34th America's Cup: multihulls!

Discussion in 'Multihulls' started by Doug Lord, Sep 13, 2010.

  1. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    34th AC- Rule draft #2

    Heres the second version of the new AC 72 rule:
     

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  2. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Last edited: Oct 17, 2010
  3. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    34th AC----design

    From Tom Speer on SA on wing restrictions:

    What the removal of the axis/element restrictions means is the teams can do smart designs instead of looking for ways to beat the rule. Even the 2-axis limitation would have permitted 5-piece wings. Tried-and-true C-class designs would have been ruled out, making it more difficult for teams to capitalize on existing knowledge. There may also be linkage arrangements that would simplify the wing, allowing a two-element section to be competitive with a three-element wing by having similar gap geometry.

    Landyachts have been built with flaps that translated in the transverse direction when tacking, so the leading edge of the flap was located to windward of the trailing edge of the main element at low flap angles. The draft rule would have prohibited this.

    Teams won't be trying to construct flexible, morphing structures to get around limitations in the number of discrete axes. If a team wants a morphing structure, it will be because the performance is worth the risk and weight, and not a rule cheat.

    Translation is limited by the half-girth restriction. The limit of 1.75% in the growth of the girth rules out Fowler flaps and pretty much any kind of chordwise translation. The half-girth restriction may also limit the thickness of the wing, or the amount of flap deflection that can be obtained. Half-girth is unambiguous, easily measured, and could become a serious restriction on the designs.
     
  4. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    34th AC----design rule finalized

    From Scuttlebutt tonight:

    AC72 CLASS RULE FINALIZED AND PUBLISHED
    (October 15, 2010) - From concept to completed Class Rule in less than four
    months, full details were published today for the new high-performance
    wingsailed catamaran that will be used in the 34th America's Cup. The final
    design details for the AC72 wingsailed catamaran, which has a speed
    potential of three times the wind speed, is now available to prospective
    challengers and defenders alike.

    The review period of the draft class rule received broad input, and was fine
    tuned by a committee led by Pete Melvin and his team at Morrelli & Melvin
    Design & Engineering. "There will be nothing else like them, which perfectly
    matches the allure and appeal of the America's Cup," said Melvin. Among the
    changes incorporated into the final rule were added provisions and rules for
    a short wing. The AC 72 is to be capable of competing in winds of 5 to 30
    knots to minimize racing delays due to winds too light or too strong.

    In 2011, teams will compete in identical AC45's, "the little sister with
    attitude." This one-design catamaran will provide teams with
    state-of-the-art wingsail technology and fast-track their multihull racing
    skills. Teams may design and build a maximum of two AC72 catamarans, which
    will then be raced from the 2012 season onwards in America's Cup World
    Series events that will lead to the Selection Series and the America's Cup
    Match in 2013.
    -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/ACUP-101710

    AC 72 fact sheet: http://www.americascup.com/downloadsAC72 Fact Sheet
    AC 72 class rule: http://www.americascup.com/downloadsAC72 CLASS RULE
     
  5. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    Seems nothing definite in that article, and surely not from Dalts in Scuttlebutt/NZ Herald today:

    QUESTIONABLE: Team New Zealand's CEO Grant Dalton expects to know if they will take part in the new, multi-hulled America's Cup by early next year. If Team NZ decide to compete - "and that's a big if," says Dalton - he will then begin his familiar search for more sponsors and funding, although the largest component of the costs is salaries and they will be down from last time as fewer sailors are required on the big cats. The key is the selection of a venue. Dalton favours San Francisco but, either way, needs to know avenue before he can target sponsors with a view to the environment such backers can leverage.


    I'm betting Larry will need a certain number of teams guaranteed in whatever deal he makes with the venue he chooses. So I imagine Dalton and maybe others will use their "possible" participation as their own lever to perhaps pry some dollars out of the defender. After all, didn't TNZ work the defender for some funding during the run up to AC32?
     
  6. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    ===================
    I heard personally from Magnus Clarke that he had been hired by TNZ and was moving there. He repeated that fact a couple days later on SA.
     
  7. Paul B

    Paul B Previous Member

    And? Just because TNZ is hiring staff does not mean they will definitely participate. Many corpotations hire talent in advance of a potential new project or client. If the new project or client does not come to fruition the newly hired staff is let go.

    I am sure Dalton would like to have a go. It sounds like he currently doesn't have the funding to do so.
     
