Midnight Madness: Designers, Grab Pencils

It’s official. Whew. The America’s Management Chief Michel Hodara has released the full version of the 2009 rule for America’s Cup 33 to Cup Challengers, as well as to the public (read: BMW/Oracle, Mascalzone Latino and Victory Challenge - - previous major Challengers who have not, as yet, officially entered the AC33 event and, going forward, would have been at a distinct disadvantage without this design document).

The organization met its announced deadline of Oct. 31. They waited until nearly midnight to release the public copy, causing many a designer to bite his/her nails. This Midnight Madness caught some media guys napping (it doesn’t really take much, now, does it?). The document seems to meet all design criteria documentation - - it’s dry as dust and full of European (metric) measurements and weights, with no attempt to translate for metric-dumb Americans (and the two tiny countries in Africa that still don’t use the metric system, that’s Nigeria, and I forget the other, and they don’t sail for the cup, anyway).

It also spells out the sheer ENORMITY of these future boats/yachts/monsters. More on the document later. The three non-Challengers this year might have been further marginalized had a public copy not been made available. (BMW/Oracle’s excuse is they are awaiting the New York Supreme Court’s ruling regarding their suit about the validity of the Challenger of Record, the so-called hand-maiden/Golden Boy, not Golden Gate Yacht Club, of Alinghi et al.)

With the design rule announced, no more excuses, guys. You’ve got it, so build it and get on with the show. Even BMW/Oracle got it’s back-door licks in via requests from Russell Coutts, it’s said, with confidence. Hanging fire in all this are key design parameters, including yacht width requirements, greatly affecting boat speed at boats this length and huge draft. Time will tell.