RM:, re I thought Ed Baird was sailing really well, and expected to see a great final between him and Cayard. I wonder what Bruce Farr has to say about his YA design.
Gotta disagree a bit here. Aside from the inconvenient fact that USA 53 broke in half <ng>, I don't think you can fairly lay YA's failure on poor boat design. USA 53 was obviously competitive, as was USA 58, even though the team clearly had some growing pains getting the second boat tuned up to snuff (especially after hearing those creaks and other noises). In fact, I recall reading somewhere on one of the two AC sites that many other teams felt YA had the best boat(s) there. Sure, they seemed to skate a little closer to the edge than most in terms of sturdiness, but in the last round robin, the boat for all intents and purposes seemed fine, not to mention fast.
But they clearly lost it in RR3 due to poor sailing, as well as a little bad luck (like when they sailed into a hole against the French after building a big lead, before the race was called when the wind completely died). Note that YA failed to beat any of the other semifinalists when sailing head to head in RR3: They failed to cover Prada; made major errors against Nippon; lost to TDC in a wierd, though close, inverted race; and got soundly beaten tactically by A1 and America True. Even Marshall admitted that what hurt the team most was too little time on the water, not design.
But YA will be back -- of that I'm confident. Here's to hoping they can rebound strong, and succeed in bringing the cup back to the northeast for 2006-2007. <g> |
