Monday, February 15, 2010

AC-33: Race 2

I missed the start of yesterday's race (above), so pretty much the first thing I caught was the cross just prior to the first mark. Alinghi had to tack slightly above the line letting BMW Oracle whiz by:

BMW Oracle's line up to the top mark was simply brilliant: kudos to JK:

So around the mark they went....

Then it was a drag race to the 2nd mark, and BMW Oracle powered up and put their foot to the floor leaving Alinghi visibly dropping behind in their wake:

BMW Oracle was steaming away - here hitting 31.1 knots:

After the 2nd mark, Alinghi seemed to be yawing a lot more than BMW Oracle, hunting for the angle that just keeps the 2nd hull flying. BMW Oracle must have been doing their tweaking by simply the adjusting the wing segments:

Alinghi vented some water ballast again - maybe because the winds were lighter and so less righting weight was required (though it did look a bit like someone had gone to the heads and they didn't have any holding tanks):

BMW Oracle had to do one final gybe before squaring off directly towards the line:

And finally after hundreds of millions of dollars and years of lawsuits, it was victory as BMW Oracle crossed the line, winning the race and the America's Cup.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

nice screen-captures & summary, jp.

I thought the 2nd race was great, similar to the 1st. I was quite surprised to see Alinghi flagged with another penalty prior to the race even starting! the 1st leg was great, as they were tacking back and forth, each team taking the lead and then giving it back to the other. after setting up that beautiful layline and then rounding the 1st mark, though, BMW Oracle never looked back as they flew down the 2nd and 3rd reaching legs.

I almost wish there was a 3rd race just because I enjoyed watching those monster multi-hulls sailing so beautifully!

my2fish

JP said...

I hope these great yachts do race again - I wonder what will become of them.

It was good to see that even the top sailors make tactical mistakes like Alinghi did on the start and BMW Oracle by not covering them for the windward leg.

But that windward layline was spot on.