Your feedback

Much support for keeping the Little America's Cup for the C-class plus Kingfisher2, America's Cup and Volvo views

If you have any comments to make about any of the issues below, send us an email - click here to open Outlook or here to contact us through a direct message box.

The Little America's Cup change to F18s has prompted a deluge of feedback from you...

Ian Wallace writes:

This is a major loss to sailing. The C class cat was one of the last true high performance development classes with the International 14 turning into a Beiker one design and the 18 foot skiff having a rule freeze it was left to the C and A class cats to push the envelope in term of small boat design.

One of the problems with the event was the comprehensive way Steve Clarke won it the investment in time and money was led to a very professional campaign that I believe came mainly from his own pocket.

If the event needs revamping it needs to be done in the spirit of the original event if that is a rewrite of the rules to make the C class a little cheaper and perhaps add twin trapezes and a fleet racing element this would I believe help it would also create a far better spectator element.

If they are determined to run a weekend regatta at least do it in A class Cats to give budding designers and boat fiddlers around the world something to aspire to.

It would be a great shame to think that Cogito represents the end of the C-class arms race. Certainly she was expensive. Frankly I am surprised that Lindsay Cunningham and the Yellow Pages crowd haven't made an attempt to get the LAC back having invested so much time in winning it before then.

Edward Fryer agrees:

The ICCT was unique, and now it's nothing more than a week long regatta like many others. It's outrageous that Sea Cliff didn't do more to promote challengers before pulling the plug - if they'd give a year or so warning, I'm sure someone would have surfaced.

Aside from the expensive, this is certainly one of the reasons the C-class hasn't developed - it has never really had sponsorship and races have always been slightly 'in the closet'. The class has no profile any more.

Bristol boatbuilder extraordinaire Wiz Deas offers this viewpoint:

I hope that the people who changed the Deed of Gift get what they want - money. They have ruined a unique and historic event. The C class must continue, somehow, to allow real cutting edge design and technology.

Thanks to Steve Clark for reminding us which are the fastest boats around a course. Bring on the new Little America's Cup soon - before I die of boredom reading of boats with 25 ton lumps of lead hanging off them and how advanced they are.

Sailboat racing needs to be close, with thrills and spills. In this sense, the current AC boats are OK but in every other sense they are a joke. If TNZ had won would we all have had to tie a bucket to the back of our boats to call them technically advanced?

Meanwhile, Formula 1 lost all credibility with the charade of planned finishes by Ferrari last season. I hope that sailing never gets like Formula 1. I challenge anyone to demonstrate any real benefit that Formula 1 can pass to the road cars we all drive.

Sailing is the last "free" pursuit we have to fire our imagination without bounds and restriction, except for the natural elements of wind and wave. What a fantastic challenge it is to dream of ways over and through these two very different media. Adrian Thompson (succinctly) pointed out to me once, at Weymouth Speedweek in the UK, that one is still allowed to dream up the ultimate sailing machine, bung it in the water - and then watch it fail. No one is allowed to do that with such freedom in the confines of motorsport or architecture.

Cast our minds back to the ingenious Formula 40 trimaran Adrenalin with it's vertically articulating amas, to Rozierre, the giant proa, to Hydroptere and countless others. Talk about a steep learning curve. I love it!

And thank you, TDS, for reminding me about those fantastic photos you posted last year. Brilliant. Will you start a campaign to support the C class and promote a new Little Americas Cup?

OK Wiz - how about building a British challenger?

From Chalfont, Pennsylvania, Keith Burrage domoans the actions of the Trustees:

This is really sad. I followed and was educated by the Little Americas Cup,the Amateur Yacht Research Society and the OSTAR since the mid 60s.

Reg White and Bob Fisher's 1967 Catamaran Racing should be read by anyone who enjoys sailing fast and wants to sail faster.

Steve Clark is exactly right in his observation that the Cup's demise lays in Europe's failure to respond to his and America`s success and try to steal it away like John Fisk did back in 1961.

The proposed event is a joke,hopefully it will draw the attention it deserves - none - and die an early death. The only glimmer of hope in your article is Steve's intention to answer the Perth syndicates challenge.

