America's Cup & Prada Cup in NZ

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Wayne_H
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Joined: 17 Feb 2018, 05:26
Location: Temora, NSW. Australia
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America's Cup & Prada Cup in NZ

Post by Wayne_H »

One of the few good things about our 14 day compulsory COVID confinement after our arrival in New Zealand, is where we are confined. The hotel is in Auckland on the waterfront, only some 300m from the Italian challenger's wharf and 500-600m from the Kiwi & English camps.

We are on the 6th floor overlooking the harbour. We've been watching the comings and goings of the yachts in the lead up to the final 13 race series to select the challenger.

Yesterday was day 1 - the Italians opened a can of wup-ass handing the Brits a 2 race sailing lesson.
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The speed of the AC75 foiling boats to me is remarkable - granted I haven't paid close attention to their development the last several years. Yesterday in race 2 they were doing 40-42kts in a 17-19kt breeze. Even when heading out of the harbour under sail to practice they were going past the powered vessels!
Cheers,

Wayne
Once a Retrobate, always a Retrobate............ ;)
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PaulJ
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Joined: 16 Feb 2018, 19:01
Location: Ipswich, UK

Re: America's Cup & Prada Cup in NZ

Post by PaulJ »

Thanks Wayne, yes these foil boats are awesome........ I well remember the first time I saw one. I was slowly chugging up a channel with not a lot of deep water to manoeuvre in when a dinghy cut in front of me and tacked :twisted: . I was just thinking up an expletive to yell at him when the bloody thing rose up out of the water and "flew" away!........... I was gobsmacked! :o
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