Recon diary

[Mozzy Sails]

I had high hopes for the joint recon program. That the information / reports shared to teams would come fairly quickly to the public domain.

This was the quote from INEOS and I think I remember similar from AC / ETNZ

"This campaign, the Cup has mandated a shared recon programme. This means that all information is open to all teams, but also for the fans and spectators.”

I have been following the recon diary... and it's turd. I get maybe logistically just dumping all data collected for the public to sift through would be problematic, but I was hoping these articles would read more like a recon report than a sickly PR piece. The writing is full of cliche, metaphor and random bits of insight that seem to have zero evidence or relevance.

Stuff like

When you put an America’s Cup programme together, perhaps these are the afternoons that you dream of. Perfect conditions. Long flight. Lessons learned. But it was late in the afternoon when the autumnal Barcelona wind Gods played ball, allowing Alinghi Red Bull Racing to unleash the massive power of BoatZero and achieve good stints at speeds that were recorded at around 28 knots.

I mean, wind gods? afternoons to dream for? unleashing of massive power? So many words, but only one bit of information "stints at speeds around 28 knots".

Talk to any modern-day America’s Cup sailor and life at 50 knots is exhilarating. Scary at times. They are a breed apart from the average day-sailor or weekend sailboat racer and you are left wondering how their lives will ever be the same again

Are they a breed apart? I am a pretty average weekend sailboat racer, but I don't consider cup sailors a breed apart. They're talented, and mostly likely better. But breed apart? I think they're very human. More hero worship with no relevance to recon.

Onboard again today was Sailing Team Adviser Dean Barker who brings such presence and poise to the young Swiss team and the Barker effect is real, tangible almost. Arnaud Psarofaghis, the appointed skipper of Alinghi Red Bull Racing is just looking better and better and as confidence builds, the team are clicking well together, going about their business with the utmost professionalism.

Has the recon team fallen in love? How are the recon team determining the level of presence and poise?

As the Kiwis pushed, it was noticeable to see the scalloping steering style being developed by the helms whilst the boat is in flight as they ride the foiling tightrope to hit the optimum ride height whilst keeping the power in the rig

What is scalloping steering? Foiling tightrope... cliche.

The bull is back and looking leaner and meaner with fire-streak decals down her aft hull run-off following the repair post their capsize three weeks ago in an intense thunderstorm.

leaner and meaner... cliche. And the recon report leads with new decals, yet fails to mention what was repaired / damaged in the capsize! A photo of the damage would be nice.

And then the photos that come with the recon diary... seriously, if a recon team sent me this shit I'd fire them.

 

[Mozzy Sails]

I want to see:

1. Recon reports in a format the teams might receive. With info like sailing hours, crew lists, wind speeds etc. Basic info (even if it's half redacted, or a 'brief' for public consumption.
2. Technical articles about the tech on view, photo comparisons etc.
3. I want to know the requests that the teams are putting in to recon teams. What are the cup syndicates interested in? Because this was stated "Furthermore, competing teams can submit open requests for specific points of focus and effectively charge the assigned recon unit in a specified team with getting satisfactory content for further analysis."

The shared recon has the potential to be best thing about this cup. But if the recon diary is the main output (for the public at least) then it's not off to good start.

 

[enigmatically2]

Also (because it has to be declared) which variant foils, sail etc they are using.

I get what scalloping steering technique is though. Just like all racing boats do in waves, they are doing to stay balanced in response to minor changes

 

[Mozzy Sails]

I genuinely have no idea what scalloping is, never heard the term in sailing before.

 

[yoyo]

Agreed. It reads like dumbed down pablum for the masses. Chances are this tactic is part of a prescribed package for monetizing the AC and attracting clicks from social media addicts.

 

[JALhazmat]

I had high hopes for the joint recon program. That the information / reports shared to teams would come fairly quickly to the public domain.

This was the quote from INEOS and I think I remember similar from AC / ETNZ


I have been following the recon diary... and it's turd. I get maybe logistically just dumping all data collected for the public to sift through would be problematic, but I was hoping these articles would read more like a recon report than a sickly PR piece. The writing is full of cliche, metaphor and random bits of insight that seem to have zero evidence or relevance.

Stuff like

I mean, wind gods? afternoons to dream for? unleashing of massive power? So many words, but only one bit of information "stints at speeds around 28 knots".


Are they a breed apart? I am a pretty average weekend sailboat racer, but I don't consider cup sailors a breed apart. They're talented, and mostly likely better. But breed apart? I think they're very human. More hero worship with no relevance to recon.



Has the recon team fallen in love? How are the recon team determining the level of presence and poise?


What is scalloping steering? Foiling tightrope... cliche.


leaner and meaner... cliche. And the recon report leads with new decals, yet fails to mention what was repaired / damaged in the capsize! A photo of the damage would be nice.

And then the photos that come with the recon diary... seriously, if a recon team sent me this shit I'd fire them.
View attachment 543680

It’s utterly shit with the hall marks of Magnus Greasy palms smeared all over it.
alinghi have had a shocker in terms of days on the water from what was allowed, if it had been another team he would have gone for them.

still at least the flag is in focus… 🙄

 

[The Main Man]

I had high hopes for the joint recon program. That the information / reports shared to teams would come fairly quickly to the public domain.

This was the quote from INEOS and I think I remember similar from AC / ETNZ


I have been following the recon diary... and it's turd. I get maybe logistically just dumping all data collected for the public to sift through would be problematic, but I was hoping these articles would read more like a recon report than a sickly PR piece. The writing is full of cliche, metaphor and random bits of insight that seem to have zero evidence or relevance.

