Once more, the America’s Cup is down to the final cut of the Louis Vuitton Challenger’s Cup. The last and final race series between challengers, best of nine races, begins Jan 11th. Find the OLN adventure TV channel or view on www.louisvuitton.com to see the action. America still has a chance to win back the Cup from New Zealand.
Published: January, 2003
Once more, the America’s Cup is down to the final cut of the Louis Vuitton Challenger’s Cup. The last and final race series between challengers, best of nine races, begins Jan 11th. Find the OLN adventure TV channel or view on www.louisvuitton.com to see the action. America still has a chance to win back the Cup from New Zealand.
The most notable development of the 2002/03 Louis Vuitton Cup is called a “Kiwi Clip-On.” Swiss Team Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts revealed that his team, along with Team New Zealand and possibly Oracle BMW Racing of San Francisco, are developing some form of underwater appendage. The three teams are researching ways to attach a kind of second skin or false hull under the aft sections. What does it look like? And what does it do in real terms? In even wind and average seas, the longer boat is a faster boat, for a given displacement. The trick being played is an attempt to squeeze extra length into the boat’s shape, without actually breaking rules. Seattle’s OneWorld Challenge said it had researched the false hull, but were “not convinced of its effectiveness.” They were eliminated from the running 4-0 in the last round of Challenger races by Oracle.
