Cup Experience

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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America’s Cup World Series Chicago – Results

Artemis Wins America's Cup World Series Chicago
Artemis Wins America’s Cup World Series Chicago

[Update 30 June 2016 by Jack Griffin Specially edited videos here, here and here. Enjoy!]

Artemis Racing won the America’s Cup World Series in Chicago with Land Rover BAR second and SoftBank Team Japan third. It was the first time for Dean Barker and Team Japan to be on the podium and the first time that Oracle Team USA and Emirates Team New Zealand were not. Artemis, New Zealand and BAR have each won two events. Oracle has yet to win. But…  read on.

Now, it’s fine to celebrate and spray some champagne around. And, I like Artemis Racing. I was their expert commentator in their VIP lounge during the racing in San Francisco. I know this team and genuinely like them. But this is the America’s Cup World SERIES. The bonus points for the “America’s Cup Qualifiers” go for the best score in the SERIES not for the number of podiums.

Look at this table:

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Artemis won in Bermuda and Chicago. But they are 33 points behind New Zealand. Do a little arithmetic and you will see that even if they finished three places better than the Kiwis in every race in Portsmouth – highly unlikely – they would still be six points behind. Consistency rather than flashes of brilliance wins a series. In 22 races, Artemis has finished last seven times; only Team France has more – 10 last place finishes. Japan has two last place finishes and the three teams atop the leaderboard – New Zealand, BAR and Oracle have one apiece, although Oracle needed a capsize to do it.

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The match racing in Bermuda in America’s Cup Class yachts will bear almost no resemblance to the fleet racing in one design AC45’s in the America’s Cup World Series. And, Artemis has been training for months with their two AC45X experimental boats while Team New Zealand has yet to launch a comparable test boat. Yes, the Kiwis have been using one of Luna Rossa’s modified AC45’s but that is a far cry from testing systems and developing a crew choreography playbook for the racing in 2017.

And yet… Imagine that the America’s Cup World Series ended with the current standings. The Kiwis would start the round robin America’s Cup Qualifiers with two bonus points; Artemis would have none. Imagine further that Artemis’s superior technology helped them go undefeated in the round robin, scoring 10 points. And that the Kiwis lost only their two races with Artemis, winning eight races. With their two bonus points the Kiwis would be tied for first with Artemis. Since ties in the Qualifiers are broken by America’s Cup World Series standings, New Zealand would win the Qualifiers. If Artemis made it through the Challenger Semi-finals and Finals, they would start even with defender Oracle instead of with the one point lead they would have had, if they had won the Qualifiers.

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America’s Cup World Series Leaderboard – June 2016

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Video: Wild Finish to the Regatta in Race 4

Four boats arrived at Mark 1, side by side, up on their foils, at 28 knots! Three of the helmsmen didn’t realize how close the boundary was and got penalties for going out of bounds. SoftBank Team Japan gybed in bounds, then stretched out their lead for a comfortable race win and their first regatta podium. Artemis Racing needed to finish fourth or better to win the regatta, and they did – barely. With less than 100m to go in in last race, the regatta win was still up for grabs! Watch!