Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR), British challenger for the 2017 America’s Cup, has launched their foiling AC45. The boat represents six months of work by the design team and three months of build time. The team will use this boat to test design ideas for their AC62, but will not be raced in the America’s Cup World Series, since this boat no longer conforms to the AC45 Class Rule. BAR will buy a new AC45 for racing in the ACWS.
BAR, Luna Rossa, Artemis Racing and Oracle Team USA have all converted AC45’s to foiling “development” boats. You can read more about “development” AC45’s and “racing” AC45’s and see photos here.
BAR’s video – first day sailing their foiling AC45, which they call “T1” – Training Boat 1
At about 30 seconds into the video you’ll see the boat being craned into the water. The rudders have a high aspect ratio – long and narrow. You can’t see the stabilizers (wings), but they are there. What other details do you notice in the video and the photos?
- curved daggerboards with curved wings
- wind instruments on the bowsprit, but no furler for a gennaker
- no forward kingpost under the tack of the jib, no “bobstay” to forward end of bowsprit
- no special controls for camber or twist adjustment (watch the video closely at 1:16)
- modified rudder mount to allow changing angle of incidence of rudder
Notice the crew pulling the standard AC45 camber adjustment at 1:16 into the video. If you watch closely, you can see that trimming this line reduces camber (easing the line increases camber).
