35th Americas Cup: Foiling Multihulls!

35th America's Cup on Foils--BAR

More from Sir Ben: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSWqZeiZU3o&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

Oracle is training with the Flying Phantom foiler:
click--

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

Oracle talking about their new foiling AC 45:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol-mnM6tx0o

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

Here are two shots-the first(left) one is an "old" AC 45, the second is the new "Oracle Development AC 45" with foil rake control. The Development AC 45 is not necessarily the same as the One Design Foiling AC 45:

CORRECTION: the picture on the right is from 2012-my mistake. Thanks, Tom.

 

The picture on the right shows an experimental boat from the 34th America's Cup campaign. Experimental boats for the 35th AC have a different configuration. The racing AC45s will have yet another configuration.

 

35th America's Cup on Foils

From Scuttlebutt tonight:
Full story here- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...res US broadcast rights for 35th Americas Cup

(February 9, 2015) – The America’s Cup has selected NBC Sports Group as its partner for the upcoming edition of the America’s Cup – including the America’s Cup World Series events (2015-16), and the America’s Cup Qualifiers, Playoffs and America’s Cup Finals (2017).

“We are delighted to announce this agreement with NBC Sports Group,” said Harvey Schiller, the Commercial Commissioner of the America’s Cup. “This is a great deal for the America’s Cup, our teams and our partners. NBC Sports Group’s continued interest reflects the growing popularity, as well as potential additional growth, of the America’s Cup as a major television sport.”

 

35th America's Cup on Foils-AC 45's

Some comments on the AC 45's from Jack Griffin of Cupexperience.com :
1-Each team needs at least one "class legal" AC45 for racing in the ACWS. Oracle has said they will only race one boat in ACWS; I doubt any other team will race two.
Conclusion: each team will have one class legal AC45.
2-The teams are modifying AC45's to the new (but not published) one design class rule, using kits supplied by ACRM or Core. (Not sure who actually holds title to the kits until the teams get them.) Not sure if teams planning to buy a new boat for ACWS (like BAR) can buy a race ready boat, or if they get a "V1" AC45 and have to modify it themselves.
3-The AC45 Class Rule for AC34 said the one design aspect for everything except soft sails was "manufacturing controlled." I suspect that will change for AC35, with the teams doing the building and the measurers doing the controlling.
4-None of the foiling AC45's we've seen so far will race in ACWS. None of them will be modified back to the new one design rule. They are all test boats. LR and BAR have kept the original crossbeams. Artemis has new crossbeams and a pod. Oracle has new crossbeams, a pod, cockpits, grinding pedestal and wheel steering. For each of the teams, that's what we can see. Who knows what we can't see.
5-The Oracle boat was built on top of the lower sections of an existing AC45, but the Protocol would allow the teams to build their own AC45 shaped hulls from scratch. Not sure about IP rights on the design and whether the rights holder (Oracle Racing? ACRM? Core?) would allow anyone to use their design. So maybe everyone needs to cut up an existing AC45 if they want things like flared hulls and cockpits.
6-ETNZ said they would modify an AC45 as a test boat, work to be done in December. I haven't heard any news about progress on that project.
7-The Protocol is silent on allowed mods to test boats. Presumably the lower parts of the hulls of all the existing test boats could be chopped off and used as the starting point for new development. Again and again and again and again.
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See my article about all this in the current (March) Seahorse, and more photos here: http://www.cupexperience.com/advanced
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The Oracle test boat might be launched tomorrow - 10-Feb'15. Keep your eye on their web pages.
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"Thinking is the hardest work there is... which is probably why so few people do it." - Henry Ford

 

35th America's Cup on Foils------Jimmy's got some trouble

Jimmy Spithill is having trouble with an old injury:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTPrSnQO9LU

 

35th America's Cup on Foils-AC 45's

Each tteam this time around is allowed two AC 45's:
1) a one design version but equiped with foils, and
2) an experimental version for testing ideas and crew.
I found this interesting comment in the Daily Sail: ( read the whole article here: http://www.thedailysail.com/inshore/15/67698/0/artemis-racing-goes-yachting-on-its-ac45-turbo )
At present all of the teams are using AC45s to develop new gear and design ideas for their new AC62s and over recent months we have seen BAR and Luna Rossa out on the water. However with their AC45 Turbo, Artemis Racing has gone some stages further with more fairings, wheel steering and custom cockpits and updated consoles.
So why bother with a scale model of the AC 62? "It's quite simple" says Pete Melvin of Morelli & Melvin, who assisted in writing the rule for the new AC 62'. "They can replicate the thoughts and mechanics of the intended designs at much lesser cost and get the design right before committing to the much more expensive 62."

Pictures the boat on the left is different than the boat on the right-notice the transoms:
click-

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

Some pictures of one of Oracles foiling AC 45's and a couple of their Flying Phantom: http://www.pressure-drop.us/forums/content.php?5090-1st-Look-Oracle-Team-USA-AC45-Turbo

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Hurricanes?

Hurricane forcasts may be compromised during the AC according to a Scuttlebutt article. In reality, I doubt it because hurricanes don't usually form until after mid July, but here is the article: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2015/02/17/hurricane-forecasting-compromised-americas-cup/

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

AC 45 turbo-first tests: http://oracle-team-usa.americascup.com/en/home.html

“Today was a success,” said sailing team manager and tactician Tom Slingsby. “The boat is very complicated and getting it on the water has been a huge achievement, just to have all the systems working.

“But the first bear-away we were up on the foils and sailing very stable. So it was definitely a very good day. We ticked a lot of boxes.”

“It felt great,” agreed skipper Jimmy Spithill. “It almost felt a little bit like the AC72 in that we’re all in cockpits and with the speeds. We’re going to need to see it in more breeze but it was great to get it foiling and stable.”

The team will be training and testing on the foiling AC45 for the rest of the month before packing up operations in San Francisco and moving to Bermuda.

photo by Mike Herbener for Oracle Team USA:

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---TNZ

An excerpt from Scuttlebutt: read the whole article here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...m_term=Kiwi rumors dominate Americas Cup news

Kiwi rumors dominate America’s Cup news

(February 18, 2015) – It is known as the silly season, that period of time which falls between the end of the previous America’s Cup and that moment when teams hit the water in earnest for the next edition. Now in the silly season, and no team is sillier than Team New Zealand.

Lacking big money backers, their budget is largely derived from commercial and government funding. For a team that is historically the most competitive, they are also among the least stable. Will they be able to find funding for the next America’s Cup? That question is part of their identity.

And just when it appeared the sun was shining on the Kiwis, a cloudburst has occurred.

First, the good news was a result of unconfirmed reports this week which point to Auckland as the venue for the America’s Cup qualifying series in 2017. The government was waiting on this news before finalizing funding for the team, as having all the teams based in Auckland for up to three months would do well for the local economy.

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle

Startin to heat up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ahET27cgI

 

35th America's Cup on Foils---Oracle Team USA

May the Force be with them as it was here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3v...annotation_id=528762e8-0-2252-8d92-1a11c1fb38