Update
racing against each other in the same boats. We have never had that in our sport before, with a properly promoted programme supporting it. We start 2021 moving to a podium race final that will involve
the top three teams at each event; if we are happy with the format our season final will evolve to that as well. That is exciting as it reduces the possibility of a one-sided race, and it also allows more jeopardy. The team lying third could come out winning should they perform best in that final high-pressure situation. Our current (winner take all) prizemoney is US$1 million, but as we increase that prize- money, as we plan to, that pressure will only become greater. SH What has changed on the F50s? RC: We made significant changes during the Covid break plus all the teams have got the new wings. That is a massive change. There are now three different wing configurations. They are much more controllable than the old wings but, more important, they let us sail in a much wider wind range. We have a 29.5m wing for light winds, an 18m wing for strong
winds and a 24m, the same as before, the all-purpose wing for mid-range conditions. That will make the boats quite a lot faster in strong winds, with less drag and a lower centre of effort. But equally exciting is that on light days these boats are now predicted to foil in 4kt of wind. The new wing also allows us to sail with fewer crew in light winds; we are not necessarily going to do this but it allows us the option. The new wings are modular, you take sections out of the wing
as required. The hydraulics, electronics and the sensors that precisely position the flaps are all modular too, so they are literally plug and play. That means we can make that decision just a few hours before racing begins. We are excited about that, it’s a game- changer for us, and in some ways for sailing. One of the primary complaints from broadcasters is running
events on time – typically you lose 40 per cent of your audience if you delay for any length of time, and that is the same across all sports. If you look at the way we are now structured our final race comes down to 10 minutes, which rightly or wrongly is appealing for today’s audience. When you look at the different ways people
consume sports these days I think that allows a lot more people to get involved. SH: Other changes… RC: We changed some of the control systems. The rudders now kick up at the back of the boat, which is more about logistics. It saves us 20 minutes at both ends of the day. There is now a stern extension on the boats, a half-metre extension giving a new LOA of 15.5m. This makes quite a difference to the take-off in light winds, improving the aerodynamics a little bit. The hulls always looked a little truncated, the airflow over them is working better. And in the water the flow is better around the boats with slightly earlier lift up onto the foils. We’re also working on new foils, though they won’t be imple-
mented until at the earliest the Christchurch event next January. Mainly we are looking at a different foil configuration, reducing the onset of cavitation. Our top speed last year in racing was just over 50kt, just over 51kt in practice; I think we will probably get to 53, 54 with the new wing and other improvements and then with the new foils next season one or two knots more. SH: And you have several new teams this year… RC: The key for us is to have the top sailors in the world racing in equal boats, so one of the things we must consider at each event is giving the less experienced teams more time to get up to speed. We want this league to be as competitive as we can make it. Not everyone is as good a sailor as each other, but we can certainly improve the quality of racing by giving the less experienced crews, less familiar with this kind of technology, more time in the boats. So we are doing that starting in Bermuda with the teams who
are newer to it. The first week of training Denmark, France and the US will be training using the Danish boat. Week two Spain, Australia and Japan will train with two boats. On 19 April all eight teams will be training on their own boats. It’s a bit of a judgment call at this stage and, ultimately, we will
move to equal practice times. But right now I think it’s more impor- tant that we get the racing as competitive as possible. If I see a team having issues there is more practice time – but there is also the option of changing some of the personnel… Commercially all the teams ultimately need to be competitive,
it’s hard to imagine commercial partners being enthusiastic about their team if they are not performing. So we need all the crews to be on the pace. SH: And gender… RC:We have developed and are now implementing a plan for female inclusion in the championship. We aim to fast-track top female sailors’ development to race on F50s and perform at the highest level. For season 2, the pilot phase, there will always be one female athlete onboard each F50 when training. We are not certain what our pathway for female professional sailors will look like in the future – we could have mixed teams, we could have all-female teams, or we could develop a parallel league. All options are open to us at this stage. SH: Tell us about your remote race-management plans? RC: We are a fantastic sport. In terms of being a showcase for clean energy we are powered by nature, but there are typically a lot of powerboats on the water. From Bermuda onwards all our umpires will umpire and our race director will manage the racing from their home country via 5G, supported by the correct technology. And any jury hearings will be remote too. We already moved to remote TV production. We used to fly 55
people worldwide to produce these shows. Now we are down to 14. The impact is dramatic. We are also developing a more comprehensive remote race
This self-portrait may go some way to explaining to readers why for quite some time now we have not been seeing the fine work of photographer Fried Elliott; Fried is still off sailing in northern climes (while putting all those pithy lockdown beards to shame)
20 SEAHORSE
operation system in partnership with MarkSetBot, where we can not only move the marks using an electronic system, but those marks are all powered by clean energy. Now that GPS and other technology are becoming much more affordable at the accuracy we require, that in theory allows an Iain Murray [AC and SailGP race director] to be sitting anywhere in the world, rather than in a container on-site or on a committee boat. The electronic system becomes the onsite presence. Times are changing!
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