Little America's Cup Under Way!

The LAC starts today! Currently they're under postponement due to inclement weather but Sailing Anarchy is promising lots of cool coverage with onboard trackers (starting tomorrow), onboard mics, and live from-the-water video feed. Our own JC and Clean are onsite.

Thread in Sailing Anarchy with everything about the event (lots of stuff - you might want to skip to the last couple of pages and start there for the current situation).

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=101656&st=900#entry2965300

While I was looking through the pictures of the event, a "Where's Waldo" type figure kept popping up in the background.

Jezus H Tawd.

Don't encourage him.

Bwwwwaaahhhh hahah hahaaaa! Hillarious. Let's make it a game. Where's Tawd?

I bet he is totally aggravating someone right now...

$50 bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose...

$50 more says he eats it!

Top 5 all time best movies ever

Looks good on you though......

Another day canceled because of too much wind...

Tomorrow looks much better. Fleet racing to start in the morning to pick the top two. Top two will match race for the cup and they're debating about what the rest of the fleet will do.

buy a hat like this I bet you get a free bowl of soup, huh? ...

*(is this a test) hahah

Just recently saw the "making of" 30 years later... Wow

This one should be a little easier. For Dave Mosley I'm not on the left,you have to figure the rest out for yourself.

Well he's staying at my house for the week... I told him i'm starting an outreach program for lost rednecks

Tawd,
Good company. They can be the first to win the AC and LIC.

More shots at my sight, more to follow if they go sailing tomorrow.

Later,
Les

how do you transport those wings? do they break down into pieces that could fit on a regular trailer?

Ben Hall had one for his A cat that was in two pieces, top to bottom, they slid apart 'Laser Mast' style, and stacked into a metal box on his boat trailer, between the hulls of his A cat. It was a very slick set up he had, not sure where that went, haven't seen it being used in a few years but it was an interesting concept.

There was a A Class with a wing on it on the Oracle base when they were building the tri. I remember seeing it on pics. Maybe it was the one from Ben Hall?

Yes - the Ben Hall Winged A-cat was the one that Oracle used.

I believe they had two A's at the SD staging area. Both with wings for design test and or crew training?

Steve Clark posted a note on the Anarchy forum regarding why the original hard wind A failed to thrill against the other A's...something about a problem with how the leading edge on the flap bent off to lee and was consequently way slow. Was corrected on the test rigs at the Oracle camp.
Which raises the question as to why we have not seen hard wing A's springing up all over?

More photos from ICCC - this time CAN 9 platform.
No sailing yet wind 20(+/-) with gusts of over 25kn.

Les

lesburn1.blogspot.com

it's on! boats are on the water. I'm watching it live via the Justin.tv iphone app and SA's coverage - and it's AWESOME. I can tell I'm not going to get much work done today. 1 minute to the start! JC talking about what's happening,.

spithill and ashby port tacked the fleet and NAILED the pin end - they're off to a great lead! They were Mf'in FLYING!

steve clark's boat just flipped while sailing upwind and broke - boat is turtled! it's in pieces.

and.....I got a phone call and lost the feed. AAAAA!

crap and then a voice mail notification disconnected me again....

steve clark and his crew are sitting on the upside down hull hugging. They're obviously mentally destroyed. These guys have put years into that boat.

ashby and orion headed upwind - ashby / spithill on the layline with a 20 boat length lead over Canaan.

SA coverage is focusing more on the boat damage at the moment but will probably jump back to the race when the boats are near the bottom of the course again.

looks like patient lady has broken at least the port rudder


Spithill/Ashby rounded the top mark with a healthy lead. They're screaming downwind now with Canaan behind (Magnus Clark).

Just loaded the app, very cool and good quality video. JC's doing a great job.

dang I wish people would quit calling me.

seeing some video now of the boats coming downwind. Canaan now leading ahead of Spithill/Ashby. downwind cross coming.....canaan on the layline...looks like the fleet has tightened up a little.

(sorry if I'm misspelling boat names.s)

1st of 3 laps almost complete...canaan running a little deeper than Alpha (spithill/ashby) and with a 16 boat length lead now.

cannan rounding...looks good, nice and easy. Conditions are VERY choppy and pretty windy. Alpha rounding now about 20 seconds behind. They overstood a little

they were pushing Alpha much harder - they were working hard and driving the bows much harder through the chop.

Alpha sailing higher than Canaan. Canaan tacking. Canaan having trouble with the tack....

Alpha Canaan crossed with Canaan's lead down to ONLY 1 BOAT LENGTH! Ashby / Spithill crossed just behind and with the bit in hard in their teeth! That slow tack cost big.

