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Wayne.B

On Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:31:43 -0500, wrote:

I don't think it will happen for the Americas Cup which has become
largely irrelevant. Meanwhile there are a bunch of 12 meters in
Newport that you can pay to crew on, and they are VERY popular.

Yes, did that once. We belong to a sailing group that chartered the
entire fleet ( 6 at the time) for a weekend, along with a couple of
power boats for race committee duty. We sailed short courses and
rotated boats after every race so I got to skipper all 6 of them over
the course of the weekend.

The biggest surprise to me was how unmaneuverable they are, at least a
2 or 3 boat length turning radius, and the boats are almost 70 feet
long. It makes for very tense mark roundings and starting lines when
you know that you're driving someone elses antique boat and it is
virtually unreplaceable. All of my old sail boats were fin keel/spade
rudder and would turn in just about their own length. The 12 meters
point very high however and carry their momentum a long way.