Cup Experience

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Video of Oracle Team USA Foil Gybing their AC45x

 

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ORACLE TEAM USA HIT OVER 45 KNOTS IN THEIR AC45X WITHIN A WEEK OF LAUNCH. PHOTO: BALAZS GARDI

 

Within a week of launching their development AC45, America’s Cup defender Oracle Team USA was foil gybing on San Francisco Bay and hitting speeds over 45 knots. Tom Slingsby has been on the helm while Jimmy Spithill recovers from elbow surgery. Slingsby reported enthusiastically, “Pretty awesome day steering this beast of a boat. Training with my mates in SF. Top speed of 45.8knots today…. In a 45ft cat…”

As I explained here and here, this boat will not race in the America’s Cup World Series – it is purely a development boat for testing design ideas for the AC62 catamaran that will race in the America’s Cup in 2017.

Thanks to John Navas for this video. Watch the foiling gybe at 0:15. See more of John’s videos here.

Designers Will Play Leapfrog in the Lead-up to the America’s Cup

Remember that Ben Ainslie Racing showed a foil gybe in this video, shot last November, on their sixth day sailing their test AC45. BAR and Luna Rossa have so far kept the standard AC45 hulls and crossbeams and tiller steering, while adding foiling packages. Oracle and Artemis Racing have launched almost completely new boats – scaled down AC62’s –  with wider crossbeams, cockpits, grinding pedestals and wheel steering. Oracle has also installed dramatically more sophisticated control systems for the boards, rudders and the wing. We’ll see a lot more development between now and the launch of the AC62’s in September 2016 and the America’s Cup in June 2017.

 

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Team France Sails AC45

 

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FRANCK CAMMAS AND TEAM FRANCE ON BOARD THE FORMER ORACLE BOAT 5

Team France sailed an AC45 for the first time on February 25, 2015. Formerly owned by Oracle Team USA, AC45 boat number 5 will be modified to the one design specification for racing in the 2015 America’s Cup World Series, which begins in June in Cagliari, Italy. Michel Desjoyeaux confirmed in an interview with French sailing magazine “Voiles et Voiliers” that the team has funding for the 2015 AC World Series, but has not yet found the sponsorship they will need to build an AC62 for the America’s Cup.

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FRANCK CAMMAS AND THE FORMER ORACLE AC45 AT THE GROUPAMA SAILING BASE.

2015 – a Busy Year for Skipper Franck Cammas

Cammas will spend at least 320 days sailing in 2015 in four important campaigns. He already spent the entire month of January racing the Olympic class Nacra 17 mixed catamaran with his crew Sophie de Turckheim. The pair will sail seven more regattas this year, hoping to become the French representatives at the Rio Olympics in 2016. In addition, Cammas will try to defend his C Class title at the world championships on Lake Geneva, Switzerland in September. Finally, he has scheduled six regattas in the Diam 24 trimaran, including the Tour de France à la Voile in July, which conflicts with the America’s Cup World Series in Portsmouth. We have to wonder where he will find the time to line up sponsors for Team France and the America’s Cup.

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CAMMAS & DE TURCKHEIM – NACRA 17 IMAGE: GROUPAMA
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CAMMAS & VIAT – C-CLASS IMAGE: GROUPAMA

 

 

 

 

 

 

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DIAM 24 FOR TOUR DE FRANCE À LA VOILE IMAGE: DR
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AMERICA’S CUP WORLD SERIES IMAGE: JACK GRIFFIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Artemis and Oracle Launch AC45 Development Boats

 

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LOOKING MORE LIKE AN AC62 THAN AN AC45, ARTEMIS’S TEST BOAT SPORTS WHEEL STEERING AND GRINDING PEDESTALS IN COCKPITS, PLUS HYDRAULIC CONTROLS FOR THE FOILS AND THE WING, AND A “POD” BELOW THE WING.

 

America’s Cup aficionados were treated to photos and video of the exciting new development boats launched by Artemis Racing and Oracle on San Francisco Bay in mid February.

At 0:54 into the video, watch Kyle Langford aggressively trimming the wing, just as he did on the AC72.

