In the last post, I commented that the ball was now in the Golden Gate Yacht Club’s (GGYC) court, as Alinghi had provided what they asked for, in the shape of the new Cup boat rule. That meant that GGYC were now in a position to decide whether or not Alinghi had got a headstart in the design process - one of their principal issues with the 33rd Protocol.
The ball promptly came thudding back across the net, as GGYC announced... thanks for the new rule – but how can we possibly decide if Alinghi have got a headstart in the design process if we don’t know what the boat looked like in Alinghi’s original proposal to the Challengers? GGYC now want to see Alinghi's first draft of the rule, to judge how far the final boat has evolved from what they started out with…
At the time of writing that ball was quietly thudding it’s way over the baseline at Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and Alinghi, and heading down towards the grubby little corner of the fence where all the leaves, chip papers and McBurger wrappings gather (think municipal rather than yacht club tennis court), with no sign of a response...
So the pendulum swings back towards Justice Cahn and the New York State Supreme Court having the last word. Or maybe not, if Manuel Chirivella, President of the Challenger of Record, Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), has anything to do with it. He announced at the weekend that they would be appealing if they lost the ruling in the court.
And if you follow that last link, you’ll find the always entertaining Kimball Livingston waiting for you with some other thoughts on a rather gob-smacking press conference given at the Barcelona Boat Show, in which CNEV also appeared to indicate that they thought Spanish law, rather than American, applied to the case - and that CNEV was simply a legal agreement to allow Desafio Espanol to become the Challenger or Record… I'm sure GGYC's lawyers will be interested in that.
So the date has just passed when the teams currently occupying a Valencia base have to indicate whether or not they want to stay on. The first feathers have already been ruffled. Cup in Europe has a story which indicates that the second Spanish syndicate has bought all the Luna Rossa assets and is now after the base as well - allowing them just to move in. Unfortunately, TeamOrigin have already baggsied first dibs on that one…
Meanwhile, the world’s design offices have been rushing to the nearest blog to give us their take on the new rule for the AC90 boat. Apart from the obvious fact that the new boats are bigger and a lot more powerful, the crucial difference between the old and the new is that the AC90 is a box rule – there is a fixed upper limit for all the main parameters; sail area, length, beam, displacement and so on. So teams won’t be trying to figure out how to balance these components into the right configuration for the venue/wind range they expect to sail in. Instead, the hull shape, within the confines of the box, is going to be where the design effort is focused. And then once they’ve figure that out, all the details of structure, layout, rig will come into play...
Bruce Farr and Britton Ward at Desafio Espanol gave the rule their blessing – but then as Challenger of Record, you’d hardly expect them to do an ‘IRM’ on it… The Valencia Sailing blogspot has got Schickler-Tagliapietra to take a look at the new rule. While Sail-World have had a chat with Brett Bakewell-White, who provides some comparisons with some of the supermaxis around. But we'll give the last word to Alinghi’s head design honcho, Rolf Vrolijk, who’s done a Q&A on the Alinghi website.
And just in case you hadn’t noticed, this blog is now feedburned - just click on the little orange logo (at the bottom of the menu choices in the left hand column) to get auto-updates whenever I drag my sorry arse back to the keyboard…
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©
The ball promptly came thudding back across the net, as GGYC announced... thanks for the new rule – but how can we possibly decide if Alinghi have got a headstart in the design process if we don’t know what the boat looked like in Alinghi’s original proposal to the Challengers? GGYC now want to see Alinghi's first draft of the rule, to judge how far the final boat has evolved from what they started out with…
At the time of writing that ball was quietly thudding it’s way over the baseline at Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) and Alinghi, and heading down towards the grubby little corner of the fence where all the leaves, chip papers and McBurger wrappings gather (think municipal rather than yacht club tennis court), with no sign of a response...
So the pendulum swings back towards Justice Cahn and the New York State Supreme Court having the last word. Or maybe not, if Manuel Chirivella, President of the Challenger of Record, Club Náutico Español de Vela (CNEV), has anything to do with it. He announced at the weekend that they would be appealing if they lost the ruling in the court.
And if you follow that last link, you’ll find the always entertaining Kimball Livingston waiting for you with some other thoughts on a rather gob-smacking press conference given at the Barcelona Boat Show, in which CNEV also appeared to indicate that they thought Spanish law, rather than American, applied to the case - and that CNEV was simply a legal agreement to allow Desafio Espanol to become the Challenger or Record… I'm sure GGYC's lawyers will be interested in that.
So the date has just passed when the teams currently occupying a Valencia base have to indicate whether or not they want to stay on. The first feathers have already been ruffled. Cup in Europe has a story which indicates that the second Spanish syndicate has bought all the Luna Rossa assets and is now after the base as well - allowing them just to move in. Unfortunately, TeamOrigin have already baggsied first dibs on that one…
Meanwhile, the world’s design offices have been rushing to the nearest blog to give us their take on the new rule for the AC90 boat. Apart from the obvious fact that the new boats are bigger and a lot more powerful, the crucial difference between the old and the new is that the AC90 is a box rule – there is a fixed upper limit for all the main parameters; sail area, length, beam, displacement and so on. So teams won’t be trying to figure out how to balance these components into the right configuration for the venue/wind range they expect to sail in. Instead, the hull shape, within the confines of the box, is going to be where the design effort is focused. And then once they’ve figure that out, all the details of structure, layout, rig will come into play...
Bruce Farr and Britton Ward at Desafio Espanol gave the rule their blessing – but then as Challenger of Record, you’d hardly expect them to do an ‘IRM’ on it… The Valencia Sailing blogspot has got Schickler-Tagliapietra to take a look at the new rule. While Sail-World have had a chat with Brett Bakewell-White, who provides some comparisons with some of the supermaxis around. But we'll give the last word to Alinghi’s head design honcho, Rolf Vrolijk, who’s done a Q&A on the Alinghi website.
And just in case you hadn’t noticed, this blog is now feedburned - just click on the little orange logo (at the bottom of the menu choices in the left hand column) to get auto-updates whenever I drag my sorry arse back to the keyboard…
www.markchisnell.com
Mark Chisnell ©