Oracle unveiled their race boat at a party on Valentine’s Day evening. They christened the boat the next day.
Luciana Corral smashed the champagne bottle with a mighty swing. Fortunately the shore crew had built a protective “bottle protector.” Click the photo to see the video.
Spithill on Bicycle Grinding
Naturally, the hot topic at Oracle’s party on Tuesday was the Kiwi grinding stations.
“We looked at it hard, as I know all the teams did, and it’s a compromise,” Spithill said. “Nothing is straightforward. You can get more power on the pedal, but there’s other compromises. You take windage and it’s a little harder getting on and off the pedals, so personally I don’t think that decision will be the deciding factor. We looked at it hard to see how it works out and they are the only team to do it so far from what we’ve seen. We haven’t seen Artemis’s boat yet, but I don’t think they would have done it. Whether it will be a good decision only time will tell and really until we see them sailing up here in the Great Sound we won’t really have any idea of where they’re at.”
Stupid question : why do the bikers (and any grinders) need to switch side oñ the boats ? It impacts so much the balance of the boat ? Couldnt TNZ leave 1 leaSt 1 bikers on each hull ? I assume they can’t, but Im curious why…
Hi Pierre, There is no such thing as a stupid question! All questions welcome! They need everyone on one side of the boat to balance it – to generate “righting moment.” That said… they can also generate righting moment by trimming the top of the wing to have the opposite camber compared to the lower sections. It will be interesting to see if they can develop a technique where there are two grinders in each hull and only the helmsman and the wing trimmer need to change. I expect they will continue to have the entire crew change sides on each manoeuvre.
Thanks a lot for the answer, I’m a big fan of the website!
Pierre