• macrocarpa@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Vendee global is amazing! I feel like it’s the closest thing to a pure “all rounder” sailing - solo sailors, robust and well-engineered boats that are just smashing it every condition and loving ayvoace as well. I’m subscribed to their updates on YouTube.

    So as to the madness of the americas cup - if you look at the sails they each have two wide counter coloured bands on them. when doing boat testing they use upwards facing LIDAR on both sides of the boat to calculate the best sail shape, live, and adjust accordingly. I feel a bit odd about that, I think trimming is one of the fine arts of sailing and to see it automated out is a bit sad. But if you’re doing 45 knots on foils, I guess the fewer jobs the better.