From: pmh2962@zeus.tamu.edu (Pat Hayes)
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: AC Comments; Tues 4/7
Date: 8 Apr 92 03:23:00 GMT
Organization: Department of Meteorology, TAMU
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Howdy!
	Just saw ESPN's show today.  Wow!  What a day!

	Defenders.  Wow!  Clearly the superior boat for the light-wind 
conditions, S&S gave it away at the last windward mark.  Then Buddy
Melges almost gave it back by not covering S&S after taking the lead.
Did anyone see the replay of the *love-tap* like I did:  S&S attempted
to take Kanza up, but went past head-to-wind (essentially tacking) before
tapping Kanza.  Kanza cleared the windward mark, but S&S, rounding
inside Kanza, hit the mark.  Both boats protested; the on-the-water 
committee disallowed the protests; but the committee nailed S&S,
apparently for hiting the mark.
	I was really impressed with S&S's comeback on that last leeward
run to the finish.  S&S overtook and passed Kanza, then almost faked
Kanza into missing the finish line!  Whew!  What a race!  Kanza did
finish and S&S had to do their penalty turn with part of their chute
dragging in the water.
	They interviewed Koch and Melges on the water; Koch alluded
to some big changes to A^3 that will help A^3 during her next race
against S&S.  Also blamed some of Kanza's ratty performance on the
AC committee's change of start time to account for Daylight Saving's
Time -- wind regimes change in/out of Kanza's <narrow> performance
envelope. <excuse me -- *barf*>  Melges admitted his goof in not 
covering S&S at the last windward mark, but said he'll take the win.
Sorry to see Dawn Riley not make the A^3 final crew list.

	Challengers.  Wow!  Wierd races and elimination of Japan.
The strangest was the non-race between France and Italy.  Italy blew the
start and trailed France almost an hour into the race.  Then the committee
decided they screwed up the start; they took too long to alert Pajot that 
he was over early.  So -- they cancelled the first race, restarted, and,
with winds more favorable to Italy, France trailed instead of led.  Italy
won; taking the lead in the LV series.
	New Zealand and Japan sailed a close race.  Magnificent match-
racing for the first half of the race, until NZ opened it up a bit. Dickson
looked good up the first windward leg, trading tacks with Davis, lots of 
ducking and heading.  But NZ prevailed and Japan gets the hook.  The ESPN
crew interviewed Dickson and I kinda felt sorry for him.  As someone
mentioned earlier -- but not for those fluky breakdowns, Japan would be
right in there.  Dickson could still be a spoiler for the other three;
and we could see him beside Jobson and Isler commenting about the rest
of the AC series.
	Italy and NZ are tied for the lead.  Any combination of 2 wins
by NZ or 2 losses for France puts France out and NZ in (I'm not quite sure
how this works--just repeating what ESPN said).

Pat Hayes--Meteorology--TAMU  INT: pmh@tamu.edu  BIT: pmh2962@tamzeus *whoop*
************************ standard disclaimer applies ************************
From: thatchh@hplsla.hp.com (Thatch Harvey)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 17:10:00 GMT
Subject: Re: Flushing o/board motors
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA