Word: fibers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...putting some glory after his black mark in yachting's record book. Conner's 1983 defeat by Australia broke the New York Yacht Club's 132-year winning streak. This time, Conner has heeled over, hunkered down and blasted to a comfortable -- and unexpected -- 3-1 lead over the fiber-glass-hulled New Zealand in the best-of-seven series to determine who will challenge Australia...
...fiber-optic cable will be able to handle the equivalent of 40,000 simultaneous telephone conversations, more than twice the number of transatlantic phone lines now available on the three operating copper-core cables. Together with a $700 million transpacific fiber-optic cable scheduled to be completed in 1989, the new undersea phone lines should provide better connections and lower prices for millions of U.S. consumers and businesses who regularly reach out and touch someone across an ocean...
...cables are often overcrowded and frequently suffer from static. And satellite connections, which now carry about 60% of transatlantic phone calls, typically produce an echoey sound and an annoying half-second delay because signals must be sent 22,300 miles up to a communications satellite and back down again. Fiber-optic technology, by contrast, delivers a comparatively pure sound. The ultrathin glass fibers in the cable carry information on laser beams of light, which travel with virtually no susceptibility to electronic interference. Long-distance telephone companies have already installed more than 20,000 miles of fiber- optic cables to connect...
There may be rough going ahead for the Auckland challenge. Back in October, several skippers including Connor and Blackaller complained that fiber glass might be an illegal material. The rules state that hulls must be of equal weight and thickness across their entire surface. The Kiwis successfully defended the construction by pointing out that Lloyd's of London had supervised every stage of construction in accordance with the rules...
...weeks ago, however, Conner fired a new -- and strange -- shot across New Zealand's bow. "There have been 78 aluminum 12-meters built, so why would you build one of fiber glass unless you wanted to cheat?" he asked at a press conference. Added Blackaller: "My engineers have told me for six years that you can't build a fiber-glass boat light and strong enough . . . under the rules." The Yacht Club Costa Smeralda of Sardinia, organizer of the challenger series, has not responded to the war of words. As a matter of normal procedure, however, it will remeasure...