State-of-the-art sailing is more akin to flying, main image; engineers push the rules with stowable daggerboards, the design of which can make the difference between a fast boat and a winning boat, below left; even at great speed, racing is close in the America’s Cup, below right
AMERICA’S CUP CHALLENGE
The 35th America’s Cup challenge took place in June this year with qualifying rounds starting in May and lasting until 12th June. The cup challenge took place in late June with nine races being held between the final two yachts from17th
to 27th June. The cup challenge takes place between a defender and
a challenger. The defender has automatic right to race in the final while the defender is the
yacht that beat off the other contenders in the qualifying rounds.
PARTICIPANTS Defender: Golden Gate Yacht Club’s “Oracle Team USA” – Eliminated in final
Challenger: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s “Emirates Team New Zealand” - Winner
Qualifier: Royal Swedish Yacht Club’s “Artemis Racing” – Eliminated in final playoff
Qualifier: Royal Yacht Squadron’s “Land Rover BAR” – Eliminated in Semi-final playoff
Qualifier: Kansai Yacht Club’s “SoftBank Team Japan” – Eliminated in Semi-final playoff
sailing
materials, design, on the water tactics and boat handling skills,” he concludes. I asked if he thought the rulebook would change in the future
to accommodate further advances in such technology or, on the contrary, to constrain developments to keep the sport accessible to lower budget competitors. “We wantmore teams competing and a broadening of public
interest,” he says. “This is part of the direction today and a big reason why the rule book wasmodified to reduce vessel dimensions from72ft to 50ft boats. The result is lower expected cost. “The 36th America’s Cup will hopefully have the same basic
Qualifier: Yacht Club de France’s “Groupama Team France” – Eliminated in Round Robins
Qualifier: Hamilton Island Yacht Club’s “Team Australia” – Pre Race Withdrawal
Qualifier: Circolo della Vela Sicilia’s “Luna Rossa Challenge” – Pre Race Withdrawal
Having beaten Artemis Racing in five of the seven final playoff races, the NewZealand teamwent on to victory against the defender, recording an astonishing eightwins out of nine races.
rules and America’s Cup 35 boatsmay be available for new teams as some existing teams decide to rebuild, thereby reducing the minimumbudget needed in order to compete,” Durocher explains.
TECHNOLOGY ARMS RACE OR SPORT? With somuch innovation going into design,materials and engineering, it can be easily forgotten that it is athletes that are at the heart of the America’s Cup and that it is a human challenge as much as a technological one. Engineering skills have played an enormous role in yacht racing
since the concept of foiling was introduced in Italy at the end of the 19th century. The America’s Cup 35 boats are state-of-the-art masterpieces ofmarine engineering and are a credit tomany carefully planned design iterations in engineering, fabrication, high-endmaterials and the latest generation of simulation tools to evaluate and optimise designs on the computer like Altair’s OptiStruct and AcuSolve. But none of this would be any use at all without the
cooperation between the engineers and the crew of the boat. Balanced on the thin blades of daggerboards, hurtling across the surface of the ocean at a staggering 40-50 knots, the crew needs both speed and control to achieve “plane sailing” on their route to securing the prestige of being the teamto take the cup home. EE
To read more on the technology behind the America’s Cup boats and to watch the Surface to Air video on our website, scan the QR Code or visit
https://goo.gl/vdkBBp
August 2017 /// Environmental Engineering /// 11
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
