Cup Experience News

Issue 42 | Monday 5 December 2016

You probably know that the AC Class yachts that will race in 2017 are largely one design - the shape of the wing, the hulls, the pod under the wing and the crossbeams are all fixed by the class rule. The same is true for cockpits and grinding pedestal positions. This leaves aerodynamic fairings, daggerboard shapes, rudder shapes, wing internal structures and control systems as the area for the designers to work their magic. The teams have been testing design ideas on their "AC45X" experimental boats - sometimes called "turbo" or "sport" boats.

Daggerboard design

In light air the boats will need longer wings on the daggerboards to provide enough lift for foiling. In stronger winds teams will use shorter wings with lower drag. Crossover conditions will be challenging to decide whether to use the high lift or the low drag boards. There has been a lot of talk about upwind foiling and foiling tacks, but those techniques require sailing longer distance over a less direct course.

You can see the long wing and the reverse curve of the daggerboard on the port side of Emirates Team New Zealand's AC45X test boat. On the starboard side you can see how the reverse curve gets the board out to the maximum beam to increase righting moment. (The sea otter seems to want a close look.)

In a New York Times article, Oracle designer Scott Ferguson talks about longer daggerboard wings for light air and shorter daggerboard wings for medium to heavy air. Like the Kiwis, Oracle has been testing longer foil wings as this photo shows:

Rudders and boat building strategy

Groupama Team France mounted their rudders in the hulls so they can save money by using the rudders from the test boat in their race boat.

Land Rover BAR and Emirates Team New Zealand wanted to test the geometry of the slightly longer AC Class race boat, so they built special rudders that could be hung on gantries off the stern.

Is this for rules geeks only? Or will it be important when the racing starts?

Teams are only allowed four daggerboards total for their race yacht. As the article above says, they are likely to build a pair for light wind and a pair for medium to heavy conditions. Realizing that damaging even one board could mean losing the competition, in October the competitors introduced a Protocol amendment to allow "replacement daggerboards." Any of a team's AC45X daggerboards could be used as replacements, which should cover any situation. Only two replacement boards are allowed to be used, but that seems likely to be enough.

If you want more details you can download the latest Protocol here and read Article 35.10 (f) for more info.

Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand both got penalties in Race 5 in Fukuoka after tangling with Land Rover BAR. Team France completed a gybe before the penalty was assigned. Inexplicably, the Kiwis tacked while carrying the penalty, earning a second penalty (per Rule 44.4(c) for you rules mavens. Download the Racing Rules of Sailing - America's Cup Edition here). Click the photos to see the video. Interestingly, ETNZ made the same mistake in the Naples AC World Series in 2013, after getting a penalty for crashing into Luna Rossa. Read about that incident here.

Remember: the blue light means a boat has a penalty; the green light means they are near a course boundary or a rounding mark.

Here we see how Team France picked up a penalty for not keeping clear and making contact with BAR near the leeward gate in Race 5.

Team New Zealand had a double penalty in Race 5.

The America's Cup Match is the final and most important phase, between defender Oracle Team USA and the winner of the "Challenger Playoffs" (formerly known as the Louis Vuitton Cup). Racing begins on 26 May 2017 with the double round robin "America's Cup Qualifiers." All six teams, including defender Oracle, race in the round robin. One challenger is then eliminated. The four remaining challengers go into the "Challenger Playoffs" for first-to-five-points semi-finals and and finals. The America's Cup Match is first-to-seven-points. If either team in the America's Cup Match won the Qualifiers, their opponent starts with a score of minus one (-1). This is for the TV schedule, to increase the likelihood of the AC Match being completed on the second Sunday, 25 June.

The America's Cup World Series finished last month. Winner Land Rover BAR earned two points in the AC Qualifiers; runner-up Oracle earned one. Leaderboard for the round robin AC Qualifiers that begin 26 May 2017 in Bermuda:

Land Rover BAR and Oracle earned the bonus points from the AC World Series. At the end of the Qualifiers, ties will be broken according to the final results of the AC World Series.

The Star Sailors League in Nassau last week had probably the most decorated field of sailors ever seen on a starting line - 16 Olympic medalists with 10 gold, 10 silver and 12 bronze medals, joined by two Volvo Ocean Race winners and other notables. After the championship racing, some of them joined the locals to race Bahamian sloops - over canvassed, low freeboard wooden boats with pry boards for hiking. I got drafted to sail with two world champions, an Olympic silver medalist and a European champion. We sank.

I'm at the end of the aft pry board while Jonas Høgh Christensen (Finn Silver medalist in London) and Taylor Canfield (blue shirt, Match Racing world champion) on the forward pry board listen to our Bahamian tactician Warren Adderley. Star world champion George Szabo was on the helm and European champion Johannes Polgar was trimming the main. Click the photos to see the video.

America's Cup Guide