Luna Rossa (ITA) now says they will race in the Louis Vuitton (after ducking out of their first scheduled race against EmiratesTeamNZ this week.)
That sets up another thrilling race this afternoon when Luna Rossa will challenge... well, nobody.... because Artemis (SWE) are still carrying out stress tests on their second AC72. In fact Artemis have said they may not be ready to race in the Louis Vuitton round robin at all.
If that's true, let's do the math....
There are five rounds in the round robin, each round consisting of three races ITA vs NZL, SWE vs NZL and ITA vs SWE. There should have been 15 races.
But all three races in the first round will have been one-boat races. If my assumptions above are correct, then in every subsequent round there will be two one-boat races (the ones that should involve SWE) and one two-boat race (ITA vs NZL).
So, at the end of all the round robins, we will have seen 11 one-boat races and only 4 two-boat races.
The only real races will be the ones between ITA and NZL. And in what is effectively a best of five series, ITA has already forfeited the first race by refusing to sail.
As a result, in what should have been a month of racing, if NZL win their first two races against ITA it will all be over. If that happens, will ITA bother to carry on racing when there is nothing left to play for? If ITA don't come out to play after they lose, we could see only two real races in the whole round robin series.
There was a report in the last day or two that Louis Vuitton want some of their money back.
Who can blame them?
16 comments:
I say to hell with this whole stupid thing.
Sorry to sound like a broken record but....these boats are way, way over-complicated and too high tech. I think this completely takes away from the traditional way of sailboat racing. Bring back the Twelves! In Newport!
Oh well, at least Larry got his natural amphitheater......and conned the politicos in SF to give him waterfront property for a song.
I think Newport dodged a bullet when they lost the "opportunity" to host this fiasco.
Poor San Francisco. I really do feel sorry for how the SF taxpayers got conned so badly.
But it's so much fun to blog about. The gift that goes on giving.
Thanks for reporting all this to us!
The taxpayers didn't get conned...we didn't vote (proposition) on giving Larry the property, but we got screwed....stuck with the tab. The politicos fell all over themselves...."It's going to bigger than the Super Bowl!" When there was push back from the community, out came the Newport card. So the big shots bent over and rammed it through.
I don't know if you read when I complained that we didn't even get a community sailing program out of the deal. I teach 40 minutes north of the City in San Rafael.
Scout transatlantic is soooooo much more real and interesting than the AC fiasco. And more deserving of our support and respect!
I bet if some crazy old rich coot would give the young men in Tiverton a $100 million then I am sure they would succeed in creating an autonomous robot boat to cross the Atlantic. And if some other crazy old rich coot came up with another $100 million for another group of young men they could turn it into a race.
I'd bet they would do it with only $100k. And with bigger smiles than the AC crews.
But that would be a race worth following. Transatlantic unmanned solar/wind craft. Live on web. Restricted to undergrads 100k budget
!!!!!!!!!!
Yes a massive screw job has been perpetrated on the poor San Franciscans. Will Larry Ellison and all the richies be embarrassed by this - hardly. I think scuttlebutt and all those sailing sites should boycott saying - we are not reporting or showing the races because there are no races. Call me crazy but a one boat race is not a race - it's a cruise.
OK I don't know this Larry dude but presumably he's a bit strapped and needs the cash? I'm sure the SF residents don't mind donating a few tax dollars if it means the mans children don't go hungry. After all we don't want anymore pressure on the local food banks - I know the ones near me are really stretched at present and guess it may be the same near Larry's wharf?
We don't want children going hungry for sure.
Larry has two children, now aged around 30. They are both film producers - Zero Dark Thirty, True Grit, World War Z etc. I am sure the taxpayers of San Francisco don't want film producers going hungry either.
I will continue to report on the redonculousness of AC34.
What's that quote about if a dog bites a man it's not news but if a billionaire bites a cat it is. No wait. I'm getting confused.
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