As your editor explained here and here, the Protocol for the 35th America’s Cup allows virtually unlimited development on boats with the same lower hull shape as an AC45 catamaran.  The new boats are dramatically different than the foiling AC45’s we have seen to date. The hulls have been flared to make room for cockpits with grinding pedestals and wheel steering. Hydraulic controls raise and lower the foils and control foil and rudder rake for stable foiling. A “pod” below the wing extends the wingspan, like the pod on Oracle’s America’s Cup winning AC72. The pod is required by the AC62 design rule.

 

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ORACLE’S AC45X DEVELOPMENT BOAT

 

Boys will be boys of course …  The two teams had an informal brush on the first day they were both sailing. Some observers thought Oracle looked faster and more stable, but we are a long way from racing AC62’s in the America’s Cup in Bermuda.

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ARTEMIS RACING AND ORACLE TEAM USA LINED UP FOR AN INFORMAL SPEED TEST IN SAN FRANCISCO ON FEBRUARY 18, 2015

 

(More photos and sailing news at Pressure Drop.)

Luna Rossa and Ben Ainslie Racing have been sailing slightly modified AC45’s. They changed the daggerboard cages to allow rake control on the foils, but they kept the platform unchanged – original tubular beams, tiller steering and no cockpits. We can’t see what powers the daggerboard rake controls – nothing would prevent them from testing with a powered system.

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BEN AINSLIE RACING’S FOILING AC45. NOTE THE TILLER STEERING AND STANDARD CONFIGURATION, INCLUDING THE BOWSPRIT. IMAGE COURTESY BAR.

 

Luna Rossa converted both of their AC45’s for foiling. Rumor has it that one design version of the AC45’s that will race in the America’s Cup World Series will be based on the Luna Rossa foil control system.

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LUNA ROSSA SAILING BOTH THEIR FOILING AC45’S IN CAGLIARI, SITE OF THE FIRST AMERICA’S CUP WORLD SERIES, IN JUNE 2015

 

Artemis Racing and Oracle have gone well beyond the modifications made by Luna Rossa and Ben Ainslie Racing. In the image below, we see at the bottom Oracle’s standard AC45. Compare this to Artemis’s early modifications to an AC45: the “platform” is virtually unchanged, with the daggerboards and main crossbeam in the same location. The two upper images show Oracle’s and Artemis’s highly modified AC45x boats, with the main beams and daggerboards located further forward. Note also that the wing is stepped further aft.

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EVEN IN THIS IMPERFECT COMPARISON WE CAN SEE THAT ORACLE AND ARTEMIS HAVE MOVED THE CROSSBEAM AND THE DAGGERBOARDS FORWARD ON THEIR “AC45X” DEVELOPMENT BOATS.

 

Add your comments below! Questions? Ask Jack!

 

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BAR Explored the Bermuda America’s Cup Race Course

 

Ben Ainslie Racing is the first America’s Cup team to sail on the race course for the 2017 America’s Cup in Bermuda. They brought their foiling Nacra 20 catamarans to the Great Sound to sharpen their foiling skills, and more importantly, to get to know the venue. In the video, Ainslie and sailing team manager Jono Macbeth talk about what they learned.

 

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A Closer Look at Luna Rossa’s Foiling AC45

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LUNA ROSSA AC45 HELMSMAN CHRIS DRAPER APPEARS TO HAVE A REMOTE CONTROL IN HIS HAND.

Luna Rossa has been testing two AC45 catamarans converted for foiling. In this photo, it looks like helmsman Chris Draper has a remote control in his right hand – perhaps for controlling rudder rake and daggerboard rake and cant. Remember that the Protocol allows the teams to test a wide range of ideas by modifying an AC45 or by building a new boat from scratch based on just the lower part of the hull shape of an AC45. The AC62 Class Rule allows the rudder to be raked up to three degrees while racing and the daggerboard to be raked up to 12 degrees and canted 15 degrees. We can assume that all teams will be testing daggerboard shapes and control systems for appendages and wings on their AC45s, since they cannot launch their AC62 until 150 days before the beginning of the America’s Cup Qualifiers – probably in September 2016.

If you want to dive into the details, you can download the AC62 Class Rule here.