Above: Ben Ainslie’s first test spider is craned into the water at the British team’s Portsmouth base complete with ‘training wheels’. Encouragingly the boat flew successfully pretty much straight out of the box and even pulled off some (non-foiling) corners. One of the key dimensions in the Protocol definitions of the new America’s Cup foiler (left) is also among the least commented upon – the foil maximum beam in the vertical ‘stowed’ position of 3000mm will drive minimum hull beam at the foil axis and set a minimum proximity in pre-starts. This first test boat is based on a Hugh Welbourn-designed Quant 28
In a new development for the Cup the
main structural element, the foil arm and the foil arm cant control system, are supplied equipment. Here behind the smoke screen of reducing cost all the competitors will have the same equipment, once again reducing the Defender’s expo- sure to being outsmarted. On the plus side it does take away the anxiety that a rival might come up with a better or more durable structure – during the last Cup all the teams were nursing their long tip daggerboards through the contest. Nightly ultrasound would show progressive growth of voids and delamination which you couldn’t fix, and you had to decide if the foil would last another day. It was a bit like being on the Memphis Belle during its last flight in 1943 (as the B-17 crew attempted to become the first USAF bomber crew to complete – and survive – 25 missions). This theme of limiting the challengers’
ability to find big performance differences continues into the foil wing allowances. Yes, these are designed and built under the teams’ control, but the design space is heavily constrained. You can measure in 10 or 20 different configurations suited to different wind and sea conditions, so again there is no prospect that a challenger will turn up with something from left field that puts the Defender in a position where he can’t match his opponent. As with the last Cup the rule goes to
great lengths to make sure that the control of the foils is done by human hand and that
48 SEAHORSE
no one gets a sniff of an automatic pilot. To control this beast the only components that can be adjusted quickly, ie at a rate that can be used to control ride height, are the wing flaps and the rudder rake. This is done using the supplied battery pack through electromechanical
(think electric gate
actuators) or electrohydraulic controls. Having permitted the use of stored
power, it seems a bit Luddite to ban all forms of autopilot control; it has to come if we are to foil boats safely in more challeng- ing environments and there is no one better placed than the Cup teams to do the groundwork. In truth all the boats will have autopilots during the development phase, these will then be stripped out. Foil- assisted yachts are already sailing offshore and as the Volvo Ocean Race moves ahead in the Imoca Class this type of boat will become more mainstream. Sailing shorthanded in challenging con-
ditions will in the future be made safer by a degree of automatic control. It seems per- verse to permit stored power and not com- plete the job by exploring how automatic control can be brought into yacht racing. The Cup teams are in a perfect position to take this on and fulfil one of the aims of the new class: namely Rule 1.2 (b) ‘spearhead the development of sailing through innova- tive technology and maintain the America’s Cup as the world’s premier sailing event’. While the technical problems are legion
the biggest problem is timing. The Protocol allows teams to launch their first boat any
time after 31 March 2019, and envisages regattas at the end of that year (entry fee $300,000 for those of you interested). To give some idea on timescale the next Vendée Globe starts in November 2020 and all the new boats for this race are now in build… After six months’ work on the new Cup boats it will be interesting to see if this schedule is revised when the Competi- tion Dates are updated on 30 August. Lining up for the next America’s Cup
World Series there are three confirmed challengers and the Defender. This looks like a battle of youth against experience. Pete Burling (ETNZ), Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott (Ineos Team UK) against Jimmy Spithill (Luna Rossa), Dean Barker and Terry Hutchinson (American Magic). All of the teams are now set up and working on how to build and equip these extraordi- narily complex boats. Ineos Team UK are bedding in their new
look with a single well-resourced backer in the mould of Alinghi and Luna Rossa. I’m sure this will have come as a huge relief to Ben [Ainslie]. Make no mistake, the over- head of running a commercially sponsored team is enormous. No more cashflow issues; no more finding ‘plausible’ design involvement for talented but inexperienced engineers in the sailing field; no more attending trade shows, late-night dinners, no more explaining to the sponsors’ CEO why we lost that race. Ineos are now fully in Alinghi mode, and with no more external distractions the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
