Not sure i'd agree with that Timbo, but I haven't seen an upwind start with these boats. Maybe they would push each other around more before hitting the line, but in my mind, it would end up being a very slow start to the race with each team trying to luff the other.
At least with the offwind start, they can hook or gap... Or maybe even peel a boat off at the mark?
I'd love to think these multihulls are good for more than one AC cycle, but I doubt the costs would justify.
I like the youth AC series, but only because it's fleet racing with folks that make more mistakes than the pros. Kind of like farm league for baseball.
Nationality rules would be cool, but we'd probably get destroyed unless USA could come up with a funding mechanism to attract the top talent.
And I REALLY want Ashby to spill the beans on all that development...
Well, even IF there is a nationality rule, there are ways to become a citizen of another country. There have been nationality rules - particularly when NZ last held the cup if I remember correctly...and the people that were going through the paperwork to re-declare citizenship to meet the letter of the rule almost made it a farce. I do support a nationality clause but it won't ever work out close to the ideal that yearns for it. Added to which, instead of looking for that US talent, they'd probably look for ways to speed up citizenship applications....but I'm not convinced that we would necessarily be down and out if we had to draw largely from US talent resources. There would certainly be some long term needs to be addressed, though.
I do hope they don't move too far from this format so we can get another cup cycle within two years. If the go back to the drawing board, it would probably be at least three years before we have another event.