  8. Stephen Ditmore
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    Stephen Ditmore Senior Member

    Sail and power, there's not much question that Australia has been a leader in catamaran design. It seems a shame that as far as I know there is no Australian team challenging for the next America's Cup. I'd like to have some fun by naming my Australian challenge design team:

    Lindsay Cunningham is an obvious first pick.

    While it's the fact that Australia has expertise specific to catamarans that makes this interesting, Andrew McDougall is an Australian whose successes ought not be ignored (regardless the number of hulls). I'd like to see him part of both the sailing program and the design team.

    Then there's an active member of these forums I would definitely tap; Leo Lazauskas: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/profile/leo-lazauskas.html

    And Richard Roake (the former partner of active member Steve Baker before returning to his native New Zealand):
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LR2ACATS/
    http://www.shearwateraircraft.com/About Us.html
    While he's a Kiwi, TNZ has never shown much interest in Roake as far as I'm aware. I'd hire him. I'm not sure I'd put him in charge of the design program - he's tended to innovate too fast (as opposed to systematically), so his designs have not done well in open class racing. Yet. One might compare him to Britton Chance in this respect. But Richard is very capable, and a creative firehose. A design team, managed properly, can benefit enormously from the presence of someone like Richard.

    Where sailboats are concerned, Stuart Bloomfield is the inheritor of the Lock Crowther legacy.

    Lock's son Brett Crowther designs power cats exclusively. I'd attempt to tap the talent & technology that has made Australia the leader in catamaran fast ferries, but I don't think Crowther-Incat is where I'd look first.

    A little hsitory: there are now two design offices that have spun off from Incat, the builder, in Tasmania. Incat Design of Sydney spun off early in Incat history, and more recently merged with Crowther Multihulls. It's the (formerly) in-house group at Incat Tasmania that's responsible for the big wave piercing catamarans that've taken the world by storm. That group has now spun off as Revolution Design. I'd look there, and at Austal.

    Greg Goodall is a catamaran designer who should probably be on-board. Another interesting Australian catamaran designer is Jeff Schionning

    As for the sailing team, we'd of course bring James Spithill back to Australia. If another team has signed him for the next America's Cup, we'd be sure to sign him for the one after.

    Ben (or was it Eric) Hall wrote glowingly last year in Sailing World about the top Australian A-class sailor. I'm thinking that person must have been Glenn Ashby. Is that right?

    So there's my dream team: Spithill, Ashby & McDougall to put the sailing program together, and on design Cunningham, McDougall, Lazauskas, Roake, Bloomfield, Goodall, Schionning, and Revolution Design. Of those, I'd name 3 to be the decision makers after seeing how the team functioned together, with decisions being made by a vote of those three.

    So why isn't some financier stepping up to the plate and bringing these folk together? An America's cup sailed in catamarans without Australia??? Pu-LLEEASE!
     
  9. oldsailor7
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    oldsailor7 Senior Member

    Stephen. Its not the talent. --------------It's the MONEY.
    Where are the Sponsors.
    Like you can forget OAKLEY, the poor delusioned man. He squanders squillions on IC engined canting leadmines, otherwise known as Dinosaurs.
     
  10. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

    Stephen, I'd like to see the Aussies back as well. Equally as much I'd like to see a real Team USA-with all US sailors led by somebody like Keith Notary(and that might happen).
     
  11. RHough
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    RHough Retro Dude

    From SA Oct 27:

    SimonN is sailing A-Cats now and he was a 18ft Skiff driver.

    There is an Australian presence that is as viable as any other entry at this point.

    Jimmy is driving for BMWO and you can probably fund a bare bones challenge for the cost to hire him away from Larry.
     
  12. Stephen Ditmore
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    Stephen Ditmore Senior Member

    COOL! Hope they get a look at my suggestions. Despite being a Yankee, I wish them luck. Perhaps they could name their boats the Lock Crowther and the Ben Lexcen!

    I'd get the design team together at a world-class wind tunnel / tank test facility and charge them, first, with designing a 45' catamaran that beats the AC45 one-design.

    The wing is critical. The team should start designing & building prototypes ASAP.

    Heads up to Canadians, Australians, & whomever else - here's a team that might have transferable skills:
    http://hpo.ornithopter.net/?q=team
    http://vimeo.com/15168011
     
  13. Stephen Ditmore
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    Stephen Ditmore Senior Member

  14. Stephen Ditmore
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    Stephen Ditmore Senior Member

    Then guilt tripping him will just have to be part of Australia's strategy. Does that make Glenn Ashby the logical skipper? Where would I learn more about SimonN and Far Kurnell?
     

  15. Doug Lord
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    Doug Lord Flight Ready

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