They are required to have a youth team and a women’s team.
Each competitor must buy at least one AC40 and may only build one new AC75. They can use an AC40 as a test platform or they can build a dedicated ‘LEQ12’ test boat. Luna Rossa and Ineos have built dedicated LEQ12 yachts. Emi-
rates Team New Zealand, Alinghi Red Bull and American Magic will each buy two AC40s, one of them dedicated to testing. Protocol- imposed restrictions mean that all five teams will have only one boat for testing – either an AC40 or the test boat they build themselves. Technical regulations restrict the number of components that may
be modified on either an AC40 or an LEQ12 – one hull, four foil wings, four flaps, 10 jibs, four mainsails and one custom mast tube. Time is never on your side in the America’s Cup and the time
space continuum for AC37 is complex. The Match will be sailed in October 2024. Time and space in Barcelona combine to complicate the planning process. American Magic’s base location has been levelled, paved and turned over to the team. Preparation has not yet started at the locations for Team New Zealand, Ineos, Luna Rossa or for Alinghi Red Bull Racing. Alinghi currently operates from a temporary base. Construction of the new bases is planned for summer of 2023. It seems likely that teams will wait until 2024 to launch their new
AC75 raceboats. From May through to October 2023 any sailing in AC40s or AC75s must be done in Barcelona. The Protocol places no restriction on where LEQ12 test boats may be sailed; it seems likely that Luna Rossa and Ineos will want to run their test boat against their unmodified AC40. Let’s take a look at the unique planning challenges each team
faces and what we know. Defender ETNZ lost their rent-free status in the Auckland Viaduct and have moved to the former Ineos base on Wynyard Point. They sold their first AC75 to Alinghi. They have received the first AC40 and have started to sail it. The team will certainly be in Barcelona during the July to October 2023 sailing window. Presumably they will move back to Auckland to use the Southern Hemisphere summer to launch and develop their new AC75 in the first half of 2024. The final move to Barcelona will probably come in mid-2024. The Brits have established a winter training base in Palma. They
will begin by sailing their LEQ12 test boat. As Challenger of Record they are first in line after ETNZ to receive an AC40 and will probably run their test boat against it in Palma. Their design team remains at their HQ in Brackley, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team. Their base in Barcelona will be at the site of the IMAX theatre, with site preparation expected for early 2023. Once they move to Barcelona for the 2023 sailing window they may stay there. There is little news from Luna Rossa, who remain at their base
in Cagliari. Presumably they are well along with their LEQ12 test boat. They are lobbying to hold one of the Preliminary Regattas in Cagliari; three Preliminary Regattas are planned – two in the one- design AC40s, the final one in AC75s in Barcelona. If the first two are at venues other than Barcelona the logistical challenges should be fairly simple as all the teams will have an unmodified AC40. Luna Rossa’s move to Barcelona in 2024 should be relatively smooth. American Magic have again set up in Pensacola, Florida for winter
training. The early part of their timetable depends on the build schedule for the AC40s. As the last team to challenge they are fifth and last in line to receive theirs. The McConaghy Boats facility in China will produce all the AC40s. For the 2021 America’s Cup Amer- ican Magic built their yachts in Rhode Island, tested them in Pen- sacola and raced them in Auckland. Last to receive an AC40, but first to have a site ready for construction in Barcelona, American Magic have visited the site. Plans for the building, pontoons and crane need to be approved. Barcelona will be easier to manage than Auckland but a US team still has a lot of logistics to handle. Alinghi Red Bull Racing are the sole new challenger but the first
to have been on the water. Operating from their temporary base in Barcelona, the team took delivery of ETNZ’s first AC75 for testing and training. They are the only team that will operate in Barcelona throughout this cycle. As a new team they were permitted 20 ‘sailing days’, including tow testing, in their AC75 before 17 September 2022. This is the earliest date that any of the existing teams is allowed to sail an AC75.
Unfortunately, a violent squall reduced Alinghi’s initial time with
sails up to about 20 minutes and two tacks, all in displacement mode. On the way back to base, with their chase boat alongside, the sudden squall hit them with gusts up to 35kt and hailstones the size of tennis balls. The port foil and the hull sustained damage from impacts with the chase boat. The chase boat dropped off and prepared to tow them the rest of the way in, but before they could start the tow the gusts capsized the yacht. As soon as they righted more gusts capsized it again. No one was seriously injured but the AC75 took on water. Teams in AC37 face both macro and micro logistical challenges.
Macro challenges include decisions about space – where to operate – Auckland, Palma, Pensacola, Cagliari and Barcelona. The macro challenges involve time – when will your AC40 or LEQ12 yacht be ready and how long will it take to move it between the venues where you will sail it? Of course the biggest macro time challenge is managing the phases to design, then build, then develop the AC75 you will race in 2024. The micro logistical challenges are no less daunting. Getting an
AC75 ready to sail may require as much time and as many people as were needed for the AC72s with their big wings. The AC75’s twin skin mainsail needs to be craned aboard the boat. An army of pro- grammers and technicians need hours to go through their checklists at the dock and on the water. Two or three days of sailing are often followed by a week in the shed for repairs and maintenance. The logistical talents of the generals are being severely tested
as they lead their America’s Cup armies.
CupExperience.com
CHOICES CHOICES – Dave Hollom The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things: of lift and drag and ratios, of whirling vortex rings… One of the beauties of sailing is the diversity of craft that we can
choose to campaign. There are basically three categories of boat: one-design, open design within some parameters, and handicapped, where a rating authority views various measurements and tries to estimate the boat’s performance to give it a rating. The ‘rated’ design then races essentially to beat its handicap by more than its competitors, hence the final result is seldom known until all or nearly all have finished… which rather detracts from exciting finishes and on-the-water celebration. The open design can be further divided into a box or restricted
type. In a box rule certain maximum measurements cannot be exceeded. A restricted type employs a formula where the various features that make for speed, length, sail area and displacement can be traded off against each other as long as the product of those features within the formula is not exceeded. Thus, as a general rule, if you take more length you get less sail area or must carry more weight if you wish to maintain the sail area… or any number of different permutations as long as the product does not exceed the class rating. Sounds complicated but it really isn’t and with either type you race level so exciting finishes are on the table. Within the rule you can also tweak your boat to reduce a weak area or better cover the performance of the rest of the fleet. There is thus interest both on and off the water. Peter Morton (Morty) once remarked to me that buying a new
existing one-design was rather like buying a brand new 1960s model Cortina for your current transportation. Old cars do have a certain fascination, but if you ever drive one you will soon realise that cars have moved forward in leaps and bounds over the years and your modern road car is so much more competent at transporting you from A to B. It is safer and the actual driving experience is much more pleasurable. Boats are much the same. The more we understand about what
makes them tick the faster and nicer we can make the sailing expe- rience. When you buy an older one-design boat you invariably buy a number of vices that a modern boat does not exhibit. However, the fact that it might take more skill to extract the performance from the boat can add to the desirability of sailing the boat. One of the real advantages, however, is that all one-design boats race level and if you’re first over the finish line you have won.
SEAHORSE 13
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