Jimmy / Glen tacked. much better tack. Chasing down Canaan.


note: ashby is driving - spithill is trimming the wing.

Canaan still has the lead on the layline. Both of these boats have a HUGE lead over the fleet.

Looks like Canaan will maintain their lead at the top of the course...6 boat lengths.

both headed downwind now and canaan running a little lower and slower.

alpha into better pressure...canaan going a little soft as they split down the course.

Why can't their camera man keep the camera pointed at the BOATS instead of the clouds and the back of someone's head??

beautiful coverage of alpha sailing downwind - spithill sitting on the rear beam. ashby hiking hard and they're really pushing it...BIG stuff of the bows. wow! don't break it! they gybed and are back underway.

ALPHA HAS PASSED CANAAN!!!! They stuffed again hard!

alpha with a 20 second lead at the bottom of the course. Cover cover cover.

invictus, in 3rd, just around the top mark now.

Alpha maintaining a controlling position upwind.

Canaan back in the lead over Alpha on the last trip to A-mark. They're about 1 boat length apart!

Note: I'm parroting the Sailing Anarchy Coverage provided through Justin.TV.

ASHBY FLEW THE HULL ALL THE WAY AROUND THE MARK AND JUST PASSED CANAAN!!!!! HOLY COW THAT WAS AWESOME!

they. are. duking. it. out. to. the. finish!!!!! VERY CLOSE RACING

looks like Canaan slightly back into the lead headed to the finish.

jimmy nad glen are smoking! whooooo!

the race is finished but we can't tell who WON!!!!!!!

Wow
photo finish between Alpha and Canaan.

Alpha ftw.

Alpha WINS the FIRST race!!! Ashby/Spithill take the first Little America's Cup race.

They may run a second race today.

if they run a second - you guys are on your on. I've got to get some stuff done.


You guys should really go to Justin.tv and watch the live feed - it's killer.

Great race. Exciting finish. I just caught the end of it on SA.

Start rant......If we as a sailing community are going to work to get more mainstream media exposure to our sport, then something must be done with SA. Having a website with frequent nudity, showcasing an event and then having commentary for the video laced with profanity is certainly not going to get us the exposure we are after.

Rant over....flame away.

good stuff! Now if they could keep the camera on the boats.

Sex and profanity worked for Howard Stern

Who is in charge of the camera?!
Its pointing either at the sky or the floor most of the time.

Link to the official site, with results...

http://nyyc.org/CCLASS/

Mike

Those guys rely on volunteers for a lot of the coverage operations - including the boat. Honestly, the boat type is probably not the best one for the coverage and they could stand to have someone at the helm that had a good understanding for the capabilities and lanes for the racers. I'm not sure who is running the camera (don't touch the zoom anymore!).....but one thing's certain. Flaws included, it's still TONS better than reading a three paragraph article and shuffling through some photos a day after.

Anyone know why Orion retired .

Fred

Dang, missed it live. Is there a link to the video for replay??

hey folks,
I was on the SA boat and have to say that was the most incredible thing I have EVER seen. I got some great pics and vid. You haters really need to lay off the SA gang. When the cam ain't on what matters it's because it'll either get soaked or is un-focusable.Petey is the shiznit and I challenge anyone to do better. Aaron sat IN a center console half the size of a shower stall, ALL DAY, running the electronics. These guys work their azzes off. I f they didn't the guys who know me know I'd call BS on it.
When I get home and can sort out the pics I'll post some stuff.
Glenn and Jimmy were like butter. Some of the most amazing sailing I've ever seen. My heart goes out to Oliver, his family and Steve.Their flip ended years worth of effort, heart, and soul put in to that boat and wing. I gave 2 N-20 boards to Paul Larson(Invictus) to modify if needed for their boat. Oddly enough they slid into the assy. trunk fairly well. Now it's a matter of rather it's easier to fill or cut. we'll see. I saw the other half of their board floating and Glenn missed hitting it by about 10 feet.
Tawd

Thanx for the 1st person report. Multi? Mono? Objectivity and inclusivness(sp) is the key.

Petey could use a camera director to help him find his present shot and the next one: The Spray must be awful. The commentary is pretty darn good, tho I would like some more vmg speed indications. Often it is hard for us to tell which boat is in the shots because they may be looking at something Petey isn't, except when Alpha is seen all white and Fredo is not. I guess we know who is in the match race, eh?

IMHO Steve's capsize wasnt that bad, had he (or his crew?) not fallen on the wing I think they could have saved it.
Checkout the capsize sequence on ValenciaSailing: http://www.valenciasailing.blogspot.com/
Ouch!

