Was not Peter referring to the foiling cats in the America's Cup rather than the
Jules Verne tris when he referred to high tech multihulls which would break up in a storm at sea?
The Jules Verne tris are more than capable of sailing round the world, and have the advantage of enough speed to sail round the worst weather. They do get caught out beating into big storms across the Atlantic though.
Absolutely I was refering to the America's Cup boats.
The Jules Verne tris of course must be robust enough to carry crew and supplies and weather the worst of storms without assistance. I know little about the theory of trimaran design but I can well imagine that there is a certain safety factor in size where a capsize becomes less likely. The trouble is that what is stable in a multihull the right way up is also stable the wrong way up. A conventional yacht, on the other hand is usually self righting.
To return to the AC45s I see them very much like the waterbourne version of the round the pillons racing aircraft (currently sponsered by Red Bull). Exciting to watch, unbelievably expensive, and somewhat dangerous if things go wrong. Perhaps this is a natural progression from the increasingly fragile and high tech monohulls that had been competing before the change to multis. I just see this as too far from the historical origin of the America's Cup and feel that they should be competing for a different trophy.
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