Building a better 12-meter racing yacht for the America's Cup is a bit like trying to reshape Raquel Welch. A naval architect can trim her here, pad her there, but what counts in the end is how well all the parts move together. Last week, after years of designing and testing, the three U.S. contenders for the 1970 America's Cup showed their shapes in public in a five-day series of trial races. Snub-nosed and broad-beamed, none would win a yachting beauty contest. Yet once they were under sail, all their parts seemed to conjoin...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
