AC 36 Foiling Monohulls

Everyone had pretty much written off Stars and Stripes, even the recently released Prada Cup schedule leaves it out. However, it seems there's a last ditch attempt to sail someone else's Boat 1, rumoured to be ETNZ's Te Aihe.

Could struggling America's Cup syndicate Stars and Stripes earn a lifeline?
The challenger's yet to launch its boat with thoughts the challenge exists largely in name only.
But reports out of the US claim Stars and Stripes has gone to the independent arbitration panel to try to get permission to take over Team New Zealand's first boat Te Aihe for the Prada Cup.
To do that they will need to force a rule change that says the boat's hull and other components must be built in a syndicate's country of origin.​

A major hurdle is that the Protocol requires that a team's hull is built in the country of the team (the "constructed in the country of origin" provision), so the only existing boat that S&S could use is American Magic's first boat, Defiant, which is now in Auckland. To use Te Aihe S&S needs a change to the Protocol, and that requires agreement from both ENTZ and Luna Rossa Prada.

The benefit for the team selling or leasing out the boat is that they get some cash for an otherwise useless asset. However, there is zero benefit for anyone else other than S&S. A fourth challenger doubles the number of races required to complete the Prada Cup round robin stage 1 from 12 to 24, so that 2 races must be sailed every day and three on some days of the proposed schedule. That seems like a logistical nightmare for the sake of a fourth challenger with little (no?) chance of being competitive.

So I rate the chance of success of the rumoured S&S's plan as zero, but this is the America's Cup so really anything could happen…

 

The Stars and Stripes challenge is now virtually over. The arbitration panel rejected their request to waive the "constructed in country" requirement of the protocol for the Challenger Selection Series (aka Parada Cup).

ACAP36 10.pdf https://docs.google.com/a/acofficials.org/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=YWNvZmZpY2lhbHMub3JnfGFjMzYtb2ZmaWNpYWwtbm90aWNlYm9hcmR8Z3g6Mzg5N2FjYjRkOTBiNjc0Yg

S&S could still be a challenger if it can get a boat to Auckland before the start of the Prada Cup (15 Jan 2021) and have it measured, which must be completed by 13 January. The odds of them making the starting line are now vanishingly small and getting smaller every day.

 

Video of Defiant training on 3 Aug:

 

Just for fun, a foiling kite sails near ETNZ and American Magic. Take guess at which is faster before you watch:


Kiteboarder Nick Reeves vs AC75s - from Emirates Team NZ and American Magic

 

A synthesis of the concept and the technology involved :

 

More Defiant… a lot of wing is out of the water at times, is that a consequence of anhedral foils? Would flat foils have less of the wingtip exposed?

At about 39 seconds it seems to hit some wave tops pretty hard, likely it's a rough ride at times. Manoeuvres are pretty slick.

 

Are you assuming that exposing the wingtips is a bad thing?

 

I think for a straight foil it's not much of an issue, but for an anhedral foil it means the outer wing is very close to the surface, which has issues for drag. In rough water, quite a lot of Defiant's wing comes out, which means it must be close to losing most of its lift in deeper troughs.

But maybe the inboard wing is providing a lot of vertical lift, so perhaps it doesn't matter that much? There are so many variables to consider and the teams still don't seem to have worked out what is optimal yet, so not a simple problem.

 

The searching I did indicated that the kiteboarder seems to have no track record as a racer. No disrespect, but in other foiling classes even good sailors seem to be going up to 25-50% slower than the pros, from what I've seen. It would be interesting to see a top-line pro kitefoiler up against the AC75s.

It's also a bit funny that eons ago, some people thought it was dumb that a 17 or 18 foot "beach toy" could sometimes be as quick or quicker than a 67' AC boat. Now it's possible that a 3' "beach toy"could sometimes be as quick or quicker than a 75' AC boat.

 

The sailor is described in Sail World and Yachts and Yachting articles as 17 year old "Devonport kiteboarder Nick Reeves" so yes, not known kiteboard racing talent. But he has time on his side.

At least it's a bit more even than the AC72 vs non–foiling kiteboard—even though that kiteboarder had a better resume.

 

The Amateur Yacht Research Society is holding a Zoom meeting about the current America's Cup contest this Saturday, 14 November 2020 at 19:30 UK time. All welcome. An illustrated overview of progress from June 2017 to the present followed by discussion. Zoom link Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting https://zoom.us/j/2536740617 (No password)

 

TNZ does 62mph!!!! America's Cup: Boats capable of reaching 100kmh, says Team New Zealand ace https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/americas-cup/123840138/americas-cup-boats-capable-of-reaching-100kmh-says-team-new-zealand-ace

 

I guess most of you have already seen that they have started racing. The America's cup website has very good videos from the racing. The skill the crews are demonstrating is really impressing, when they manage to fly these boats an entire race.
But it is quite interesting to see what happens in marginal foiling conditions, like in the match between Ineos UK and ETNZ in the Christmas race.
The PRADA Christmas Race https://www.americascup.com/en/relive/5_The-PRADA-Christmas-Race
Before the wind dropped below 6 knots ETNZ, that managed to fly the boat, was lapping INEOS!, that was not able to fly the boat. Small differences in trim or sailing techniques obviously make huge differences in speed under such conditions.