AC75

And I think the most exciting development of our generation, because would it...

Yeah, I think so, because you look at, I mean, I know you've sailed on an AC-75, Freddie.

I still don't understand how that thing works.

I don't understand how it doesn't just fall over.

It's an absolute modern miracle, the AC-75, and how a monohull can...

in the America's Cup is able to match a multi-hull like the F50 and SailGP.

But to do that again, to take it offshore and believe that a monohull can beat a multi-hull around the world to take the Jules Verne record, I mean, that would completely rewrite design concepts in sailing if it can achieve that.

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

... for, for them to say because I, um, he was basically saying that the, the boats are so de-skilled that it's not necessarily that nth degree of sailing skill that would determine whether he's picked the right people.

Mm.

Um, and, and when I interviewed Grant Dalton, um, a year and a half ago and, um, asked him a number of things, he, he...

A- a- and had they made progress? Well, he, he threw down the AC75 as, you know, a do I need to say more kind of thing.

It, it w- it, it was a self-justified answer just saying, "Look at the AC75.

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.

I mean, yeah, it was a statement win, but as Mozzie and I talked about, it was a little bit of crew finding out what combos worked in the crew.

It was a lot about learning the race course.

AC40 sailing is pretty irrelevant for me when it comes to AC75 sailing because the America's Cup's a design game, isn't it? And sailing an AC75 the sails trim themselves pretty much and you've got to fly the boat and in an AC40 you've got to trim the sails and the boat flies itself so the trimmer pilot people have got to use a completely different skill set on an AC40 than they do on the other side and as we all know the fastest boat wins the America's Cup so it's going to be it's being won right now in three design offices across the America's Cup syndicates.

And that's a talking point, isn't it? We've got Lunarossa by themselves.

Former Emirates Team New Zealand sailor and Black Falls sail GP shore crew manager Finn Henry has signed on with Cup newcomers who are the first Australian entry into the main regatta since 2000.

Henry has joined the Australian Challenge boat as captain, in a role that we'll see him looking after the day-to-day running of the team's AC75 and providing on-water support through training and racing.

And Zenil Medveded, as Millsy spoke about earlier, struck a spectator with a ball and was disqualified from his semi-final against Novak Djokovic at the China Open.

The spectator was helped out of the arena holding a hand over his left eye.

What does to do sailing-wise?

Well, I think they're really pinning their hopes now on their AC75 being faster than Luna Ross's.

Of course, that's the big unanswered question at the moment.

The AC40s that they competed in through these preliminary regattas this year last year are ostensibly one design.

The teams have ability to develop within the rules a range of different approaches to their design and the way the boats are set up and motored.

So in the last America's Cup, which Team New Zealand won against INEOS, Team New UK, it was clear that the Kiwis still had an edge.

And if they can maintain that edge in the development of their AC75 into the Cup next year, that's their best shot.

Because at the moment, you would have to say if it came down to just a sailing race with relatively evenly matched boats, Lunarossa has the edge.

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.

So that will be scaled up and be much easier to understand again, but the race course was good, wasn't it? I know we had to sit around and wait for a bit of wind here and there.

We weren't limited by broadcast windows, and they waited for the right time, the right pressure, the course to settle, and Ian Murray and his team did a really good job of getting in all the qualifying races and the two-boat final.

And I'll be very interested to see with what I deem as a successful couple of events in Cagliari and now Naples, and with the America's Cup partnership moving forwards, as it's stated at the moment, what...

the America's Cup World Series, let's call it for argument's sake, will look like in the build-up to 39, Moz, because there does need to be something more on it than is just going to new venues and seeing the good racing and developing our interest in the characters and the teams.

There needs to be something that is tangible where they are fighting tooth and nail and training hard in those AC40s and can't turn round at the end of the regatta and go, well, it's not our focus right now, because we're doing this, that and the other in the AC75.

Yeah, big question for Mr. Pirelli, isn't it? The kind of new CEO of the ACP is how do you stretch this America's Cup out to give it a bit more? I mean, I guess for commercial reasons, blah, blah, blah, you know, whatever.