Cup Experience

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Closeup Photos – Details of Test Boats

WARNING: This article gets a little “geeky.” But ergonomics will be critical to helping the crew, and the helmsman in particular, operate the complex control systems for the daggerboards, wing and rudders. When you see the iterations of Oracle’s steering wheel, you’ll appreciate that the solution is not obvious!

Last week I showed you this photo of Land Rover BAR’s “T3” test boat.

Did you notice that they are testing two different shape daggerboards?

If we take a closer look we can see they have a unique steering linkage, unlike the the other teams’ steering. It will be interesting to see if they have the same setup on their race boat – the rudders on the race boat will be mounted inside the hulls, not hung off the stern.

Zooming in a little more, we can see a series of yellow and blue buttons around the rim of the wheel. These may control the rake of the daggerboards. The helmsman adjusts the rake to control angle of attack of the underwater wing on the daggerboard. This varies the lift, to control ride height. If you look closely, you will also see a red and a green button on the hub of the wheel and a rotary switch right in the center of the wheel.

At the Detroit Motor Show, BMW Management Board member Ian Robertson presented a steering wheel, designed by the BMW Motorsport group, to Jimmy Spithill. This wheel has twist grip controls, like on a motorcycle (or, in Bermuda, on a scooter).

Oracle has tested a number of configurations of controls on their steering wheels.

Here is a variation with pushbuttons mounted in the rim, what looks like a toggle switch on one spoke, two buttons near the center of the wheel and a couple of black rotary switches. You can also see two controls at six o’clock and eight o’clock – could they be pressure sensitive? This wheel looks like they tried out a lot of ideas at once!

Here’s another Oracle wheel, with what looks like an early version of the twist grip that’s on the BMW wheel.

And this version has a twist grip mounted separate from the rim of the wheel, plus plenty of buttons on the hub of the wheel.

As I said earlier – finding the right ergonomics for controlling an AC Class yacht is not obvious.

Softbank Team Japan has also experimented with some original ideas. Here they tested a paddle-type control just forward of the wheel. You can also see that the wing trimmer has an impressive control panel to master.

 

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2017: What to Expect and When to Expect It

Oracle Team USA, SoftBank Team Japan, Artemis Racing and Land Rover BAR are already established in Bermuda. Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand will arrive in February.

January: The four teams already in Bermuda will probably be sailing their AC45X test boats on the Great Sound. They are allowed to train together when sailing these boats. Groupama Team France and Emirates Team New Zealand are stripping down their test boats to build their race boats with most of the components from the test boats.
February: The four teams in Bermuda will probably launch their race boats on 9 February, after taking their 28 day “blackout period.” Team New Zealand and Team France will set up their bases in Bermuda and wait for their race boats to arrive.

February-April: The teams are not allowed to sail their race boats together. Team France and Team New Zealand will not have AC45X test boats so they will need to test and train on their own. Oracle, Artemis, BAR and Team Japan have test boats to sail against their race boats, but with only eight sailors, Team Japan’s sailing team is too small for that – they will probably only sail their race boat. Artemis only lists 11 men on their “sailing team” but the 11 includes helmsmen Francesco Bruni and Paul Goodison. They also have Loïc Peyron and and Stu Bettany listed in other departments, so they could put two boats on the water. BAR list 13 sailors including backup helmsman Leigh McMillan, so they will be able to sail both “T3” and their race boat if they choose. Oracle lists the biggest sailing team with 14. They will be able to sail two boats if they choose. Don’t underestimate the logistical challenge of putting two boats on the water – we may see the teams mostly sailing only their race boat.

May: Racing starts on 26 May with all six teams in the double round robin AC Qualifiers. Each team will race twice on at least two days, and only two substitutions are allowed between races. Remember that BAR starts with two points and Oracle has one, their reward for coming in first and second in the AC World Series. At the end of the Qualifiers, one challenger is eliminated. Oracle goes on to the AC Match while the four remaining challengers sail in the Challenger Playoffs to decide who will sail against Oracle in the AC Match.

