Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
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Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#2Yachting is a fascinating sport: it's extremely technical as well as exhilarating and team-building. I've had the pleasure of being in the tech area during some races where the GPS equipment is managed, stressful stuff! If you're near a body of water and have some time to take some sailing lessons before the cup next year, I guarantee you'll get hooked on many levels (it's also great exercise).
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#3It takes an active imagination to see sailing as a spectator sport
Don't let that stop you from writing 5000 words about it. This reeks of "pick someone to hate, find a reason to hate them, write it up".
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#4The sailing in the Olympics used much of the technology mentioned, including painting virtual lines on the water. The article feels overwrought, but the racing will be amazing. The new big Team NZ yacht is just near me here in Auckland, and feels like a tethered wild beast ready to be unleashed. Watch out for the rise of fixed wing sails, possibly transforming the yachting industry.
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#5Doing it for (American) football made it much easier for me to follow along. I suspect the same will be true for yachting. Personally, I love it.
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#6The sailing in the Olympics used much of the technology mentioned, including painting virtual lines on the water. The article feels overwrought, but the racing will be amazing. The new big Team NZ yacht is just near me here in Auckland, and feels like a tethered wild beast ready to be unleashed. Watch out for the rise of fixed wing sails, possibly transforming the yachting industry.
Somewhat off topic, but do you mind if I drop a line to ask about the tech scene in Auckland? My wife and I are planning to emigrate to Auckland from the U.S. in the next few years and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the scene, whether a Yank like myself would be able to find a job, etc.
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#7The sailing in the Olympics used much of the technology mentioned, including painting virtual lines on the water. The article feels overwrought, but the racing will be amazing. The new big Team NZ yacht is just near me here in Auckland, and feels like a tethered wild beast ready to be unleashed. Watch out for the rise of fixed wing sails, possibly transforming the yachting industry.
I'm also in Auckland.
We went down to the wharf to see it the day it was launched.
Staggering size...
It's a catamaran with a 13m (42.7 ft.) tall solid wing and is expected to be able to hit 50 knots (90+ km/h).
They have to anchor it to a tonne and a half of ballast just to keep it from taking off on it's own.
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#8Can't wait, best time to be in SF and work for Oracle!
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#9It takes an active imagination to see sailing as a spectator sport Don't let that stop you from writing 5000 words about it. This reeks of "pick someone to hate, find a reason to hate them, write it up".
That's not the tone I get from the article at all. It starts that way to play up the difficulty of what he's trying to achieve and set it up so that the people it covers later seems even more gutsy and/or amazing for trying and/or achieving the goal.
In this case, the hero and focus of the article is not Ellison, but Stan Honey, the guy behind the new software system, and Ellison is just the force of nature that set the stage.
A lot of Wired features are written that way and there's very rarely any venom in it.
In this case even Ellison is painted relatively sympathetically, as the eccentric billionaire trying to do something slightly crazy but that might yet have a chance of success against really tough odds. It describes some problems he's run into, but it also cites people who see what he's done as positive.
Re: Inside Larry Ellison’s Insane Plan to Turn America’s Cup Into a TV Spectacle
#10The sailing in the Olympics used much of the technology mentioned, including painting virtual lines on the water. The article feels overwrought, but the racing will be amazing. The new big Team NZ yacht is just near me here in Auckland, and feels like a tethered wild beast ready to be unleashed. Watch out for the rise of fixed wing sails, possibly transforming the yachting industry.
I'm also in Auckland. We went down to the wharf to see it the day it was launched. Staggering size... It's a catamaran with a 13m (42.7 ft.) tall solid wing and is expected to be able to hit 50 knots (90+ km/h). They have to anchor it to a tonne and a half of ballast just to keep it from taking off on it's own.
Hey Gibbon -- I'm not sure what catamaran you were looking at, but the America's Cup boats are actually even LARGER than that ...
The AC45 (the boat being used in current cup events while the larger AC72's are being designed and built) uses a 21.5m (71ft) wing ... and the boats that will be used in the actual Cup (the AC72) are even larger beasts -- a wing 40m (131ft) tall [1].
The design of and technology going into these AC class boats is fascinating. It's been a lot of fun watching the AC45's race and the AC72's will be quite a sight out on the water once they begin pushing 'em to their limits.
[1] http://www.cupinfo.com/en/americas-cup-2013-boats-ac72-ac45....