Alinghi has a bendy keel?
Some interesting speculation I read about at Sailing Anarchy, there are rumours that Alinghi has a bendy keel. If so then it’s a quite a clever workaround to a canting keel, and quite a engineering achievement to get it to work with a massive chunk of lead hanging off the bottom of it.
BYM’s man in Valencia draws that possible Alinghi bendy keel.
Does Alinghi have a bendy keel? The issue is pretty rife around the America’s Cup village and, in all probability, is nothing more than rumour. We were chatting about it on the press boat, yesterday, during our afternoon cruise around the bay and no one has a firm conclusion of what, if anything, would be able to cleanly fall within the IACC measurement rules.Here’s my idea of what it, possibly, could be, but it’s only speculation and Alinghi are obviously keeping quiet about the whole thing. Whether there is any truth to it or not, they are, clearly, enjoying watching the other teams running around trying to catch their own tails.
William Wallace
Update: There is some more information here, here, here (scroll down a bit) and a photo (see below) from Valencia Sailing, note the bulge near the top of the keel.
Filed by Popeye at April 19th, 2007 under Sailing