Mast Snaps in 4th America's Cup Race

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DJ .

What a blow to NZ See website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ from their running account (read from bottom up): 2.23pm - Alinghi continue to sail around the course en route to an easy win in Race 4. 2.22pm - It does not appear that any of the New Zealand crew were injured. The crew are scaling the wreckage of mast and rigging, to cut away the debris. The yacht is under tow back to the Viaduct Basin. 2.15pm - The mast of Team NZ's NZL82 snapped below the lowest spreaders. The crew are now struggling to contain the sails and prevent the mast from damaging the hull of NZL82. 2.10pm - Team NZ has lost its mast. The wind was 17-18 knots as NZL82 drove into the second of two large waves. 2.05pm - Alinghi tack onto starboard in the windward position.
 
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Andy

You've ruined my night!

I was going to stay up until midnight to watch the race on ESPN 2. Now you've ruined the ending for me! Glad I didn't watch "Waterworld" with you! Just kidding-thanks for the update. We'll all sleep better tonight knowing that the cup is in the hands of a land locked country.
 
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Bob Greenfield

NZ

I'm wondering if NZ was pushing its technology to far too soon.
 
Dec 2, 1999
15,184
Hunter Vision-36 Rio Vista, CA.
Put it this way.

Bob: Put it this way. I would not want to sail across any ocean on one of these boats. You would be much better off on most any one of our Hunters. These newer AC boats are built on the edge. Broken masts, booms, lost keels, hulls breaking in half. We saw very little of this on the old 12M boats. NZ eliminated one of the shrouds to eliminate wind aloft. This happened in less than 20kts of wind!
 
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ted

Racing 101 - test it before racing, test again

TNZ has spent to much time in the hanger and not on the water. I could retire if I had a dollar for everytime I DNF'd because I didn't thoroughly test a change to my boat. Hopefully TNZ can pull it together today and pull out a win. ted
 
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Chuck Wayne

TNZ pushing the edge

When I ws competing seriously my coach, a champion star sailor, had a saying that if it didn't break at least once a season it was too heavy. TNZ seems to have forgotten that you can't apply that rule to critical failure items! How much windage could that extra stay have caused? Didn't they think about the possibility of wind and waves?
 
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