Seahorse: Could multihulls be here to stay?

Brad Butterworth: I think so. The fact that the Cup has been embroiled in this legal argument shakes the Cup up and usually something good comes out of it. It did in 1988 and hopefully this time we might see a multihull version of what we've had in the past.

Good interview at the link below

http://www.seahorsemagazine.com/2009-December/alinghi.php

This guy from BOR says that sailing in multis would exclude a lot of teams that would be able to afford to compete in 'ordinary' boats. I know a match race is only 2 boats but the selection process has been what the event is all about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz-hWGsS0gY&feature=player_embedded

Any AC campaign is big bucks. Multis might even be more affordable than monos after a few iterations of the class rule and challenges.

Will the cup be sailed in multis again under non-DoG rules.. I dont think so, the mono-bias is too big.

it doesn't have to be expensive

after the war they went from the big J boats to the 12mtr box? to make it cheaper

they could easily make a 40' cat box based on the vx40

problem is they would be reinventing the little americas cup;o) which never really caught the publics imagination...

so maybe something a little bigger with bigger crew

AND NO ENGINES

The way I see it if Ellison wins the next AC will be in monohulls but if Bertarelli wins it sounds like it's likely that the AC will go to cats. Don’t forget that Bertarelli was a cat guy before he got into the AC game.
That said the engine thing is way lame.

I would like them to do it in something like the VX 40 cats, plenty fast and more affordable so more than just two insanely wealthy guys can get a shot at it.

It will be expensive whatever they choose.

Yes but $10 Millon for a busted mast?? That's a bit steep!

10 mill for a broken mast is incredible and distasteful.

The AC have always been for the super wealthy..

Same thing I say when I sail past Palm Beach,

“Disgusting Display of Wealth!”

but I figure let them spend it on boats!

That $10M figure (and lately a $15M figure) have been tossed around in the media but I don't think there was much basis in that figure. The mainsails for DZ were reported to be around $250,000 each...figure the headsail was similar or a little more...I just can't see that mast being THAT expensive.

I can't imagine how they built a 200' long single piece of over cured carbon...anything! Maybe some of the $10M figure was the cost to build the oven? Did they even bake it or did they use some other method?

they used a huge e-z bake oven!

I don't know for sure, but I would be about 98% certain they used Pre-preg carbon fabric which required heat (and hopefully pressure) to cure. It's conceivable that they could do that in sections but better if they could do it all at once.

It's like Deja-vu all over again.