Very impressive by AM. Day 18 of sailing, they are way ahead.
Team American Magic
- Thread starter Admiral Hornblower
- Start date
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
Way ahead of who... or what?
Looks to me like they've maybe just caught up to where LRPP and ETNZ were, back in March 2021.
terrafirma
Super Anarchist
3Di on a 4KSB..??? Show me please.....?
OK, fair call - interesting that Richard is still out with them but if I lean into the pessimistic side of the discussion; the re-cut mainsail you're describing was, as far as I could tell, just bringing AM up to speed with the boomless deck-sweepers that TNZ and LR had successfully deployed during the last cup.
I had a conversation just after making that last post that would seem to confirm AM have in fact made the switch to North so I guess either Richard is being retained independently to the actual sails contract or he's there for the final stages of Doyle's involvement.
The general consensus (around here at least) is that Doyle have nailed the structured luff design by using the additional lenses in their panel layout to get better projection in the luff - North can't replicate this with 3DI because it's too 'dynamic' a shape for their moulds to accommodate. So for flying headsails Doyle are on a winner but when considering just the two materials, 3Di is still superior to Stratis.
Ahead of everyone in sailing days since teams have been allowed to launch.
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The_Alchemist
Super Anarchist
There you go, TS says they will go out looking for waves next week.
Mozzy posted a nice chart somewhere today but it seems to not differentiate between LEQ mode vs AC40 mode, or get into how many hours of actual sailing versus floundering around.
AM looks to be way ahead so far in time that matters.
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
Bugger, Alchy! Should have kept my big gob shut! As if.....eh? ;-)
Sailbydate
Super Anarchist
What is, "time that matters", Stinger? New equipment/design developments maybe? Haven't seen any new equipment from AM, if you exclude the stuff the've been catching up with.
The_Alchemist
Super Anarchist
A lot of people are downplaying the work that AM is doing on the old boat. It looks like they are building and testing all of the systems for the new boat. There is a lot of value in conducting that work in a full scale boat with full crew.
Agreed. At some point the guy says 'before we transfer the new systems to the new boat.'
porthos
Super Anarchist
Maybe. There are undoubtedly some benefits, but there are also restrictions on critical things like foils, whereas if they went the LEQ12 route, they could monkey with those while still reserving all of the foils for their AC37 AC75. In other words, whatever gains AM may be making by sticking with its old AC75 (which gains would only come from non-restricted components and crew work) may not be as great as if they were using an LEQ12 and were then able to monkey with critical components.
I will be very interested to see how this strategic choice plays out for AM. Could be a brilliant choice, but there is absolutely no way to tell that right now.
Since foils have shorter lead times than some larger systems, they may have plenty of time to develop them once their AC40's arrive.
porthos
Super Anarchist
I have no idea if that is true. As I said, it will be interesting to see the ramifications of AM's choice, which is markedly different from INEOS, LR, and TNZ.
ChairborneRanger
Member
It's still early in the game, we may yet see another team bring back an AC75, it wouldn't surprise me if we see LRRP or ETNZ bring back their race boats.
AM's strategy looks a lot like Alighi's so far, although AM is naturally looking far ahead of them at this stage.
porthos
Super Anarchist
I put Alinghi in its own class. They have a whole different learning curve.
