Update
Hard to believe that really is a 75-foot boat. This is as uncluttered as Team New Zealand’s Te Aihe will ever look, like every other boat there are a few more bits still to add onto a beautifully elegant platform. Both the Kiwis and American Magic have come up with quite similar layouts on deck but below the water the boats are completely different – the ‘skimming’ bulge beneath Te Aihe (inset) stands out clearly when seen in the cradle. The jury will stay out on the cost-benefit of that bulb until the boat meets some competition in April at the first World Series round but to date no other foiling design of any type that we know of has tried this stepped approach
THEN AND NOW – Jack Griffin On 11 September American Magic’s AC75 Defiantwent for her first sail. Perhaps thanks to their experience with their test boat they confidently popped up on the foils. Observers reported seeing at least one foiling gybe; video confirmed at least one attempted gybe. Pretty impressive first day out, but a long way from racing in
2021. Emirates Team New Zealand christened their first yacht Te Aihe – The Dolphin – five days earlier, but as this is being written she has had only some limited tow tests and a couple of early sails which were notable for the need to use a powerful support launch to get the AC75 flying in the moderate conditions, after which she stayed aloft without assistance. No doubt both teams will be hard at it by the time you read this.
Same for the other two challengers… perhaps. Ineos Team UK were delayed by the need to undertake dredging to accommodate the AC75’s 5m draft at their base in Portsmouth. Luna Rossa have postponed their launch at least twice, now planned for the end of September or more likely early October. No doubt all of the teams will need every possible day for devel-
opment. Only the mast, the foil arms and the foil cant system are one-design. The foil wings and their control system that have been tested in the simulator now face the physical world. T-foils with mov- able flaps are very different from the flapless L-foils that could only be raked and canted on the AC72 and AC50. Taming the double luff mainsail will also consume much development time and effort. The hull shapes for Defiantand Te Aiheare dramatically different.
The US yacht has a fairly wide, flat shape, while the Kiwis have a stepped shape with their long underwater bulge beneath the centre of the hull. Which is more stable? Which will lift off more easily in lighter winds? We have yet to see either Ineos’s or Luna Rossa’s first hull. But
none of the four teams has much time to decide how radically to change the hull shape in their second yacht.
12 SEAHORSE The AC75 concept was introduced to a mixture of astonishment,
admiration and criticism. A bit like the 90ft monsters in 1903. After Herreshoff’s Columbiasaw off Shamrock II in 1901 the exasperated New York Yacht Club had to remind pesky Sir Thomas Lipton that he needed to wait two years for his next challenge. In 1903 C Oliver Iselin led an exceptionally well-heeled syndicate
to defend against Shamrock III. They told Herreshoff that his first ideas for the new yacht should be made bigger and more extreme. They wanted to thrash Lipton soundly so he would stop forcing them to spend so much money so often on Cup defences. TheNew York Heraldwrote, ‘Herreshoff’s next boat will be of the
extreme type, possibly of the freak order.’ Under sail Reliance was said to resemble an iceberg teetering on a canoe. Righting moment came from the 102-ton keel attached to the yacht with 400 9in lag bolts. The Herald added that both Reliance and Shamrock III ‘are, when judged by non-racing eyes (to be) brutes and freaks.’ They opined that Shamrock IIIwas ‘a beautiful freak,’ while Reliancewas ‘an ugly and powerful one’. A bit like the commentary on the AC75s. Reliance’s owner Cornelius Vanderbilt was non-plussed: ‘Call the boat a freak, anything you like, but we cannot handicap ourselves, even if our boat is only fit for the junk heap the day after the race’. Comparing the NYYC’s 2021 campaign with 1903, the freakish
nature of the yachts is not the only similarity. Defiant foiled on her first day sailing. On 25 April 1903 Captain Nat and skipper Charlie Barr took Reliance for her first sail. Confident in the design and the build, they buried the leeward rail in about 8kt of wind. On the second day’s sailing Captain Nat felt problems with the
rig tune and compiled a list of ideas. Sheets would be re-led, cleats and footholds would be moved, line diameters would be changed. The leech of the mainsail was deemed too tight; it would need to be recut at least twice. This was no small task. The canvas was one-eighth of an inch (3mm) thick and panels were hand sewn. The sail was the size of three tennis courts and weighed almost a ton. Before the defender trials with Columbia and Constitution
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