Pete Melvin
Pete Melvin recently reported on progress writing the Class Rule for the 35th America’s Cup. With partner Gino Morrelli, his firm were the lead designers writing the AC72 Class Rule for the last America’s Cup. Hired by the Defender and the Challenger of Record, he is working with the teams and other stakeholders. The consensus is for a 60 to 65 foot long foiling wingsail catamaran that will cost significantly less to design, sail and operate than the AC72’s. Cost reduction will come from smaller size, lower construction costs, one design elements, fewer crew and fewer personnel needed for logistics. Remember that it typically took 30 – 40 people one to two hours to launch or retrieve an AC72.
In a separate interview for Yachting World, Russell Coutts talked about an “AC60” with seven or eight crew, capable of foiling upwind as well as downwind.
While the cost of design and construction will come down, the essence of the America’s Cup – the emphasis on design and technology – will be be maintained. Design areas that can consume a lot of resource for marginal gains will likely be one design, leaving the teams freedom to develop other areas, like foils and control systems.
In addition to cost, safety will be a major consideration in the new rule. Oracle’s capsize while training in October 2012 showed the inadequacy of plans for righting a capsized AC72. When Andrew Simpson’s life was lost in the Artemis capsize in May 2013, the importance of rapid crew recovery led to major changes in the safety regulations for the regatta. The lessons from these accidents will certainly affect the rule for the new class.
Interestingly, there has been no public mention of wind limits. The original version of the Protocol for AC34 called for races to be held in wind between 3 and 33 knots. The final limits were 5 and 23 knots in the America’s Cup Match, with an upper limit of 20 knots in the Louis Vuitton Cup round robin. The lower wind limits combined with TV-oriented time limits combined in strange ways – races abandoned or postponed because of being over the upper wind limit and Race 13 being abandoned, with Team New Zealand apparently on their way to winning the America’s Cup, when the boats could not complete the race within the 40 minute time limit in light air. How will the new Class Rule and the Protocol combine to meet the conflicting requirements of safety and racing in a wide enough wind range to eliminate TV delays? The boats will need to have configurations for non-foiling, light air conditions, medium conditions and “fresh to frightening” conditions. Race management will need more flexibility in setting courses of the appropriate length.
Gino Morrelli
Following their job writing the rule last time around, Morrelli and Melvin went on to work with Emirates Team New Zealand, joining a design team that came within one race of winning the America’s Cup this past September. Melvin hopes to make a similar transition to a team this time. “It’s not a major focus right now, we have a lot of work to do to get this rule out, but it would be great to end up with a team again,” Melvin says.
For the 35th America’s Cup, we are likely to see exciting boats that are difficult to sail and which reward good sailing technique. The foiling gybes and roll tacks we saw in the AC72’s are likely to be joined by stable upwind foiling and new techniques, yet to be developed. We are in a new era of America’s Cup yachts. The AC72’s were just the beginning.