Update
It shows the pace of learning with the foiling Imocas that big changes were still being made to boats in the final months before the start of the Vendée. Several boats have been ‘fattened up’ in the bow to help with take-offs and landings off the foils, with Charlie Dalin and designer Guillaume Verdier taking a particularly obvious approach when they chopped up TJV winner Apivia. Jumping up on the foils a few seconds earlier and landing more softly will produce big gains over an 80-day race. This is not a time for subtlety
THE FASCINATION OF SIN – Jack Griffin We now have both New York Yacht Club American Magic and Team New Zealand sailing their AC75s in Auckland, soon to be joined by the other two challengers, Luna Rossa and Ineos Team UK. American Magic promptly joined the capsize club. As on ETNZ’s
Te Aihe last December, no one was injured, Defiant was promptly righted and, after a systems and rig check, carried on sailing. Thankfully, this is a far cry from the destruction of Oracle’s first
AC72 when they pitchpoled on San Francisco Bay and then were washed five miles outside the Golden Gate on their ninth day of sailing in 2012. Both AC75 capsizes were relatively mild affairs, much less dramatic than some wipeouts on conventional monohulls, according to skipper Terry Hutchinson. As we get closer to the first AC75 racing in December, there is
no shortage of criticism of the AC75 concept as having nothing to do with most people’s sailing and being too expensive and complex. Critics point to the paucity of challengers to make their point. But these critics don’t understand that the America’s Cup has always been a unique sporting event rather than a regatta. As Dennis Conner said in 1985, ‘If it were just about sailing it wouldn’t be the America’s Cup.’ When America crossed the Atlantic she first put in at Le Havre
for three weeks of refitting and getting into racing trim. She also took on supplies, including an impressive quantity of French wine. From its earliest days the social events have been a key element
of the America’s Cup mystique. Technology rather than sailing skill almost always provides the winning edge. America’s long, sharp bow, her heavily raked masts and her lack of a foretopmast all surprised the British yachtsmen. Sometimes the social events outweighed the racing. Lieutenant
William Henn’s 1886 challenger Galatea was more cruiser than racer. Henn’s wife furnished Galatea’s saloon sumptuously, to the amusement of the New York yachtsmen who visited onboard. The Henns were very popular throughout the social season in New York but Galatea was soundly beaten by Mayflower. Yacht design took on much more importance in the following match. Secrecy and intrigue became watchwords during the run-up to the 1887 match when the first skirts for an America’s Cup challenger
14 SEAHORSE
appeared – almost 100 years before Australia II. George L Watson designed the Scottish challenger Thistle. Only the designer, owner and workmen were allowed to observe the construction, and the workmen were sworn to secrecy – sort of a 19th-century NDA. Thistle was skirted while being launched. After she was afloat
skirts still hid everything above the waterline. As with Australia II there was much interest in Thistle’s keel. Reports speculated (incor- rectly) that she had a centreboard. The New York World newspaper hired a diver who produced (very inaccurate) drawings. Gordon Bennett’s New York Heraldoutdid their rival and hired a draughtsman who managed to get a look at the boat when it was out of the water. After Thistle arrived in New York enterprising boatmen charged up to $3 a head to row people around the Scottish yacht. Thistle also opened another chapter of America’s Cup intrigue
– the measurement dispute. Her waterline measured in 18in longer than specified in the challenge. The press made much of this but the NYYC simply added five seconds to the time allowance for their Defender, Volunteer. After the 1887 Volunteer vs Thistlematch we had six matches won by Herreshoff designs, including Reliance. That era was followed by the J Class and then the 12 Metre Class. Match racing in the 12s was spirited and dramatic, but they were hardly the fastest yachts on the planet. When the design rule for the International America’s Cup Class was developed during 1989- 90 the objectives included making the boats longer, lighter and faster. The five matches in the IACC were bookended by two Deed of Gift matches, both won by wing-sailed multihulls. The 1988 and 2010 matches brought the America’s Cup back its tradition of high-tech yachts designed only to try to win one regatta. And now we have the AC75s to entertain us. In 1935 Charles Burgess made the observation that inspired
the title of Bob Fisher’s encyclopaedic work on Cup history: ‘The modern America’s Cup racer bears not the slightest resemblance to any useful craft in the world, and she does not even contribute to the development of yachting as a true sport apart from the satisfaction of an illogical national vanity. But, having damned them, I must confess to an absorbing interest in the problems set by those extraordinary craft. They have the fascination of sin.’ The AC75s are nothing if not fascinating. Let’s enjoy the spectacle!
www.cupexperience.com
NICOLAS PEHE/DPPI
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