When I originally heard that the competitors in this winter's America's Cup would be a tri-maran and a catamaran, I didn't realize how many changes this would necessitate. Things like larger home bases (made possible because only two teams are competing) and slower turns due to the multi-hulls made sense.
But get this; the race course is a full 50 times bigger. It's 450 square miles rather than nine. This is going to have huge implications for spectators, both at the site, and on video. Aerial coverage will be much more important, and speeds will be much higher, making for a more exciting race. On the racing side, Alinghi has bought a couple of tiny little planes to measure wind speed at heights above those reached by traditional wind boats, which also can't cover as much ground.
Man, 50 times bigger, which assumably means 10-50 times faster. It's going to be a totally different kind of sailing than we're used to.
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