Cup Experience Monday News | Toulon Lineups | Oracle’s Quest for Instability | Construction Progress in Bermuda

By on September 4th, 2016

Cup Experience Monday News | Toulon Lineups | Oracle's Quest for Instability | Construction Progress in Bermuda

Cup Experience News

Issue 32 | Monday 4 September 2016

In this issue:

  • Team Lineups for Toulon - Spithill not Racing
  • AC Class Race Boat Design: Less Stability Means More Speed
  • Construction Progress in Bermuda - Latest Photos
  • Ask Jack: Are other teams besides Oracle and Team Japan doing Foiling Tacks? Video answer.

  • Team Lineups for Toulon - Spithill not Racing

It looks like my report two weeks ago about Jimmy Spithill re-injuring his recently operated elbow was correct - he is not in the lineup; Tom Slingsby will be on the helm. Olympic sailors have rejoined their teams and will be in Toulon. Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge will be back helming Team New Zealand and Artemis, respectively. Giles Scott is in the team list for Land Rover BAR. Teams are allowed to name 11 sailors and shore crew for each AC World Series. Here are the lists for Toulon. For Artemis we can assume that the last five names are the sailing crew; all the other teams list their sailors first.

  • Less Stability Means More Speed

Ian "Fresh" Burns of Oracle Team USA explains in this Sail Racing Magazine interview how the team trades off stability for speed with their foil design.

Foils with less drag are less stable. Improvements in the control systems can partially overcome this. As the sailors learn how best to handle the boat, they are happy to make the tradeoff to get more speed.

"A big challenge is how to project/predict where your sailing crew's abilities are going to be by the Cup. You have to be saying to yourself, well our guys can control this level of stability now, but in a year's time they will probably be better and able to handle a less stable boat. So you have to be working on a final foil design that is something that, if we built it right now, the guys probably wouldn’t be able to sail."

Read the full interview here.

  • Construction Progress in Bermuda

The project to build the America's Cup Village in Dockyard's South Basin is well advanced. The infill is complete and ready for paving - nine and a half acres, about 38,000 square meters. Thanks to Scott Stallard for these photos.

Join the Conversation on the Cup Experience Facebook Group.

  • Reader Questions to "Ask Jack"
  • from dan in virginia
  • ask jack!
  • Oracle and Team Japan reported last month that they had each done their first foiling tacks in April this year. What do we know about the other teams?
  • Dan, I should have pointed out in last week's newsletter that Artemis Racing almost completed a foiling tack in their first "Turbo" test boat in March 2015 right after they launched it on San Francisco Bay. You can see it on John Navas's video. We can assume they've made a lot of progress in the past 18 months! Click the image to play the video.

America's Cup Guide