Reinstating the mono hull

 Subject: Reinstating the mono hull.

Way before my time when we were a maritime nation we used to compete for the America Cup. A yachting competition originally between Britain and America it was won and held by America until the Aussies won the cup in 1983.
Anyway it was an event for the big boys with deep, deep pockets. Huge beautifully crafted mono hulls, some up to 95 ft in length (the j class) with secretive shapes below the waterline, particularly around the keel were often the deciding factor along with the Herculean efforts of the crew to work the winches to haul the gigantic sails up and down as the yacht changed tack. Speed through the water relied on the kinetic energy built up in the yacht as she sailed through each sail change. Beautiful to watch these Formula One boats were horrendously expensive and we, as one of the European nations competing against the Americans found it just too expensive. Queens of the ocean, they slowly became the plaything of only the ultra,ultra rich, the Swiss and the oil rich Middle East seemed destined to be the only ones to compete against the mighty Yanks.
The Aussies took on the challenge in 1962, 1964, 1967 but were unsuccessful until 1983 when they  were the unexpected winners. It was hard to imagine a small nation like Australia taking on the Americans at such an expensive sport but they did and it says much for them as a nation that they could muster the technical and financial clout when supposedly wealthier nations in Europe were left floundering in their wake.
And then out of left field as it were emerged a nation famed more for its rugby, not outwardly a rich nation, a nation which would have been called parochial, a farming nation not a ship building nation, New Zealand, a nation glorifying that 'extinct bird', the dodo which adding insult to injury, couldn't fly.
Well if their bird couldn't fly their America Cup yachts certainly could.
In 1988 we watched the absorbing sight of seeing a contest between the last of the huge 90ft mono hulls ( a Kiwi boat) and the new boys on the block the catamaran introduced by the Americans exploiting  the rules which hadn't envisaged multi hull craft competing in the race. It was fascinating as at each tack the weight and energy stored in the mono hull carried the boat through the water as the wind took hold of the newly set sail on the new tack. The cat as she tacked came virtually to a grinding halt having little weight to carry her forward with no wind. Suddenly she was off skimming along, a sort of cat and mouse event the one leading and then being hauled back until the next tack. The multi hull won convincingly
The Kiwi won their greatest victory against the Americans yesterday after a series which also saw a British team competing for the first time for quite a while.
The size and the effectiveness of the New Zealand victory, 7 races to 1 was as humbling to the Americans as they have ever experienced.  They were trounced in every aspect in keeping these hybrid catamarans "aloft" rather than afloat (something of a misnomer)
Yes that's the name of the game these days, keeping the craft aloft as the boats actually skim the water rather than sailing through the water. Hydrofoils who's only contact with the water was a blade of fibre glass which hangs down below the hull and adds some sort of stability and excludes the boat being described as a "kite"
To watch these boats today as they skittishly drift at speeds of 40 knots across the water tacking and then, playing chicken with each other, as at high speed they approach on the opposite tack missing contact by inches.
The sails are no longer run up and down the mast seem fixed. Instead the foils below the water line are tilted to shift direction and the huge men who were required to work the grinders, the method by which the lines running to control the sails are now engaged in grinding to keep up the hydraulic pressure which is used to trim the foils.
It's still exciting as one watches the helmsman's tactical nous used to find the wind, or his split second decision making, to stay within the rules which govern what a boat must do to avoid a collision.
There is talk that the Kiwi's, having regained the cup and able to dictate where and how the next contest will be run, they may reinstate the mono hull ?