Blog Page – Page 39

March 21, 2016 By Jack Griffin

SoftBank Team Japan 360° Onboard Video

Here is Oracle’s first test boat, which they sold to SoftBank Team Japan. The team has set up their base right next door to Oracle in Bermuda.

Here is an onboard video from Team Japan. To use the 3D controls, watch it using the Chrome or Firefox browser. Pay attention to the grinders – you will see all four working hard when wing trimmer Chris Draper eases and trims the wing. Turn up the sound – at about 11 seconds in, you will hear the whine of the electric pump for the hydraulics. You’ll hear it again at 55 seconds into the video. At 1:09 you can hear Dean Barker count down for a gybe and you’ll see the port daggerboard going down and hear the electric pump running. Then you’ll see the starboard daggerboard rise, again with the pump running. At 1:30 you’ll see all four grinders working while Draper constantly adjusts wing trim. This almost certainly means they were sailing the boat with the grinding pedestals mechanically coupled to the wing winch, and were only using electrical power for the hydraulic pumps.

Remember that in these test boats there is no restriction on using electric power or other stored energy. But when they start racing in their AC Class yacht in 2017, all power must be manually generated by the grinders.

March 21, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Oracle’s New Wing

Oracle Team USA has been testing a wing built to the America’s Cup Class Rule. Remember that this rule defines the boats that will race in Bermuda in 2017. Up to now, Oracle had been sailing with wings that appeared to be modified AC45 wings.

Boat 3 with the AC Class wing, on the left. Notice that the trailing edge is curved while the trailing edge of the AC45x wing in Boat 2 has straighter segments. Photographer unknown.

15/02/16 - Hamilton (BDA) - 35th America's Cup Bermuda 2017 - ORACLE TEAM USA - AC45T training — Sailing with the AC Class wing. Notice that they had not yet covered with tape the gaps between the segments of the flap element. Image: OTUSA Sam Greenfield

Some details

Below is Oracle’s AC45x wing before they added the panel of readouts below the wing.

And below is the same wing with the readouts added. Notice the gap between the wing and the readouts, where the camber control arm can be seen.

The next photo shows the new “AC Class” wing. Notice that the camber control arm setup is different, and there is no gap between the bottom of the wing and the readouts.

When I call this an “AC Class” wing, I mean its shape appears to comply with the AC Class Rule. Once the AC Class boats are launched, beginning 27 December 2016, the teams can only use two wings in them. Although there is this two-wing-limit for the race boats, the richer teams can build as many wings as they want for their test boats. Realistically, they will probably only build two.

March 14, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Franck Cammas Back on the Water

Thanks to gritty determination, extensive physical therapy and a custom carbon fiber ankle brace, Franck Cammas got back on his AC45F in Oman in the week after the America’s Cup World Series. The gentle conditions were perfect for Franck’s first days on the water in three months. He still cannot jump around the boat, but it’s great to see him making a strong recovery after almost losing his foot when he went overboard while training in late November and was hit by the rudder wing. Read about the accident here.

See the Groupama Team France video report from Oman here.

March 14, 2016 By Jack Griffin

Spy vs Spy

Although teams have agreed to keep “a respectable distance” away when taking reconnaissance photos, the rules do not limit how close the teams can approach each other. Still, no one likes to have other teams’ photographers around. In the photo below, SoftBank Team Japan points their telephoto lens at Artemis’s Turbo 2 at the Artemis base.

Land Rover BAR photos courtesy of the team.
Artemis Racing images from CNN’s Mainsail program. See Shirley Robertson’s interview of Iain Percy here.

March 14, 2016 By Jack Griffin

External daggerboard rams

Both Oracle and Land Rover BAR added external rams to their test boats after initial testing. Some people have speculated that they found they needed more leverage, given the loads on the daggerboard bearings. Artemis Racing has built two test boats and both of them manage daggerboard rake without an external ram – clearly a better solution for windage.

Land Rover BAR “T2” on launch day – daggerboard cant ram is inside the hull.

Land Rover BAR “T2” when it relaunched in December. Notice the external ram.

Artemis Racing’s second “Turbo” boat in Bermuda. The daggerboard rake ram is inside the hull.