– the Foil Cant System (FCS). Luna Rossa are designing the composite foil arms and will have them built at Persico. Team New Zealand have taken on the design of the hydraulic system to raise and lower the foils.
Batteries will power the electric motor that drives the pump. There will be another supply of stored energy: a gas bottle will be used to pre-pressurise the accumulator because the hydraulic pump cannot provide enough flow at the required pressure. The design rule allows teams to add capacity to the supplied battery pack to power their control system for the flaps on their foil wings. Remember that the AC75 Class Rule specifies that the supplied FCS raises and lowers the foils but the teams are responsible for designing the wings and flaps at the end of the supplied foil arm.
We don’t need to wait until autumn next year to see America’s Cup sailors racing high-performance foilers. SailGP kicks off in February in Sydney with stars and stalwarts from the AC72s and AC50s. Tom Slingsby and several of the rest of Oracle’s Australians will sail under their own flag. Rome Kirby, one of the few Americans to race for Oracle, will lead the US team, while Chris Draper will trim the wing and lead the British team. Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen will helm and trim the wing for Japan SailGP. The French team will be led by four-time Nacra world champions Billy Besson and Marie Riou. Ed Powys, formerly with BAR, will be on ChinaGP, helmed by former World Match Racing Champion Phil Robertson. Phil helmed for the under-funded China Team in the AC34 World Series but the team never found the money for an AC72. The British, American, French and Australian teams are 100 per cent national. Japan and China each has two nationals onboard and must add one more every year until 2022 when they will also be 100 per cent national.
The F50 yachts will be fast and agile. We’ve never seen one- design racing by such talented national teams in boats created by top AC designers. It remains to be seen whether the sailing audience and sponsors will view SailGP as complement or competitor to the America’s Cup. One certainty is that SailGP will be another very expensive attempt at building sailing into a commercially viable sports entertainment business.
But wait, there’s more! Between the first SailGP in Sydney and the May event in New York the Ultime class will sprint from Lorient to Bermuda and back. And they will be racing around the world by the end of the year. By the time you are reading this we will know how they did in the Route du Rhum.
François Gabart got things started in 2013 when he floated the seemingly crazy idea of foiling around the world on a 100ft trimaran. Now he has some real competition – Gitanaand Banque Populaire among others – and we have an amazing spectacle. Will the Ultimes provide the breakthrough that builds a well-deserved international audience for the mostly French phenomenon of offshore racing? The newest Imoca 60s like Charalhave already shown us what a big foiling monohull looks like. If plans to use them for the next edition of the event formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race include in-port racing, we may have two categories of fully crewed big foiling monohulls racing around the cans in 2021.
Sailing is certainly living in interesting times, but it looks like a blessing rather than a curse.
SUITED AND BOOTED – Terry Hutchinson
Amtrak 179 from Kingston to New York Penn Station. Not a bad way to go and yet bumpier than 39,000ft! On my way to an event tomorrow marking a first milestone for American Magic. We are announcing our innovation partner Airbus.
Early on in the cycle of this America’s Cup every decision that American Magic have taken focuses on circumventing the time component. Hedging on existing relationships from the past that have proved successful is key. You cannot ignore that the existing infrastructure of ETNZ, Ineos and Luna Rossa gives them a competitive advantage.
American Magic is a start-up and with that we have to develop partnerships to accelerate our learning. Airbus’s expertise, personnel and experience from the 35th match will be critical in helping
This year’s 50th anniversary edition of the Barcolana in Trieste attracted a fleet of 2,689 boats (really). First home was the former Morning GloryReichel/Pugh 87-footer. Among the festivities laid on was this night race off the esplanade for UFO 28 one-designs
American Magic to develop faster. For that I am incredibly excited about this opportunity and thankful to the whole team at Airbus and for their support. Exciting times ahead and more thoughts on the AC to come!
On the water an end of an era. I think I may have done my last Farr 40 World Championship. Now I would never say never but over the last 20 years I have competed in 16 of the 21 Farr 40 Worlds. I was very fortunate to sail with some great owners, Alexis Michas, Helmut Jahn, Jim Richardson and Alex Roepers. When you consider the level of competitiveness in this class over the years it has been quite a run.
This year’s championship was no different. Fourteen teams gathered in Chicago for what would be the most challenging week of sailing that I can remember. The fleet sailed in a variety of con- ditions. Day 1 a fresh NE breeze 18-20. Day 2 a somewhat lighter NE breeze 8-15. Day 3 a very shifty SW breeze that split the city. Day 4 an even lighter SW breeze, but the course set slightly further offshore allowed for a bit more consistency.
The event would certainly be a game of two halves (how many times have we heard that before!) as Alberto Rossi’s Enfant Terrible pounded everybody for six races, coming off the water after two days with a commanding 8pt lead. At the end of Day 3 the tides had turned and Enfant’s lead evaporated and turned into an 8pt deficit as Plentyand Wolfgang Schaefer’s Struntje Lightwent into the final three-race day tied.
Day 4 was tricky. Big one-oscillation first beats saw every team struggle for consistency. Struntjegained the upper hand after race 9 where she scored a second to Plenty’s hard-fought sixth. Race 10 Plentyfinished third to Struntje’s ninth, setting up a final race where on Plentywe had to finish two back of Struntjeor in second if Struntjewon the race.
We executed a poor start to leeward of Struntjeand immediately lost control. But, as I said, not easy. Alex had Plentysmoking on the first beat and we managed our way around the first top mark in third with Struntjeback in seventh… looks good. The first run would be characterised as consistently inconsistent, much like the first beat. As I have continually debriefed since, we were falling victim to the breeze filling in from behind. As we tried to stay in a spot where we would minimise loss Struntje ignored the fleet to go from seventh to first while we slipped back to fourth! From there it was all over Rover as a shortened course meant we were out of runway. Plentyfinished silver by 1pt! AHHHHHHHH… Silver lining. Wolfgang and Angela Schaefer have been committed owners to the Farr 40 class. If it was not us I am sincerely glad it was them. They deserve it for the commitment to sailing and the class. Congrats to the entire Struntje team for a well-deserved win. Onboard Plenty it is an end of Alex’s 12-year run in the class. In this time he has accumulated three world championships, two North American championships and a European championship. The team have been supported by truly one of the sport’s great owners with only kindness and respect. What’s next? Well, American Magic and Bella Menteare on the
SEAHORSE 11
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CARLO BORLENGHI
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