Stuff like

I mean, wind gods? afternoons to dream for? unleashing of massive power? So many words, but only one bit of information "stints at speeds around 28 knots".


Are they a breed apart? I am a pretty average weekend sailboat racer, but I don't consider cup sailors a breed apart. They're talented, and mostly likely better. But breed apart? I think they're very human. More hero worship with no relevance to recon.



Has the recon team fallen in love? How are the recon team determining the level of presence and poise?


What is scalloping steering? Foiling tightrope... cliche.


leaner and meaner... cliche. And the recon report leads with new decals, yet fails to mention what was repaired / damaged in the capsize! A photo of the damage would be nice.

And then the photos that come with the recon diary... seriously, if a recon team sent me this shit I'd fire them.
View attachment 543680

And some of the video footage has been unwatchable.

 

[Stingray~]

I had high hopes for the joint recon program. That the information / reports shared to teams would come fairly quickly to the public domain.

This was the quote from INEOS and I think I remember similar from AC / ETNZ

"This campaign, the Cup has mandated a shared recon programme. This means that all information is open to all teams, but also for the fans and spectators.”

My understanding is that uploading to the Recon cloud is done directly by the recon teams on the ground and immediately accessible by all the teams.

Agreed that we all had hopes it would be accessible "also for the fans and spectators" - maybe it will come. The questions that teams are allowed to pose to other teams' recon units could be very interesting too.

Truth is, there may not be much there so far. We have lots of info on the stock AC40 and BZ looks pretty familiar so far too.

 

[PJB]

Next they'll be called "drivers"and "athletes" ....

 

[Stingray~]

Next they'll be called "drivers"and "athletes" ....

I do expect that a lot of whatever is, or going to be getting, uploaded will be used for producing the 'Drive to Survive' or whatever TV series, yes..

To Mozzy's yearning for real data, it would be cool if they could publish the performance datasets like what we had available in AC34 SF including for during all those ACWS events, and if you dug really deep you could pull data for AC35 Bermuda too. For AC34 they even provided a simple executable for visualizing some it. edit: For AC35 we had a member here, dorox, who did some fantastic work on that performance data. He uploaded all of it to GitHub and posted a link.

 

[FinnFish]

Next they'll be called "drivers"and "athletes" ....

As per Sail GP, but they're extreme athletes and 'this is NASCAR on the water'.

 

[Sailbydate]

Next they'll be called "drivers"and "athletes" ....

At least nobody will be confused by the term, 'Skipper' any more, right?

 

[ChairborneRanger]

And some of the video footage has been unwatchable.

That's due to the restrictions on the Recon Units.

 

[ChairborneRanger]

I had high hopes for the joint recon program. That the information / reports shared to teams would come fairly quickly to the public domain.

This was the quote from INEOS and I think I remember similar from AC / ETNZ


I have been following the recon diary... and it's turd. I get maybe logistically just dumping all data collected for the public to sift through would be problematic, but I was hoping these articles would read more like a recon report than a sickly PR piece. The writing is full of cliche, metaphor and random bits of insight that seem to have zero evidence or relevance.

Stuff like

I mean, wind gods? afternoons to dream for? unleashing of massive power? So many words, but only one bit of information "stints at speeds around 28 knots".


Are they a breed apart? I am a pretty average weekend sailboat racer, but I don't consider cup sailors a breed apart. They're talented, and mostly likely better. But breed apart? I think they're very human. More hero worship with no relevance to recon.



Has the recon team fallen in love? How are the recon team determining the level of presence and poise?


What is scalloping steering? Foiling tightrope... cliche.


leaner and meaner... cliche. And the recon report leads with new decals, yet fails to mention what was repaired / damaged in the capsize! A photo of the damage would be nice.

And then the photos that come with the recon diary... seriously, if a recon team sent me this shit I'd fire them.
View attachment 543680

With all things AC, things tend to develop slowly, so I think it will get better.

It's weird to expect something brand new to be perfect and operating at 100% out the gates, especially where it's getting Cup teams to do something they have never done before.

Sail-World and RG obviously has access to the Recon, based on what he is producing, so if he does, I expect more media to get access soon enough and then they will be able to produce the recon you're after.

The AC is never going to get into the weeds on detail or rubbish a team if they are struggling, they will leave that up to the media, and you guys.

 

[Stingray~]

A possible piss-fight ahead may be around if different teams' recon units provide less detail than others do, given how the teams apparently made their own homeboy choices to staff them. Guess we'll see, it's certainly unprecedented.

 

[ChairborneRanger]

A possible piss-fight ahead may be around if different teams' recon units provide less detail than others do, given how the teams apparently made their own homeboy choices to staff them. Guess we'll see, it's certainly unprecedented.

you're starting to sound like Tom Ehamn with fake headlines...

Pretty sure the teams select the recon units for each team by majority vote, so how would any team sneak a "homeboy" choice through that?

 

[Fiji Bitter]

"Starting" ?

 

[Stingray~]

Pretty sure the teams select the recon units for each team by majority vote, so how would any team sneak a "homeboy" choice through that?

Cite?

 

[The_Alchemist]

What a fckg joke. Another case where ABNZ has set up the rules to keep all of the other teams in the dark and prevent them from learning anything.

 

[Forourselves]

I'm prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt at this stage. It wasn't long ago that they were asking for applications to join the recon team. The teams also haven't really started getting into the swing of fully functioning AC teams. I think the Recon teams will start once the teams arrive in Barcelona. Easier to have everything all in one place as opposed to flying people around the world to observe teams.