Cup Experience

Many America's Cup fans say this is their best source of information.

By

Key Moment for Grabbing the Bonus Points for the 2017 AC Qualifiers

With six of the nine AC World Series events completed, the teams go into Portsmouth with three teams fighting at the top of the leaderboard. One of them will end the series empty handed when it wraps up in Fukuoka, Japan in November. Emirates Team New Zealand continues to lead the series, with Land Rover BAR and Oracle Team USA tied on points.

America’s Cup competition format and scoring explained here.

unnamed

Dean Barker and his men on SoftBank Team Japan hope to build on their good showing in Chicago, where they were on the podium for the first time. Franck Cammas’s Groupama Team France won races in Oman and New York and will try to bounce back from their poor results in Chicago.

By

The Fastest Boats? The Biggest Boats? The Best Sailors?

There’s no question that the AC Class foiling catamarans are among the fastest boats in the world. And multiple Olympic medals, world championships and America’s Cup wins attest to the skills of the sailors. But are the 49 foot long boats that will dispute the 2017 and 2019 America’s Cup really in the tradition of the event? Speed is king, so multihulls in the America’s Cup are fine, but shouldn’t the yachts be bigger?

Franck Cammas of Team France and Loïck Peyron of Artemis racing have each won races around the world and have each sailed monster multihulls to break the record for a circumnavigation. They would both be able to race the new 100 foot long “Ultime” class trimarans. About 100 meters from the christening of Team France’s AC45X test boat, Thomas Coville’s Ultime was tied up in Lorient. Four or five of these grand machines will race around the world in 2019 – a real sailing highlight!

unnamed (4)

By

Building the AC Class Race Yachts for 2017

Boatbuilding crews are hard at work building the AC Class race boats (often called AC50). The hulls are built in three pieces. The lower section has most of the structure, including the cockpit floor and the reinforcement for the daggerboard cage. The upper section has cutouts for the crew cockpits. The 2.7 meter long bow section unbolts so the hull can fit in a 40 foot container. The skin of that bow section is the only part of the yacht required to be built in the country of the yacht club it represents. Oracle and Team Japan are having their boats built at Core Builders in New Zealand. Team New Zealand is also building their boat in New Zealand, at Cooksons. Artemis Racing, Land Rover BAR and Groupama Team France are all building their boats in their home countries, using tooling furnished by Core Builders.

unnamed

Upper half of an AC Class hull – the “deck.” It will be joined with the lower hull section and the bow section will bolt on. Thanks to Richard Gladwell of Sail-World for the photograph. Richard has many more photos and lots of detail in two articles, here and here.

By

3 Bermuda-based Teams Race Their Test Boats

Thanks to Pamela for sharing in the Cup Experience Facebook Group the news about Oracle Team USA, Artemis Racing and SoftBank Team Japan racing their experimental boats in Bermuda. She reports that Oracle won six of seven races over two days. A Bermudian sailor I know was on the water watching on Friday. His comments: The race area looks SMALL! Artemis raced both their boats; Boat 1 had the old modified AC45 wing. Artemis’s Boat 2, Oracle and Team Japan all had AC Class wings. The boats with newer wings were noticeably faster.

Oracle pulled off a foiling tack in about 9-12 knots of breeze. In about 9 knots in the first race Oracle and Team Japan were both foiling upwind; neither Artemis boat was. When the breeze was up all four boats were foiling upwind.

unnamed

Four AC45x experimental boats raced on the Great Sound last week – two Artemis boats and one each from Oracle and Team Japan. Dockyard, home of the 2017 America’s Cup Village, is in the distance.

By

“Foil Fest” in Bermuda with AC45X Racing

Oracle Team USA, SoftBank Team Japan and Artemis Racing lined up for three straightline speed runs at ACBDA’s Foil Fest on Saturday.

unnamed1

Look at the trailing edge of each wing. Japan and Oracle have their AC Class wings but Artemis used an AC45 wing that was modified for their test boat. The trailing edge of the AC Class wings has a smooth, rounded shape.unnamed11

Look closer and you can see the angle in the trailing edge where the lowest segment of the flap meets the middle segment. Look closely at the hull and you see only one grinding pedestal. This is Artemis’s “Turbo 1” boat. A little bit of cat and mouse? Or maybe boat 2 is undergoing modifications?unnamed21

MC Glenn Jones and Premier Michael Dunkley helped the enthusiastic crowd enjoy the show.unnamed31

Visitors got a look inside the team bases. Oracle has test systems in their wing shed so they can test and calibrate the wing controls for camber and twist. Look closely at the wing – you can see more camber between the leading element and the flap at the far end of the shed, and almost no camber at the top of the wing, letting us see the twist.Thanks to BERNEWS for the video and photos. Many more photos here.