Left: so big, so expensive and then so easily quashed. Sir Michael Fay’s 1988 Deed of Gift challenger, the Farr-designed KZ-1, was an unprecedented effort but she was left floundering by Dennis Conner’s 65-foot wing rig cat – half the size and a much more significant design all round
than revolution. His greatest step change was on the original 1967 Intrepid, when he moved the rudder off the back of the keel, hung it separately, and added a trim tab to the keel in its place.
Even so, Ricus van de Stadt had already
given his Zeevalk a true fin/skeg/tab configu- ration back in 1949 and tested it in the harsher climes of offshore racing. Zeevalk was a class winner in the 1951 Fastnet Race. For turning the 12 Metre world on its head we have to look at Alan Bond’s 1983 Australia II and Tom Blackaller’s 1987 USA. Ben Lexcen’s Australia II hull form
was married to an inverted winged keel, bendy rig and vertical-cut sails to create a boat that should have romped to a more comprehensive win than 4:3. Breakages to the steering and headboard squandered two wins. Dennis Conner, at the very peak of his powers, and the multi-configurable, race-day certificated Liberty, scavenged wins no other Cup skipper before or since would be likely to achieve.
Did wing keels ‘trickle down’ to the wider sport? Partially. Easier to produce and less-likely-to-tangle-obstructions fin and bulb keels are now standard fit for
most production builders. With USA, designed by Gary Mull and computational physicist Heiner Meldner, we saw a genuine deconstructing of the functions of steering, righting moment and lift. Con- trolling the bow and stern rudders effi- ciently ate into USA’s development time, but the ballast package slung under a spindly high-lift foil became standard fit for raceboats. USA was seriously fast downwind. With more development her true potential remains one of the Amer- ica’s Cup’s big unanswered questions. And for all that the ACC monohulls – with 100 launched – were revered as the epitome of high-performance yachting, the truth was that from their introduction in 1992 (remember the early Il Moro di Venezia’s and Ville de Paris and their air- craft-carrier decks?) until their demise after 2007, they no longer represented the pinnacle of fast monohulls. Their phenom- enal upwind efficiency aside, by 2007 there were many performance racer-cruis- ers that were faster around a racecourse. They were ripe for change. The AC90 was mooted but no one foresaw BOR90 and Alinghi V which eventually contested the 2010 Cup. Two Cups on, multihulls have become the new establishment.
We’re having a great time, and we love the boat. riend
It’s everything we hoped for and then some. –Clay Deutsch, Just A F
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