I was privileged to race against Cogito at two Newport Unlimited regattas and watch in awe as she flew away from my very quick 40ft tri upwind and down - carrying one sixth the sail area downwind: that's efficiency.

The America`s Cup has contributed to monohull development but not to the degree the Little America's Cup advanced multihull design. Eric Tabarly put wingmasts on Pen Duick IV after he saw Lady Helmsman, the 1966 and 1967 winner. It's time for the ORMA 60s to take a look at Cogito and make a step forward.

The Sea Cliff Yacht Club should cherish their Deed of Gift, abandon the F-18 plan and put their best efforts into making the right people aware of the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary event.

CALL THE ALINGHI BOYS they LOVE multihulls - or maybe they don't think they are hot enough to beat Steve!

This is true - aside from a couple of state of the art ACC boats, there is another Alinghi, a highly overcanvassed catamaran that Ernesto Bertarelli uses on Lake Geneva that this year won the Bol d'Or. A C Class cat would be an interesting exercise for the likes of Grant Simmer and Rolf Vrolijk.

Californian reader Denis Inman agreed with our view:

I was greatly saddened this morning to read about the death of the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy competition. I have followed the Little America's Cup as it was also known since I was a young boy, and it had always impressed me as the ultimate development race for catamarans. The designers and the sailors who tried to tame those wild machines were, to me, the apex of the sport. To see that the name has been applied to a one design contest is a travesty.

Our sentiments precisely

Paul van Dyke offers this view:

Although expensive and difficult to maintain, C-class racing should continue.
Maybe the guys who have the programs in place can get another series going.
The Worrell 1000 will be the big race for the F-18s in the US. The Little America's Cup will be a match racing version of the Alter Cup - could be fun, but should not be at the expense of the C-class. We need C-class projects to keep sailing alive, moving forward, and growing.

I think that it will disappear, eclipsed by any number of other catamaran regattas. I wonder if the name "Little America Cup" is registered. If not, buy a new trophy :)

Mmm. We await to hear what conclusion Steve Clark has come to

Simon Smith has a constructive suggestion:

If the powers that be had recognised that the inherent problem with the C Class Cats was the overwhelming complexity of the rig and had acted accordingly to make it vastly simpler then the C Class would still be used today. With a similar but bigger version of the rig used on the Bimare Javelin 2 F-18HT you would truly have the fastest, most challenging yet accessible sailing craft in the world.

John Cummings on where the new format Little America's Cup will end up: I think that it will disappear, eclipsed by any number of other catamaran regattas. I wonder if the name "Little America Cup" is registered. If not, buy a new trophy :)

Donald Tripp sends this one liner - Let the FH 18s beat the C Class Cat for Cup

Following the extract from the Xenophobe's Guide to the Swiss , we published on Friday Matthew Armstrong agrees with the general sentiment of the piece:

I had a Swiss girlfriend once - she was never late always punctual, she didn't drink, only ate healthy foods, went to the gym on a regular basis, never broke the speed limit when driving and was always in the office by 7.30 a.m. In short, she was a machine who wasn't prepared to give up until she got what she wanted. I, obviously was not what she wanted and we split up after about 3 weeks. Her loss I reckon.

Must be a Finn sailor...

Reader John Stapleton has some interesting observations to make about Alinghi and a possible 'secret weapon' (see unveiling article )

I wonder if anyone else got the same impression as me, that Alinghi always seemed able to put on a sudden spurt of speed when they needed to - both against Oracle and TNZ. These were often very dramatic and seemed almost 'unnatural'. Probably most obvious were the two downwind overtaking manoeuvres (Oracle & TNZ), when Alinghi not only put on a dramatic spurt of speed to catch a boat leading by 100-odd metres, but
then, after overtaking, seemed to spurt out and up from the leeward "blanketed" position. Almost bazaar.

This also happened upwind on a few occasions - especially near the top mark when the opposition had got a favourable shift and was coming in to cross in front and take rights.

