Sail
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Can we still call the New Zealand and Italian boats sailing ships that compete in the bay of New Zealand’s largest city for the 36th America’s Cup? Like the previous editions, this year’s edition is marked by the financial and technological arms race.
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through Didier Ravon
published on March 9, 2021 at 4:15 p.m.
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It’s a curious machine that looks more like a bobsleigh with generous hips than a sailboat with a slender silhouette. Above all, this nautical rocket named AC 75 of only seven tons for twenty-three meters, is devoid of keel, ignoring the velic theory which advocates a heavy central lead appendage to obtain stability while limiting the list ( tilt), almost as essential as wheels on a car or wings on an airplane. Instead, this bar of soap, which can capsize at any time like a common beach machine, is equipped with weighted foils, a sort of huge two-headed mustache that swivels from the sides. At each change of tack, the boat lifts its paw like a dog pissing or a biker overtaking the ring road. The purists swearing only by the “weighted corridors” which lean, cry wolf, but the addicts of new technology are in ecstasy. And they are going to feast on the occasion of the 36th America’s Cup …
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