June: The semi-finals and finals of the Challenger Playoffs run from 4-12 June. Superyachts, J Class and Youth America’s Cup racing will begin on 12 June. The big showdown, the America’s Cup Match, will be sailed on two successive weekends beginning 17 June. By Sunday 25 June we may have our winner but it might take until 27 June for one team to score the seven points needed to take the Cup.

Later in 2017: Five of the six teams want to start up the AC World Series for a 2019 America’s Cup cycle. There could be AC World Series events in Bermuda later in the Summer and another ACWS event in Chicago later in the year. If Team New Zealand wins, all bets are off – the Kiwis have other plans.

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Team Updates – Monday 9 January 2017

Emirates Team New Zealand Five time America’s Cup winner and AC Hall of Famer Murray Jones has joined ETNZ to help coach Peter Burling on match racing and on the cutthroat competition in the America’s Cup. Murray was one of the “tight five” who moved with Russell Coutts to Alinghi for the 2003 AC. Coutts recruited him to Oracle for the 2013 cycle, but now Murray is back with Team New Zealand.

ETNZ started tearing down their team base in Auckland right after New Year’s, to ship it to Bermuda. Presumably their AC 45X test boat is being torn down as well. The team will build their AC Class race boat using many components from the test boat. They will launch in Auckland by the end of January and sail it several weeks before shipping the boat to Bermuda. When the race boat gets to Bermuda, they will have only one boat.

Groupama Team France The team stopped sailing their AC45X test boat on 18 December. The boat was shipped from Lanveoc to Vannes to be dismantled for parts for the AC Class.

On 4 January the team began packing up their base in Lorient for the the move to Bermuda. Most of the team will arrive in Bermuda in February. They plan to have their race boat in there by March.

Land Rover BAR The Brits arrived in Bermuda in early December. They had their final sail of 2016 on 21 December and started up again sailing T3 on the Great Sound on 4 January. Their built-in-Britain race boat arrived in Bermuda on 3 January.

They will take their “blackout period” beginnining 9 January and launch the race boat on 6 February.

SoftBank Team Japan Like the other Bermuda-based teams, Team Japan will probably launch their AC Class race yacht on 9 February. Team Japan bought their design from Oracle, and former Team New Zealand design team leader Nick Holroyd has helped them with development. Their website lists only eight sailors, not enough to sail both their AC Class race boat and their AC45X test boat.

Artemis Racing In early December Artemis began practicing match race manoeuvres with their two test boats. In a recent video, Francesco Bruni gives a tour of the cockpit and some of the controls on the team’s first AC45X test boat “Turbo 1.”

Watch the video here – skip forward to the six minute mark.

Oracle Team USA The team returns 9 January from time off for the holidays. We can expect to see them sailing their AC45X test boats in January. They will probably launch their race boat on 6 February.

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Spithill Avoids Amputation

Last August, Oracle helmsman Jimmy Spithill had surgery on a tendon he tore in his left elbow during the Portsmouth America’s Cup World Series. Trying to be ready for the September World Series in Toulon, he got the wound wet and picked up a severe infection. Facing a possible amputation, he underwent a series of surgeries and 10 weeks on an intravenous antibiotics drip treatment.

“I had a race, Portsmouth in the Louis Vuitton World Series, on the Saturday I tore [the tendon] off the bone but then raced Sunday,” Spithill said.

“The surgery was a success but I rushed back and got it wet and picked up a real bad infection and then it was multiple surgeries, pretty much living with the surgeon.

“IV for 10 weeks, antibiotics morning and night so it was a battle.

“I’m glad we finally won and we beat it. If it wasn’t for the surgeon, a guy by the name of Rob Bray, who knows. He saved me, I almost lost my arm.

“Typical, hard lesson to learn but you’ve got to balance it out. You can’t just go full throttle all the time.”