In moderate airs C-Class cats have long been the most efficient sailing boats that can get around a course. But that range of superiority has been squeezed a bit by the AC75s, the best of which are now taking off in 6-8kt TWS; however, the AC75 rule runs to a solid 60 pages. Seen here is Franck Cammas on his C-Class Groupama – an incredibly sophisticated boat that has proved breathtakingly fast as well as impressively reliable. Shown opposite is the class rule that delivers such amazing boats, the rule being reproduced for you in its entirety… Elegance takes many forms
Ee by gum!
We’ve seen a variety of types of solid-wing multihulls in the America’s Cup on and off since 1988 but we have never seen anything like this. Former Team New Zealand technical director Andy Claughton ‘celebrates’ what we are going to see in Auckland in the coming weeks
Not long now before the world’s biggest and most expensive eSailing event begins, the first America’s Cup regatta of this cycle, the Prada Christmas Race in Auckland. With the new AC75 class the America’s Cup has moved away from what most
48 SEAHORSE
sailors experience, and closer to the PC gaming community. As observed by Freddy Carr of Ineos Team UK, ‘When you push off the dock your life is in the hands of computers – and the guy piloting the boat out of the water, of course. All the systems on the boat, other than the winches rattling around, now rely on computers. You’re very aware that you are now sailing a boat that relies wholly on computer code to stay upright.’ I sense some nostalgia for a life less
ruled by software and systems; Freddy again, ‘It just feels like sailors should hold ropes. Rightly or wrongly, I think it’s a good look! And it’s something that the wider sailing community can look at and relate to, versus a bunch of guys moving hydraulic pumps, which doesn’t necess - arily translate through the sport.’ I share his feelings. Sailing is a sport
where sailors from grass roots to elite level share almost exactly the same competitive experience. The child in an Optimist or the Olympic Finn sailor are sharing the same environment, wind, waves, current, com- petitors, startline timing, crossing tacks and so on. It is a game played on an unchanging and accessible board, not like, say football, where Premier League players would turn their noses up at a Sunday League pitch. Also, club sailors can share a startline
with Olympic medal winners at the national championships, and occasionally even beat them. For 150 years the
America’s Cup has been raced in sailing boats that could be rigged and sailed by a crew of club sailors. It wouldn’t be pretty, but they could hoist and trim the sails, tack and gybe, and get round the course. There would be calamity for sure, but they would be able to go for a sail. Since the 2007 Cup this has changed.
Today’s fully foiling boats can only be sailed at all by engaging the help of a com- puter-controlled electro-hydraulic system. Now only a handful of people on the planet can get one of these boats around a racecourse. Additionally, they can only do this with onboard battery power to move the foils and eight strong pals on the grind- ing pedestals to keep the beast fed with hydraulic pressure. All of this needs the backing of a
massive shore-based effort. These are huge, majestic sailing craft, but they’ve moved the game into a realm far removed from the recreational sailor. Now even if our Corinthian crew had the password to log in (try ‘London 2012’) there is no way they could get going in one of these boats. Even if they did they would only last five minutes generating the required wattage on the pedestals before the defibrillator would be pressed into service. This is of no concern for the teams and
their backers, nor should it be. The America’s Cup is the biggest prize in our sport, and they are moving heaven and earth to win it. But I am outside that bubble now, watching the videos from
ALAMY
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