Absolutely! The claim that the AC is at the forefront is so false on so many occasions. The AC in recent history has picked up trends that have been established elsewhere and the over exaggerated them just to say they are the forefront of technology.
It's a facet of the sport that is still inaccessible to most of us. Want to get into displacement sailing? Buy a $1500 beater laser (or cheaper) and mix it up with your local fleet, which you're guaranteed to find nearby. Want to get into foiling? The best you can do is find a used UFO for at least 3-4 times the cost of the laser, and where is your fleet? There was one guy who had one on our lake, and he sold it because he wasn't sailing it. Plenty of Scow and PHRF sailing to be had instead.
When people cry for the good 'ol days, these two regattas are the only things they are referring to. And like you highlighted, in 1983 there were extended periods where no maneuvers, no sail changes were happening. Fuck, even the start of race 7 was boring...no engagement and Australia was 8 seconds late.
That's too bad. I learn something that I can apply to my own racing every time I watch, and I sail a 1984 Capri 25. All the same principles apply... get time and distance down, get to the favored side, find clear air, perform clean maneuvers, cover your competition, recover from mistakes, never give up. Mostly I feel sorry for the sailors who can't enjoy the modern America's Cup. You're missing out on something incredible.
For me, it's the other way round. I've match-raced small keelboats, so I can understand what's happening before the start, or when Luna Rossa takes TNZ beyond the downwind layline. I've sailed skiffs, so I understand what it's like to bear away in conditions where it may be nearly impossible to sail the boat on a beam reach. I've team-raced skiffs (not very well), so I have a feel for what it's like when the disciplines come together. Something I've spent very little time doing is plugging up and down windward-leeward courses in big, heavy, loaded-up boats that go much the same speed on any point of sail, and rather more slowly than I'd be going in a Wednesday evening race after work. I just don't find it that exciting. I can hoist/drop/gybe/peel spinnakers, but I honestly don't find it that interesting, it's just boat handling; you practice it, then you go out and do it in races. I can relate to AC75 racing in a way that I could never relate to the leadmines.
Yeah, it's been the opposite for me. 2000 was my first Cup (I was 11 at the time) and I was enamored. We taped all of the ESPN LVC coverage (broadcast at midnight) and I was hooked watching the AmericaOne vs Prada slugfest ("PROPER COURSE!!!"). In 2007 I listened to the live radio coverage of the LVC because that's all I had access to for livestreaming. Now I'm watching the highlights after the fact. I've been spending more time lately watching replays of match racing at the 2012 Olympics. My first match racing regatta is this summer, and that interest in the Cup growing up definitely got me into the discipline.
Ha! Have you seen the deltas of those finishes? In '95 I got in trouble in the dorm common area because the races were so fucking long. I could never finish watching a race because there was a 2 hour limit to hogging the TV. And even by that time, my non-sailing friends had lost interest. In 2000, the exciting part was the LV finals. The AC regatta was a snoozer by the definition of "exciting" racing according to the complainers here.
No argument that courses were WAY too long in years past. If you look at top-level match racing they have 15-20 minute legs, which is about right. You're right that 95 was a boring cycle overall, the defender series shenanigans notwithstanding.
A snoozer of a Cup Match doesn't diminish a competitive challenger series. "The Catch," "The Drive," and the "Ice Bowl" overshadow the Super Bowls that followed them. The lopsided nature of the AC being a challenge cup means that the Match itself is always at risk of being a snoozer.
I am referring to the whole thing including LVC and the 95 and 00 version had some real ding dong battles.
Am I missing your subtle innuendo; thought I made it overly obvious I was referring to NZ. Where the first glass 12 metre (Kiwi Magic) was built - when the 12s were all alloy - and the glass Kiwi was considered a grossly unfair cheat. Remember Conner's whinging?And this same country was dead against building them out of fibre glass, right?
