 60ft trimaran Foncia capsized off Lorient with Alinghi sailors onboard. Of the 10 crew onboard, Piet van Niekerk and Francesco Rapetti were airlifted to hospital, both are safe and with no serious injuries. The rest of the crew along with consultant Alain Gautier were involved in securing the boat and towing it ashore, the sailors are shaken but unhurt.

Ed Baird, who was onboard, provides some insight into what happened: "As we were bearing away, always the highest risk situation on a multi-hull, both the leeward and the central hull dug into the water and the rudders came out. From then it was out of our hands and we capsized forwards. As the mast hit the water, it broke, followed by the rear beam."

He continues: "The crew reacted very quickly in getting everyone back on board, doing a head count and checking injuries before calling for help and beginning to secure the boat." Foncia is currently being towed into the harbour upside down to be craned out and assessed for damage. "We have all been through crashes and capsizes before, this is all part of the sport," says Ed Baird, adding "however this is a temporary situation with Foncia and is not our equipment, so it is even more disappointing to us that we are involved in damaging someone else's gear. We have learned a valuable lesson here and now must get to work to fix things up for Alain [Gautier]."

We discussed bad PR earlier, and breaking an ORMA60 is pretty bad PR in my opinion: http://www.xsracing.org/alertdetail.php?alt_id=4345

They're sheeted in pretty hard for a bear-away move, eh? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Dude, it was out of their hands.... literally.

I love it....

Great picture John! While the rudders were out of the water I wonder what would have happened if the sheets had been released as soon as it started to stuff. Perhaps it would not have dug in hard enough to pitch over.

This reminds me of a great tale about Dennis Connor capsizing the stars and stripes multihull with a bunch of folk on board as he cut his multihull teeth for "that" Americas cup.

Chris.

A couple of things. First he said it was out of his hands after the rudders were out. This is a fair enough insight but to bear away and not trim BEFORE stuffing was a probability is a newbie mistake.

The idea these guys are going to try and get mono sailors up to speed so to speak defies any common sense.
It is like taking a rally driver and putting him into a Formula one car and asking him to compete with drivers who have been in the cars for years.

The technical term for that I think is STUPID.

It just shows the astonishing arrogance of the mono guys.

I can just see them trying to come down late when they realize they won't go across the top of a starboard boat, accelerating but not being able to get it to answer the helm enough and slicing right through the starboard boat! Excellent TV indeed!

I hadn't really pondered it before - but you're absolutely right. These guys are crazy if they think the monohull skippers who are used to having tons of lead under them are going to be able to seamlessly transition to boats as light, nimble, overpowered, and unforgiving as multi-hulls. Clearly in this case, the sails weren't eased enough for a bare-away manuever...we've all probably been there and done that a time or two on our relatively tiny personal multi-hull monsters.

So who do you get that can drive you beast around the course and be as fast or faster than anyone out of the box? (Smyth/Booth/me/etc.)

So who do you get that can drive you beast around the course and be as fast or faster than anyone out of the box? (Smyth/Booth/me/etc.)

It looks like Jake is wanting a new job <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

You know, I am relatively busy, but if they want me, I could probably rearrange my schedule. It would be difficult but I'd help them out, no problem. Anything for my country and all that...
<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Say Rick, have they contacted you for a clinic session yet?

Start 'em out on Waves, move 'em up as they progress!

Seriously, though, Alinghi should have quite a bit of multi guys to help out, given their Lake Geneva campaign. But that seems to be very light air flat water with boats that are optimized heavily for just that set of conditions. So maybe they thought they had more of a handle on it for the lumpy stuff in a big tri - it's usually when you're a nooby but think you're not that the problems hit. I'm not sure if releasing the sails once it's stuffed like would help - the jib might help as you can release it far enough. But the main is the evil sail in this scenario - it's the big sail trying to leverage you end over end, and you can't always release it far enough to save yourself.

The best way to stay out of trouble is to not start out there.

Given the money being spent and the prestige at stake, starting with the basics might be prudent.