Wow, we are still coming down from race three.
The Kiwis in Valencia have been going off.
It will be so interesting to see how Alinghi react in race four tonight. One more loss and they will have a bit on.
We have now seen some chinks in Alinghi’s armour – namely their decision-making and the design of their spinnakers, which has shown a few flaws.
As you would expect, Alinghi aren’t taking the situation too well. Alinghi boss Ernesto Bertarelli is now saying yesterdays’s race shouldn’t have gone ahead because the breeze was too shifty.
That is pretty hard to take from the man who selected Valencia as a venue because of its “reliable” breeze.
But as Chris Dickson would say, Alinghi is a “strong team” and will come back.
Similiar light conditions are expected for race four tonight.
I have a few questions about the design of the hulls of the two boats.
We heard commentators talking about the prismatic coeficiant of the boats, and as someone who is facinated by yacht design, I am trying to get my head around what it all means.
I understand the prismatic coeficiant is a measure of how full a boat is in the ends and that SUI 100 has a higher prismatic than NZL 92. Does this mean that SUI 100 has a more powerful hull shape than NZL 92 and a higher theoretical speed potential?
My understanding so far (maybe flawed) is that a more powerful or fatter hull is theoretically capable of higher displacement speed at the cost of added wave resistance and wetted surface drag. Can any one confirm this?