Suddenly, apparently without obvious reason, Alinghi would dramatically pick up speed and cross in front. There were many other instances of Alinghi being able to do what they needed to in every situation - pinching up at speed - running deep at speed etc. All of them were counter the normal "rules" of sailing dynamics.

What does it all mean? One obvious conclusion is that Alinghi had speed in reserve and only used it when they had to. Working out where the speed came from is more difficult. The hull and fins on Alinghi looked fairly 'ordinary' - especially against TNZ, who grabbed all the attention.

The only things that stood out were the wide chord of the Alinghi keel fin - mainly due to a wide chord trim tab, and the turned-up bow. Alinghi claim not to have put much time or resources to develop fins, but this is probably a falsehood.

The sails and rig also looked fairly standard, and everyone believes they had less sail area than TNZ. Maybe it was all down to superhuman helmsman/trimmer co-ordination, but could this ever be enough to explain those spurts of speed? It seems to me that Alinghi have at least one 'secret' weapon, that no one has yet spotted.

God is in the detail with these boats and the detail is exactly what you don't get when you sit down to interview Rolf Vrolijk or Grant Simmer . Any of you Cup-heads got any views on John's theories?

Swedish reader Lars Hultgren thinks the Cup coming to Europe is a good thing:

Great News for a will be great event!

Less fuss, more racing and finally a chance for the organisers to find a place where there is actually possible to race more often than 3 days out of 12...

Hats off for Bertarelli & Coutts!

Allelujah!

Sarah Butcher has a suggestion for the next America's Cup venue:

Possible location for the next America's Cup: It is great that Alinghi have said that the next Cup will be in Europe, and there are suggestions of possible ports where it could be held. Has anyone mooted the idea of holding it in Falmouth, Cornwall? The spectator possibilities from the cliffs would be superb. I accept it is a small town, but the racing could be excellent, none of the wind problems that plague the Solent.

We hear rumours that Ernesto Bertarelli has bought a berth for one of his boats in Palma, and not Falmouth, sadly

Mini fan Alex Haworth on the new format America's Cup:

7. DEED OF GIFT
SNG and the Challenger of Record have mutually agreed, in accordance with the terms of the Deed of Gift as follows:
(a) all racing in the Regatta shall be undertaken in yachts that comply with the ACC Rules and this Protocol;
(b) centre-board or *sliding* keel vessels are permitted provided they meet the requirements of the ACC Rules;

So I guess the big question for next time is: how do you slide (and cant?) a 25+tonne bulb without the whole shooting match falling off or the rest of the boat breaking into bits and sinking!

Various people including God (Russell Coutts) have told us that they were considering changing the boats for this time. There are obviously a number of swing-keel offshore maxis hitting the water at the moment, but seeing as an Open 60's all up weight is around 9-11 tonnes I think it would be back to the drawing for the structural johnnies if ever it were to happen in the ACC...

Howard Gale rather likes Farr 52s...

This looks like a great opportunity to get a few young keel boat sailors to make the next step and it looks radical new and exciting which it is in its association with the RYA and I wish it every success and I am sure that the two winners will enjoy the experience of Farr 52 sailing I know I have and I know that the boys on the Tonic have too.

Damn it's great racing - why more owners haven't invested blows me away I know that this is a shameless add for the 52 circuit but if you can afford one buy one you will not regret it. There will (fingers crossed) be three highly competitive boat on the water finishing with in seconds of each other in races through out the year. They are fast upwind and on a breezy day you can really open the throttle downwind - 24 knots in the America's Cup Jubilee and 22 knots downwind on the round the island under jib and main with the emergency tiller on (please note despite this obvious breakage we finished 5th on the water). Just buy one you know it make sense the main sails have are probably at least 6th generation by now it is developing ell as a class. God I can't sell them any more.

Right rant over lets get to the point. The problem is that it isn't new concept by any means and certainly not in the Farr 52 circuit which is always after young blood (which is usually cheaper than having a few pros onboard and some times just as good). If you remember it was done last year by Kit Hobday for the crew of Bear of Britain, another Farr 52, and some would argue as equally successful as Team Tonic if not more so, through Yachts and Yachting in direct competition to the RYA crew search. Needless to say that the Bear crew search proved more popular than the RYA's with well over 100 applicants who had to survive interviews, trials, fitness tests and the training program not to mention racing on the boat.

