Looks awesome, just hope that it can get to the East Coast sometime!

Great Group! Good luck everyone

No comments being allowed tonight (!) regarding the new Kite record. So I will just post this remark onto some other article! And, how did this Namibian 'channel' find its way to your 'Offshore Records', guys??? LOL ....................................................... Many have sailed faster than this, Who knows how many times... it has been on snow and ice, certainly, but "under sail" nonetheless. Why not install a refrigeration unit on that ditch in Namibia next season?.......................................... I think the kite fraternity realizes that their records are 'kite-specific" when descriptions like the following apply; quoting from above article: "he tested the speed sailing zone twice, on Friday and Monday, to familiarise himself with the area. This comprises a channel dug out parallel to the beach, which enables the full optimisation of speed records under sail."

Definitely. A windmill that could take the boats directly upwind (as they tried out on a Prout catamaran once). That would remove any port-starboard issues

Instead of a wingsail they should go for a wind turbine, propeller arrangement.

5(g) SELF-STEERING Automatic and wind-vane devices for steering may be carried but not used, except in the 2-handed division when they may be used. This amends IRC Rule 14.

A perfect storm of progress! Engineers have known for over fifty years that a wing sail would out perform a soft sail, but all that extra weight, what to do back at the dock; and then there is the serious issue of reefing? Even the basic challenges of both tacking and gybing have given boat builders considerable heartache with the construction of solid sail devices. Recent continuous improvements in engineering and materials have combined to provide soft sail multihulls with the ability to extend their performance potential and set spectacular offshore records. Russell Coutts is the supreme match racing champion of his generation, and has gone on to conceive the highly successful monohull RC44 which provides superb match racing for its constituents. How fortunate we are that he should look outside the box and develop an America’s Cup that will clearly place the contestants in the fastest match racing boat imaginable. No one is disenfranchised here. Monohull sailors can make the switch if they choose to as James Spithill demonstrated so eloquently in February. David Collins

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Indeed this is a very sad end to what could of been a great campaign for Great Britain. But you have to look at all the facts really. The first has to be down to the size of Mills wallet and his expected sponsors, its going to be very hard in this climate to find the £100 million to get this campaign working and working well for sponsors to find it attractive enough. The second is the current team and what there plans are, obviously there is Ben and the other olympic hopefuls. There is no way in the world that they wouldn't compete at the 2012 games, but would that of been different if the games were held else where? I think it would of. But that begs the question, if the AC was the year after, would they still of been involved? I again doubt this very much, mainly due to the sponsorship, but also very much around what the output has been from the BMW Oracle camp in terms of boat. Could you really see Ben out there competing at the highest level in anything other than a mono? If there was time to get the ground work in, lots of training etc, then maybe he would, but that would then put him out of the Olympics (well maybe). I just hope that this Americas Cup actually comes to something worth while. Its suppose to be for the masses, but are people that interested? I know I am, but maybe that is due to me wanting to see the Americas fail at this. I hope they don't. I would of opted for 75ft canting keel versions of the TP52, with a mixture of race courses, but then am I the target market for this americas cup?

Re America Cup participation It was obvious, given the lack of interest at Cowes in the AC boats and the contrasting interest in the I-shares Cats that a wing sail cat was the way forward if flat water venues were going to be considered rather than going back down the heavy displacement keel boat route, which only look great when run in big waves and wind - contrast Perth 1987 with recent events. The amount of development Oracle has done in my view is being overstated. They had the benefit of taking over Conners wing mast data from 1988, but given the amount of time they had all they actually did was ensure it stood up in San Diego before shipping to Valencia. Every outing was put on U-tube so it is possible to watch what they were able to test. In Valencia Oracle was only there for a couple of weeks and did two races in very light conditions, all that is documented. It looked like the Alinghi Cat combined with the Oracle rig would have been really quick, so neither participant came out with a perfect set up. Oracle cobbled together a system for putting the mast up, also they put wind turbine blades up at sea without too much difficulty, a quick and easy system can be evolved given some thought. Also if you are going to sail in 20kts + the rigs would have to be a lot smaller, the hulls would hit terminal velocity and thereafter the problem is increasing efficiency and reducing drag - much of this information re large blades will be available in the wind turbine sector, which operate pretty near peak efficiency. The real problem is the economy and the proximity to the Olympics. There are sound business reasons for not sponsoring an event like this when substantial cuts are on the way. It would have been viable for a large number of teams to enter using a variation of the existing AC rule, but it may be a better event long term with 4 teams using modern technology rather than 10 teams sailing very boring old tech. Once the AC goes cutting edge, it wont go back - which will leave the likes of Origin out permanently, because the Tec gap is narrower now than it will be in 4 years time and once a full cycle has taken place it will take 10 years to come fully up to speed and be competitive. So this is a sad day because instead of being in on an exciting state of the art project the UK is side lined, all the skilled sailors will be picked up and go abroad and a great team who could have won the cup, will be broken up. Charles Apthorp

Sad. But not suprising. Origin are not alone amongst teams not being happy with the new boats and format. As I have written elsewhere this is a vision of the Cup controlled by sailors, rather than business people or owners. No bad thing. but it is different. And I am not sure viable commercially. We will see.

Rubbish, absolute rubbish, how lame are your interview skills? 1. With the Olympics in London, Ben, bart, and Iain were always going to choose to do the Olympics rather than an America’s cup which most likely they will not win. However Sir Mills knows full well he will not get the sponsors he needs to make the cup possible without these people. Bottom line, he is simply not rich enough. 2. Surely if you want to win you have to do two tournaments anyway, one would be training, getting used to the boat, i am sure larry will win but at least you will have the experience for next time. Why is he not doing this..... comes down to money...

Very sad indeed. Mills had got a great team together and - on a level surface - they would have done very, very, very well. How long can the AC go on like this? Crazy!

Oh dear

I think this decision is reflective of the current malaise hanging over England, why try when it's easier to just give up!

This is very sad news. Mills had put together an amazing team to back the raw talent of the Olympic sailors. Shame on BMW Oracle and - more than anything - shame on the "challenger of record" for selling their soul in return for design information.

Really sad news. A significant criticism from a major potential team to BMW Oracle Racing plans.

It's not really Ainslie that matters. Britain has 3 of the first 5 Finn sailors... The same is not true of the Star.