AC40

Um, why do we go to video games and crash helmets? Uh, foiling boats may be extremely fast, but they are boring to watch.

Uh, displacement boat races over the years get so many more views." Uh, and it's really interesting, isn't it? I- someone said that, "I love SailGP and AC40, but I've started watching the TP52s because it's actually more like the round the can sailing I used to do.

Also a bit like snooker: tense but relaxing at the same time." Uh, someone else, "I love to participate in the old ways, but I certainly want to watch the new boats." So it's not all one is better than the other, but it does seem to have struck a chord, uh, with, uh, you amazing Foil Massive that, um, there is a, there is a gap.

Andy, would you agree there is a massive gap between the sort of, uh, the America's Cup and, uh, SailGP and what people enjoy start out sailing and then work their way up? C- is, is it an i- unjumpable gap basically, uh, from what we all like to do, uh, competitively or just for fun to get to the top level of the sport?

We just remember how to use our dot-to-dot drawing books when we were at kindergarten.

I mean, I, I, I don't see how anyone could get excited about that.

And I did have an off the record chat with somebody in Naples at the recent prelim event, um, the, uh, heading up one of the teams, but it was off the record and, and he said, "I don't really know how to choose the right people to sail the AC40 or even the AC75 because do I, do I need to go for the guy who won the 49er Worlds or can I just pick the person who was 15th?" Um, which I found a shocking statement-

That's interesting

Sail New- yeah, and Sail Newport, Sail Newport as a community sailing center and sailing club.

We are his sailing club, and we're just privileged to be associated with him, his team, our Team USA, who had a really, really good first outing over in the AC40 event a couple weeks ago.

You started the Sail Newport, like you say, at the end of COVID.

What's, what's that been like to organize and, and to put together a group like that in case that there's guys out there that are in the, in Iowa or Indiana or something like that, that are looking to do that? Do, do you have any input for guys like that?

It is a boat from the 1970s.

AC40 sailing is pretty irrelevant for me when it comes to AC75 sailing because America's Cup's a design game, isn't it? Let's move on to the Women's Match

Racing World Championship.

Pauline Courtois said it was all to do with the speed, purple.

7760.

I don't think it's that, Lewis Smith.

With so much chat about the struggle of judging the AC40, keeping clear of boundaries, how far away are we from sailors competing with augmented reality tech in their goggles that displays the boat boundaries in real time? I guess that's on the subject of technology advancing very quickly.

Yeah, we've tested it for sure.

Yeah.

What did you think?

Oh, look, those AC40s, mate, they, for me, they're just super cool.

I mean, you know, there's an element of that, the element of the racing, which is, it's just, you know, I hate to say that in this terms, it balls to the wall.

It's just, you know, it's no holds barred.

Like I mentioned it last week, the Italian team...

You know, so you had Pete on there with Marco Gardoni, and then the youth, like, he picked the youth team.

And it's so obvious that the boat handling and time in the boat makes the difference on those AC40s.

Yeah, it's a good observation.

And Lunarossa had a different crew sailing their AC40 last year in the preliminary America's Cup, which was held in Cagliari, which is actually the home base for Lunarossa.

They switched that out this year.

And that was Peter Burling's call, from what I understand.

When they got their nose in front, they were able to stretch and making good decisions to come through the fleet when they hadn't had a good start or had made a mistake.

What's interesting about the French is that they've added two outstanding sailors who were the Spanish pair from the 49er gold medalists at the last Olympic Games and now the core of the SailGP team from Spain, which is really starting to compete hard against Australia at the top end of the pack within SailGP.

So, you know, Diego Botin and Florian Trittle are a real talent and they've added a huge huge amount of value and impact straight from their SailGP campaign into these AC40s.

And they've not spent a lot of time in AC40s.

So it's an absolute no brainer.

We are going to get you on here to talk about the AC40 regatta that we've just covered and has just been in Naples.

Moz, from the top, give me a highlights like what stood out to you from this regatta?

Well, first of all, really compelling, tactical, strategical racing on a really interesting course.

And speaking to Andy and Shona and having been in Naples for the practice day on the Thursday, it really works as a venue that we often talk about it like that natural amphitheater, the race village being about a kilometre long.

you can get a good appreciation of what's going on on the water from standing in the race village.

And that's looking at the AC40s.

And we know that the next time we're going to be racing in Naples is going to be in the AC75.