Word: meters
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...heart of the American game: building yachts that are technologically superior to those of all their challengers. Measuring 64 ft. 7 in. from its snub-nosed bow to its raked-back stern, Australia II has the most radical keel ever to hang from the bottom of a 12-meter-yacht*. Though the Aussies ostentatiously drape a shroud over the keel when the boat is hauled out after each day's sail-psych is everything in the America's Cup competition-just about all of Newport knows what Australia H's secret weapon looks like: it is bulging...
...York Yacht Club, custodian of the Cup and grand panjandrum of its defense, has howled that the radical keel is an infraction of the 12-meter rule, even though it passed muster earlier this year before keen-eyed measurers, including the club's own tape man. With its lowered ballast and jetlike wings, the innovative yacht can slice through the water with less turbulence, turn virtually on a dime, and stand much more erect than its rivals when they beat into the wind, thereby drawing more power from its sails. Remarkably, all this seems perfectly within the rules. Even...
With their towering masts, vast expanses of Mylar-Kevlar sails, monstrous winches and computerized navigational aids, 12-meter yachts are the nimble-footed heavyweights of their sport. Add the tactical elements of chess: when to defend against an opponent's move, when to ignore it, when to sail off in a different direction. The unmatched combination of required resources has made modern Ahabs of the obsessed competitors...
...delta-shaped wings designed to give the boat an advantage while heeled over sailing upwind (see diagram). The exact dimensions of the keel were well known to the International Yacht Racing Union's Measurement Committee, which had formally examined Australia II for conformity to the complicated 12-meter standards well before the racing began...
Supported by Herreshoff's argument that the Aussie keel fins give the boat added draft, or depth, upwind, thus making it a 12.5-meter or 12.8-meter yacht in those conditions, the N.Y.Y.C. asked the Measurement (TM) Committee to reconsider its earlier O.K. Last week the I.Y.R.U. officials responded with a unanimous no. But that did not end the matter...