News Around the World


destination! You then devise the R&D schedule and put in place the best human resources in the different roles. A large percentage of the team in my department are people I have brought to Luna Rossa, some from previous Cup projects and others I knew from Volvo Race campaigns. Then it is planning, planning, planning. SH: When you saw the revised rules were there any surprises? HC: The concept of the boat was clear to us, since in AC36 Luna Rossa was the Challenger of Record. We had participated a lot in the creation of the AC75. After 2021 we knew that the boat would basically be the same so it is easier to decide if you are going to challenge again, as we did. Having the elements and tools needed to develop this type of


boat already in place is an advantage. We knew there would be some rule changes, but you never know for sure until they are public. Once the Protocol and class rules are defined you can move forward with your initial strategy. A single boat, a smaller prototype of less than 12m in length but which had to be designed and built by the team – or opt for two AC40s. SH: And you chose to build your own prototype? HC:Designing a prototype ourselves allows us complete control of what we are doing. You do not start with a supplied package from someone else. In addition to full control, it is an important chance for the team to do everything required for the raceboat but on a smaller scale. It also helps the team start to interact productively. SH: Has not having two AC40s for match racing hurt you? HC:We evaluated it carefully but the option was discarded. There was also the option of developing our prototype and purchasing two AC40s, but we ruled that out too. There is limited time to play with all the possible variables and these are boats that do not have the same dynamics or the same behaviour. Training with two AC40s takes away from your time to develop your big boat. We have been able to practise match racing with our ILQ and the AC40, you can always play with their features to level them up as much as possible. SH: Your America’s Cup background began with masts and sails, evolving to wingmasts. Now we are in the era of foils, did that change slow things down for you? HC: It’s where the oil is (laughs). Flying boats began in San Francisco 2013. I worked with Artemis then but I had already experienced the beginning of the technological change that it entailed. That was more than 10 years ago, the tools have improved a lot –most impor- tantly, the computational calculation capacity and ability to develop simulations. Now one of the most crucial things is to have a good simulator; having all the physics and mathematics correctly inter- acting within the system gives you a brutal advantage. SH: What percentage accuracy do you give to the simulated data, 80, 90, 99 per cent? HC:More than 90 per cent depending on the specific area you are researching. I can’t give you details. SH:Going back to the new rules, I assume that the important changes are a lighter boat, fewer crew and the new foil measurement box? HC: Yes that’s right. Particularly for the winds of Barcelona. Pre- viously AC75s had real difficulty flying with a minimum wind of 6.5kt. The changes now ensure reliable flight in that low wind range, so we get fairer racing, with fewer random factors. This time it will be difficult to repeat those Auckland races where one boat flies and the other sails. Lowering the boat’s displacement by a ton has been important,


also increasing the foil span increases her efficiency. The require- ment for a winch for the jib sheets has also been eliminated – the new self-tacking system allows the boat to be manoeuvred while saving energy. Cyclors also generate more power. The elimination of the Code Zero is also important, a sail that was useless and a total waste of money and design time. SH: Are you getting on well with these new sailing conditions? HC: Good, I think it’s good. We knew what awaited us and we all prepared ourselves for it. We spent many days training in Cagliari, where there are normally no waves of this height of 1-1.2m or frequency. I think that with more wave height these boats start to be difficult to control so as usual there is compromise. We have


34 SEAHORSE


developed a hull adapted to those conditions… and in my opinion it is better than the others (laughs). SH: And when the waves are above 1.2m… HC: Then it is a decision for the Race Committee, it will also depend on the wind speed. I’m not saying that that should be a limit, but at that moment they become quite difficult boats to navigate safely so you have to adapt. Control ability is critical, without a doubt a team that has good control of the boat in those waves will have the edge. On a few days here in Barcelona we have seen complicated waves of almost 2m and high winds… then it is really delicate keeping the AC75 under control. SH: What about your competitors’ boats… HC:We thought the boats would be more similar. As he usually does, Marcelino Botín (Alinghi) has taken his own path looking for something different – soon we will see how effective it is. When we design a boat our numbers always tell us that it is the best possible option, but then we must compare it with our rivals on the sea! The rest are relatively different boats, especially the decks, but


in hull design we are aerodynamically close. The one that surprises me is the English boat, it is difficult for me to understand how they arrived at that design. She has a lot of volume, very high freeboard. The rest of us follow a similar aerodynamic trend…. but we will all be found out on the racecourse! SH: The mast, did alarms ring when Alinghi broke theirs? HC: Without a doubt, because you are trying to understand what happened, what was the reason or reasons for the breakage. These are masts where the rule imposes the geometric shape of the profile and minimum engineering scantlings that you can increase, but obviously taking care not to make it too heavy. In theory the minimum scantling should support the working loads, but it can also happen that the crew exceeds these loads. These boats are highly delicate, and any element, be it the hull, foils, mast or the most insignificant piece, must be perfectly constructed because any small flaw in the construction risks a big failure. Going back to the Alinghi incident, we don’t know if it was due


to a construction problem or overload. It is not easy for the crew to stay within the limits; we all know the theoretical figures but then controlling them while sailing is not so obvious. We can have two new masts plus another legacy spar, an old


one converted to the new rule, because before the masts could have runners. This is a curious area, because in the last edition we conceived a mast that did not need runners to support the loads, and we believed that we could comply with the rules. The measurer initially said OK, but two weeks before the regatta they said it was illegal. Business as usual, it’s the America’s Cup. SH: So exactly how many masts does Luna Rossa have? HC: (Now Horacio dribbles out a response in the style of the young soccer player Lamine Yamal) This I can’t tell you, but our team puts our resources where they are most efficient… SH: Let’s talk about foils and I’ll try not to ask the impossible. Are they now more structurally delicate? HC: The type of steel used, previously unlimited, can now not exceed 1,500 mega pascals to prevent the exploration of superior alloys that would be extremely expensive. The amount of steel we use in the wings is limited by the maximum weight of the entire foil. You must also comply with a centre of gravity limit of 2.82m from the axis of rotation of the arm – it can be lower but not higher to ensure the minimum stability of the boat and that it is self-righting. SH:Now the game of ‘ifs’… If you, Horacio Carabelli, had the possibility to decide the America’s Cup boat, what concept would you choose? HC: Hard question. But since I expect the boat for the next edition will again be the AC75, with more logical rule revisions, I have not really thought about it. Because of my age I am influenced by traditional sailing and now


we are sailing at very high speeds in very technological boats, which require mechatronics and complex systems. Regarding the ACC version five, there were many manoeuvres showing the sporting aspect (sail changes, spinnaker poles and so on), and 17 crew members… that side of the sailing has been abandoned.


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