Fabulous article. A couple of thoughts: TV should be comfortable with an event between only two teams. Tennis or soccer would be classic examples. When the twelve meters were introduced after World War 2 the principal innovation was that the challenger no longer had to arrive "on its bottom", it could be shipped. Boat speed alone has little to do with competitive results. The AC45s have amply demonstrated that in the past few years. It is the fact that the rule is both new and not one design. The Americas Cup has always been a design contest and surely we don't want to remove that piece of the puzzle? Last year I was fortunate enough to have a ride on l'Hydroptere and (back then) I marveled that this boat had broken the 50 knot barrier over a 500 meter course. Last week Emirates Team New Zealand sailed 47 knots racing around the cans!!! So much about this AC is right that I just hope people will line up to challenge for the next one. David, Los Angeles

Great article and so much truth in everything that is said here. I feel that ENTZ will win the cup this time, then hopefully they will make a better decision on boats for the next cup. If you had asked me a few months ago I would of said these are the wrong boats and lets get back to an ACC boat. But now I am not sure what they should do at all. If the Kiwis win this, which I think they should easily, they have to be so careful on budgets and make it affordable(if that is the right word) for more teams to join in. Hopefully the economic stability of the Worlds economies will help them as well. For all of the evil that Larry has done to the cup over the last however many years, I think there is a heel of a lot they can take on from this, lots of lessons learnt and some cool tech to progress with. Looking forward to the next part of this article

God speed to all at Artemis Racing. You have shown just how a fine team can work together under the most testing of times. Torbjorn you and your team have won the hearts and minds of millions, how significant is the cup compared to what you have achieved?

Well better late than never...!!! I do hope the new boat will show some competitive racing and I wish them well...Peter Carp, Morges Switzerland

In our interview with Yann Guichard recently he said they were looking at lightening the boat including changing the rig, possibly to a smaller one... Also, quite interesting that the boat's original creator and skipper, Pascal Bidegorry, is part of Spindrift's MOD70 crew but doesn't appear to be on this. I sincerely hope that they have managed to get one or two of the techies who originally developed the boat to come join the team.

 

Well it seems they are getting bigger and faster all the time...It will be interesting to see what happens when the new owners go after the records and if they will be able to better the previous ones when the boat was called Banque Populaire....Peter Carp, Morges Switzerland

this regatta is becoming very famous for Marc's irresponsible behaviour - endangering Optimist sailors by ploughing through their (racing fleet) on port (the optimist fleet is all on Starboard) - video is here: http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=148692 I suggest Marc is stripped of world championship title

What is the third case?

Absolutely spectacular, for an old monohull sailer as myself its unbelievable...hat off to all who contributed to the development of these boats... Its a pity though that there is no more competition so far....The other challengers must have their chance too, otherwise it will be a NZ versus USA affair. Peter Carp( CNM 10x Bol d'Or participant !!) born year l926...!!! Morges Switserland

Very impressive. Well done as well to Gutek on Energia who also beat Alex Thomson's record, by alomost two hours, and for much of their voyages was ahead of Marc. Given how much time they both lost to light airs approaching the the Scillies, further improvement in the solo monohull North Altantic record may well be possible...Richard Tolkien

Nice final comment - no Porsche - he's a proper sailor!

not a multiplast but a CDK built boat, masterminded by the late Hubert Desjoyaux

Is Iain Murray in Oracle's pocket? Oracle made a mistake with their guess as to what the best solution to the AC 72 puzzle was going to be and now are changing the rules two weeks before the racing begins to make up for that. New Zealand's boat seems perfectly safe. The boat with the accident wasn't even foiling. WTF?

 Thanks for a bit of literary class Jerry - a welcome addiion to The Daily Sail!

We were all brought up with the magic of OSTAR with propper heros that sailed crazy boats. Its what got me into boat design, so fond memeories of the past and a glass raised to the present day competitors who have similar challanges as they make landfall. Adrain Thompson.

 

Am I missing something here but surely this is to the benefit of Artemis?

Fingers crossed for Francis - this record has always been an unlucky one for him. He ran his first IDEC on to the rocks after his first attempt (when he broke the record) and flipped his present IDEC on his last attempt two years ago

Dalton should go into comedy.