Buy a 52 damn they are fast.

Are you related to Peter Morton?

Mark Allison has a query about our skiff and asymmetric series:

I believe you have published several articles on asymmetric sailing. How do I find all of them on your site? Searching under "asymmetric" did not work. It would be useful if the latest one from Kevin Sproul had a connection to the others so one could click through the related series, perhaps by listing the others at the bottom of the article as some sites do. Good and informative publication.

The whole treasure trove of our asymmetric coverage is to be found on our skiff and asymmetric homepage within our dinghy section (click on the tab above).

Brian Hill thanks us for our America's Cup coverage

Great coverage of Race 5! There was no live feed here in the US and Virtual Spectator failed, but The Daily Sail was there every step of the way! Nice work James and staff, you were the very best option available! I'm really impressed with how quickly you were posting updates and photos. THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you NZ cellular who have a great wireless modem that works out on the Hauraki Gulf...

In response to Andrew Bank's 'assault' on Kingfisher2's Jules Verne campaign, harried reader Ian McKay responds:

Andrew's assessment of Kingfisher2's Jules Verne performance does have some perfectly valid points however there is one aspect that he keeps returning to (maybe it's an aspect he has some kind of particular interest in) which does surprise me. That is his continual moan that Offshore Challenges had pumped the world into a frenzy that the gaining of this record was a foregone conclusion. This is very unfair and I clearly missed any item of news or any matter directly attributable to Offshore Challenges that said as much.

If journalists and commentator's were lured into thinking it was a sure-fire thing then they should question themselves, and maybe readers should take larger doses of salt with their tabloids ­ I cannot find a moment when this attitude came from either the skipper, the crew or the team at Offshore Challenges. They could not afford to ­ it's too far to fall and makes no business or strategic sense what-so-ever either.

That the team assembled was the pick of the very best available is without question and it is this that may have lured on-lookers into perhaps justifiably thinking it should not fail.

Everything that poured out of OC on behalf of the Kingfisher2 campaign was nothing if not realistic. They always pushed the fact that more have failed than succeeded, went out of their way to suggest on the course relative performance comparison's with Olivier's Geronimo and Peyron's Orange and never hid the data when Kingfisher2 was not doing well.

It is generally accepted that Olivier enjoyed a very fortuitous time with the weather on the way down the Atlantic but struggled a couple of times in the Southern Ocean and is now picking a difficult path back up the Atlantic. Before the off, Ellen remained honest in stating that win, lose or draw there was a huge amount of luck involved in any Jules Verne attempt ­ unfortunately Ellen's ran out ­ even the most cursory glance at the South Atlantic weather systems would show what a minefield there was.

Once the dust has settled and they come ashore, it will be interesting to see what Ellen and the crew have to say.

Suggesting that Ellen and the project team lacked respect for OdK or Peyron is just plain cuckoo ­ Andrew's attack directly on OC truly is misplaced.

Andrew - you wouldn't like to see this man when he's angry...

Chris Duddington sends these thoughts on the new format for the Volvo Ocean Race

Yes, I think that the Volvo 70 looks sexy and will probably increase media coverage which is all about what the sponsors wont.

However casting my thoughts back to the coming of age of this race with Ceramco NZ and Flyer racing in the 81/2 race I cant help wondering if there should be different divisions say a handicap for the older W/V60s to compete under as well as the new v70s and maybe a reintroduction of the old maxi class.

This is because as I understood it the W60 boat was originally introduced to curb huge spending budgets and enable more corporate sponsors. I leave with this thought - what is a greater media spectacular a small number of fast boats or a large number of boats on the start line all racing for the same trophy but under handicaping.

Lastly why is a great BRITISH race now not starting in the UK ?????????

If you have any comments to make about any of these issues, send us an email - click here to open Outlook or here to contact us through a direct message box.