From: dwl@watson.ibm.com (David W. Levine)
Subject: Re: New AC Rules
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1993 23:45:21 GMT
Reply-To: dwl@watson.ibm.com 
Disclaimer: This posting represents the poster's views, not necessarily those of IBM
Organization: IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center

In article <1993Jan4.224304.5950@klaava.Helsinki.FI>,
tarkkone@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lauri Tarkkonen) writes:
|> In <1ia6e5INNnmb@cat.cis.Brown.EDU> jfh@cs.brown.edu (John F. Hughes)
writes:
|> >I propose a rec.boats project: let's redesign the AC. I propose a few more
|> >alterations (which others should feel free to reject). 
|> 
|> >(1) All races to be sailed in sequence (no lay days) unless winds are 
|> >      gale force or higher
|> >(2) No electronics (now *that* would save money)
|> 
|> Why not restrict the number of sails one can measure in fot the 
|> whole *campaign*, I would tend to believe that the cost of sails
|> were higher than the electronics ans some sails were good for only
|> a couple of races.
|> 
|> >(3) One race (of five) to be sailed offshore at night.
|> 
|> >Of course, this would make the AC a test of something altogether different
|> >from what it test now. But it would be a test of things that *I* am
|> >interested in, and since this is *my* pipe dream...
|> 
|> >For those who say "But what about the trickle-down, from all those
high-tech
|> >inventions of the AC into ordinary craft?," I can only say that some of 
|> >the worst possible things have trickled down (e.g. Wing Keels, of
all things),
|> >and that I'd rather see great innovations in seaworthiness trickle down. 
|> 
|> The sail rule I propose would perhaps move the drasticly the goals for
|> sail design, it is not enough to make fast sails, but you have to make
|> fast sails that are fast after one summer's use. This would be good for
|> a majority of sailors, who would not prefer fast and durable sails to 
|> fast only, use once and throw away sail. :-).
|> 
|> - Lauri Tarkkonen
|> 

Perhaps it's just my natural cynicism sneaking to the fore, but were I running
a campaign that wanted to spend more money on testing and design and so forth,
I'd simply break my campaign into two parts, one which generated data and did
testing on boats built to be identical to my actual "racing set" and then 
transfer the the information into the "cost restricted" environment. 

A *LOT* of the cost spent in 1992 wasn't dollars spent between the start of
the actual racing and the cup, but was bucks expended in the year(s) preceding
the few days of racing. After all, each syndicate eventually showed up with
one boat on race day, and a fairly limited set of their total sail inventory
ever sailed in an actual race. 

From what I can see, the America's cup is a special sandbox which a small
set of people want to play in. For all the effort expended on the cup, most of
the transfer to the "more normal" racing arena in the past few cups has been
in terms of tactics, not hardware. In terms of hardware, course layout and
boat layout, I see the "Dinghy" scene having more of an influence on the
keelboats, than the America's Cup boats. The changes in boat shape seem more
driven by IMS than the AC rules.

I don't see that "sailing" as a community is going to change the behavior of
folks who want to spend money that the either have or can raise. I think that
if you want to promote a certain format or style of racing as valuable to the
"sport" the thing to do is go out and work on organizing events in the formats
you want. The America's Cup is one small facet of the sailing world, and
although
a prestigous one, only one part of the sailboat racing world. I don't
think anyone
who's involved in sailing really tries to hold one form of racing as
more "pure"
than any other. Some folks race one man dinghies, some folks work in
team efforts
which put a AC boat on the racing course, and both can lift a beer in
appreciation
in the top competitors in the various arenas. 

David W. Levine --  dwl@watson.ibm.com  -- IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
                   -- My Opinions, IBM's hardware. -- 
"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your
aim" - George Santayana