Well put Tawd, I bet none of the guys moaning have ever tried to film from a RIB or chase boat, especially for 3 hours non-stop.

The trouble with these set ups is that the guy driving the boat only knows how to drive the boat. The driver needs to be the director and have good knowledge of the racing so that HE can put the boat in a position where the camera has got something to film.
I still enjoyed it a load.

Oooooohhh. That had to be an excruciating carbon crunch when he fell into the wing. I really feel for those guys.

Safe for Work (Amazingly):

That's Steve going through the wing at speed. To bad he could not miss it by going the other way. But hitting the hull from 14 feet up would probably hurt him more!

Its too bad that Tawd couldn't give him some pointers:

man that's tragic

Fred
Orion broke a chainplate, not sure if they are racing today?

gps tracking shows one of the boats is off the beach.

looks like Patient Lady (Fra 1) went over

4 min to start.

Start of race 4. 8 to 10 knots of breeze.

Going to C mark 2nd time. 2 boat race again. Caanan much deeper (15 degrees) and better VMG downwind.

Lap 3 Canaan way out in front. Other 3 bunched. Alpha was very slow downwind.

Alpha pick up shift and back in good 2nd.

Canaan wins by 1/2 leg. Alpha slow downwind again, but takes 2nd by blanketing Invictus.

Are they still racing today?

Who knows. There were two races today, but no word on NYYC or SA about what the plan was after that. The live feed on SA says see you tomorrow...

The official results on NYYC have also not been updated since yesterday.

Mike

Rumor has it that today's results are ....

Canaan 1,1,1
Alpha 2,2,2
Invictus 3,3,4
Orion 4,4,3
PLVI DNS
Aethon DNS

Invictus and Orion finishes are questionable. I copied this from the SA thread.

Well I got all excited about watching this, and have just wasted 46minutes of my life wtching two idiots talk a lot about nothing while filming the back end of their outboard motors going up, down over the waves. Oh yeah, I did see about 3 minutes of sailing in the 46minutes of video.
Even if the footage is not big budget, you`d think they could edit it properly, and show the SAILING.

NYYC site now has full results, 6 races total. Canucks walking away...

Mike

True, however nobody wins anything until the match racing. Top 2 advance. Maybe the boys from OZ just don't want to chance breaking anything until necessary. That said the Mapleleafs are showing a big advantage downwind.

I was at the skippers meeting yesterday and they where talking about a round robin match race series for the "losers".

The real regatta starts on Friday

Some good vid from the top of the wimg on Canaan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A39vPzdTE0c

Any idea where they are sailing on Sat? Are they still sailing north of the bridge? Anybody got a boat? I'll buy gas and lunch if I can get a ride out to the course.

First completed match race of the day - Alpha beats Canaan by 10 seconds.

REALLY? Wow. That was unexpected in the light conditions. Makes me wonder if it was some fluky air that allowed Ashby to catch an advantage or if they were holding back a little this week since Canaan was showing such a firm upperhand downwind for most of the week.

Who owns all the Canadian boats? Are they all owned by Fred? So, even if he loses the racing, does he take home the trophy? Or will Ashby take it home with him? Couldnt they find anyone to race Rocker?

And didnt Steve sell PL to the Canadians prior to the last LAC? Did the Canadians sell it the French team?

tied at 1 -1 at close of play today.

Yes, Canaan won by over 3 min. Big advantage downwind again.

Surprising how much each panel moves around when loaded.

Looks like each panel is "puffing" in and out a bit; bust be loosing some energy!

I wish they would have shown a little more of the wing while they were messing with the tweaking controls.

The panels are moving a bit but a hell of a lot less than soft sail would be distorting.

I have to root for them. Want to see it stay in North America.

It was going to stay in Canada regardless, that was part of the charter agreement. Or so it was said by the parties involved.

I believe the winner of the I4C is the boat, not the skipper. In this case, since Canaan and Alpha are both Canadian, there's no need for an agreement.

They changed the lettering on Alpha to Auz when I saw it on Sat.

Btw, one of the coolest sites I've seen in a while, 6 C Class cats sitting on the lawn at NYYC.

From the top of the lawn, all you could see was the wings.

I guess we've all been in an electronic blackout? Canada seems to have won. Wish I were there (I was painting)...

Mike

Some more photos and short videos at my site.

Highlight reel from Petey Crawford/Penalty Box productions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWz37-Wkbc4&hd=1

Some newly posted shots of Canaans wing with controls at http://lesburn1.blogspot.com/

Les