A.R.S.E.

Sailing is fine. Never really was interested in the big boats.. unless it was around the world, more into the smaller 1-2 person skiff races.

Regarding the Olympics, it is a bit like the soccer in the public eye, nothing much till some one has a chance of winning.

Okay, good point but do we suddenly become interested in the game or the winning?

That's where I think Australian sailing got it wrong.

Agreed, Australia is a weird place when you think of it.. over night support or if your to good for a time you get hate mail with the tall poppy syndrome..

I don't think sailing ever got hate mail - unless it was from out-and-out nutters.

We've never been that big.

Anyhow, waiting for next week's instalment.

For anyone who missed it; part 2 of Australian Story:

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/32691" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Australian Story do put some nice work into there shows.

Bad news today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22476320" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I guess sooner or later someone was going to be trapped.

The round robin starts next week:

http://noticeboard.americascup.com/wp-c ... -70613.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Some of the design features of the AC72s:

http://www.sailracingmagazine.com/featu ... ign-battle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[youtube] [/youtube]

[youtube] [/youtube]

ETNZ doing 38kts in 16kts of breeze. I call that impressive.

[youtube] [/youtube]

Foil to foil gybing...wow.

ETNZ hit 42.76kts in the immediate post-start.

Unsurprisingly, ETNZ has won the Louis Vuitton Cup. They now face off against Oracle Team USA in the final starting on the 7th of September:

[youtube] [/youtube]

Whoa.....

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/t ... 6710413757" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yep, ETNZ is a great looking boat .

Interesting... thanks Montey. The problem relates to the AC45 boats rather than the AC72s. However, I have never heard of a two race penalty so they are going to have to work hard to offset that.

ETNZ currently 3-1 up.

[youtube] [/youtube]

Now 4-1 up:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/team-nz-inc ... 2tj85.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

6-1 for ETNZ. Here are races 5 and 6;

[youtube] [/youtube]

According to the commentators - and yet to be verified - ETNZ hit 46.9 knots in Race 5.

Sorry, don't know what those races were but clearly the American win was earlier in the series.

Here are Races 6 & 7:

[youtube] [/youtube]

By the way; have a good listen to Tom Schnackenberg's explanation of VMG in the middle of this vid.

Barker's start in the second race (7) was brilliant, hitting the line traveling very quickly and simultaneously gassing Oracle. That gave them a clear lead at the turning mark.

Interesting races today with ETNZ just managing to avert a disaster:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/ar ... d=11124985" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Oracle Team USA went on to win that one and the second race was called off.

It's pretty clear that ETNZ have the better boat - certainly upwind - and there seems to be little Oracle Team USA can do about it. They have been improving though and hopefully they'll make a real race of it. But withe a two race penalty, neither of their wins count. They have now cleared that penalty and can finally start racing for sheep stations again.

America's Cup races 9&10:

[youtube] [/youtube]

Also an interesting look at apparent wind:

[youtube] [/youtube]

Once you understand apparent wind, you can understand why a boat can do 40 knots in 20 knots of wind and why sailing downwind is now basically the same as sailing upwind.

Here's something else for you to get your head around: polars. All racing boats are sailed by polar charts to maximise their VMG (see earlier explanation of VMG).

Here are a couple of explanations of polars:

http://www.sailingworld.com/experts/get ... -on-target" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.nauticed.org/sailing-blog/ho ... sailboats/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Racing postponed today but a result for ETNZ is very close:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/ ... TC20130917" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They postponed it because of heavy winds.

I had the same thing happen to me today. Went from about 7 knots true wind to about 35 knots with a full main and the heavy number one headsail up. Bit more rag than you want in that lot! Man, that got the concentration going. Had to pull everything down after the roller furler broke and the headsail could not be shortened. While pulling it down, I noticed the bottom part of the bolt rope was just starting to come out of the headfoil. If that had happened it would have destroyed the foil and the sail would have been impossible to retrieve. It took all my strength just to hold it in place. Fortunately, someone came to my aid and we pulled it down but it was under a load of a ton or two of pressure until we got it on the deck.

The race was abandoned but although some suffered some sail and other gear damage, nobody was hurt.

Wind peaked at 38 knots.

Highlights from Race 11:

[youtube] [/youtube]

Here's the live feed link for races 12 & 13:

[youtube] [/youtube]

ETNZ have had a frustrating day on San Francisco Bay today after the race was abandoned due to light winds. The New Zealanders were streets ahead of Oracle Team USA but could not complete the race within the required time limit.

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/low-wind ... 2u5x3.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

("jibed" should be spelt "gybed". Apparently that reporter doesn't know)

They require one more win to wrest the Cup from the San Francisco Yacht Club whereas the Americans need 6 to retain it.

The end of a frustrating day on the water.

While we wait for the weather in San Francisco to sort itself out, it will be 30 years to the day on Thursday:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/fe ... 6720060754" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The bit I'll always remember best; the last spinnaker run when Australia II, who were behind at the top mark, gambled on a flier and Liberty didn't cover them.