the pre-start will be. We likewise don’t know if penalties will be offloaded with the frustrating, umpire-controlled, slow-and-go penalties of last time, or if we will return to doing turns. Nevertheless, we need to design our mainsail system and that
must be co-ordinated with the structural team. In Auckland in 2021 Luna Rossa’s decksweeper main was much admired and looked much cleaner than the teams with a boom between the skins of the main. The Italians hid their boom below a deck fairing, limiting how low the deck could be built. The Kiwis were the only team in Auckland with their deck low
A lot of time is being spent in this Cup cycle poring over images, not just of the modified 2021 AC75s as they start to reappear but of the tiniest details visible when an AC40 one-design is being developed as an LEQ12 test boat (left); does this barely visible cockpit divider take the TNZ one-design AC40 outside the rule… Well, until the AC40 rule itself is published no one actually knows!
In the glory days of Captain Nat Herreshoff and the turn-of-the-
20th-century 90ft monsters the races also lasted so long that the person on the helm needed to be spelled. Bill Koch and Buddy Melges playfully wrestled over the wheel after winning in 1992. But for this edition each team needs two sailors who can drive
a foiling, high-speed, apparent wind machine. Some teams have an embarrassment of riches. Team New Zealand has Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge. Both are Moth World Champions. Both are 49er Olympic gold medallists. They know each other well, having been training partners for two Olympic cycles, trading the top two steps on the Olympic podium in 2012 and 2016. American Magic is equally blessed – Paul Goodison and Tom
Slingsby are both Moth World Champions and both also have Olympic gold medals, albeit in the Laser. Another pair of Olympic gold medallists – Finn sailors – are on the wheels for the Brits – Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott. Over at Luna Rossa Checco Bruni and Jimmy Spithill have the
experience of the dual helm set-up they used so successfully to win the 2021 Prada Cup Challenger Series and then to take three races from the clearly faster Kiwis before going down to defeat in the 2021 Match. Luna Rossa has also added to their stable the foiling experience of Ruggero Tita, with his world championship in the Nacra 17 and his Olympic 49er experience. Looking to future editions, the Italians have also given turns on
the helm to Marco Gradoni. Not much foiling experience on his CV but Gradoni is the only person to have won three Optimist World Championships in a row and was the youngest ever World Sailor of the Year in 2019. He seems to be a tough competitor! Unlike the four teams that raced in Auckland in 2021, the Swiss
and the French are new to the AC75. Alinghi’s Arnaud Psarofaghis almost certainly races foiling boats even better than displacement hulls. He started sailing foiling Moths as a schoolboy in Geneva when they first appeared. He has won plenty of races helming Alinghi’s TF35 ‘T-foiler’. He won a world championship on Alinghi’s foiling GC32. The team has been giving several other sailors time on the helm too, both on their AC75 and their recently launched AC40, all being coached by Pietro Sibello who shared tactical input and trimmed Luna Rossa’s mainsail so well in Auckland. The French team – Orient Express – are still waiting for their AC40.
In the meantime Quentin Delapierre has been impressive on the helm of the French SailGP, recently notching up three bullets in Sydney against Burling, Slingsby, Ainslie and Spithill. Bruno Dubois is the team manager for the French SailGP team and the AC team, which share a sponsor, the Accor hotel giant. You may have noticed the names of a lot of Australians among
the AC helmsmen. And don’t forget Glenn Ashby, ETNZ’s sail-trimming wizard. All of them meet the nationality requirements to race for their respective teams. With all that antipodean talent one wonders when and if we’ll see an Australian challenger in the years to come. But that’s a question for another day. Back to those structural engineering decisions… The mainsail
trim system will be crucial. Take-offs in light air and staying on the foils through manoeuvres will be key. We don’t know yet how long
enough to win unmeasured mainsail area and to allow the crew to change sides forward of the mast during manoeuvres. Photos from the recon teams show plenty of experimentation to position the hydraulic rams for the traveller and for mainsheet and outhaul controls. The wingsails of the AC72 and AC50 catamarans had the big advantage of dramatically lower mainsheet loads. Plenty of processor cycles are surely being used, both in the
simulators and in the designers’ minds on how to handle the AC75 mainsheet loads, not to mention how to scale up from the smaller test boats. And, naturally, the sailors want to experiment with these controls in different wind and tactical situations. Meanwhile, the days are counting down.
CupExperience.com
NOW FOR THE REAL WORK – Terry Hutchinson As the America’s Cup world evolves New York Yacht Club American Magic launched our first AC40, America, named after the boat that started it all and christened by NYYC Commodore Clare Harrington in a brief ceremony that was a fun moment for our team. While not designed or built by our own hands it will be developed by our team. Listening to Commodore Harrington’s gracious words as she prepared to crack a (carefully-prepped!) bottle over America’s hull marked a small but meaningful milestone. The pathway of foil development begins. As we will all see soon
enough through the recon channel, we will shortly take America out of AC40 one-design trim and turn her into an LEQ12 test platform. The rule restricts each team to three sets of full-scale foils for
the AC75. Hence the reason all teams are choosing either the AC40 or a purpose-built LEQ12 for development. Onboard the LEQ12 we are allowed four foils to develop and only about nine months to execute. It is a tricky process as the team wants and needs to answer questions for designers, and yet we only have so much time. Reflecting on AC36 and balancing the learning versus time
Dear Andrew On issue 517 what a great shot for a cover! How great those times were!
Top of the mast? No problem! Spinnaker pole? No problem! Peeling in 25kt? No problem! We were raised to be
courageous. Fear nothing! That was the adventure… Sailing has got so mild, so spiceless that we forgot what it was like to be wrapped in plastic with wet deck shoes, sitting on the rail overnight or sent to change a headsail in 35kt+… genoa 3 to Solent jib… Your cover is a great reminder of what brought us here in
the first instance. Adventure! Not fully trained, sanitised Lego crew. We were half amateurs and half aspiring pros. We would do anything… Yep, some of us got f**kd big
time, but most of us lived chasing the shadow of the legends! Fastnets without boots! Remember the oilies! I just wanted to write to remind all our fellow members what
it was to be racing all these monsters and all the new IOR creations at the time! Inspiring! Adventurous! Legendary! Spread the word and the experience! Kind regards from the Med,
Alain Joullie SEAHORSE 15
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