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23 August 2014 By Jack Griffin

How to Win the America’s Cup

Update 2 May 2016 by Jack Griffin
America’s Cup Competition Format Bermuda 2017 Click to download.

2017 America’s Cup competition format

Sorry for the long text – but this is complicated. You may want to skip to the Summary.

The America’s Cup Match – first to seven points

This is not the same as “best of 13.” Remember that the 2013 America’s Cup Match was “first to nine points.” We needed 19 races, since Oracle Team USA started with a score of -2 because of their penalty. For the 2017 America’s Cup there could be penalties and also a bonus point – the winner of the “America’s Cup Qualifiers” will start one point ahead if they are in the Match. Curiously the one point advantage comes from having the other team start with a score of minus one point. And, that point could be influenced by the America’s Cup World Series – read on…

Selecting the Challenger starts with the America’s Cup World Series

Challenger selection begins next year – 2015. The America’s Cup World Series – fleet racing in AC45s – counts. The series runs over two years 2015 and 2016 with the defender and all challengers racing. The winner of the ACWS begins the “America’s Cup Qualifiers” (details below) with two points. The ACWS runner up starts with one point. And – important detail – if there is a tie in the AC Qualifiers, the ACWS results will be used to break the tie.

“America’s Cup Qualifiers” – round robin in AC62’s (now AC Class)

The first match racing and the first racing in the America’s Cup Class yachts. All 2017 racing will be in Bermuda) beginning with the round robin “America’s Cup Qualifiers.” The AC Qualifiers will be a double round robin. If the defender wins this series, they start the America’s Cup Match one point ahead of the other team. If this series is won by a challenger and they make it to the AC Match, they will have the one point advantage. Remember that the winner and runner-up in the ACWS started this series with points earned in AC45 fleet racing and that ACWS results will be used to break ties. The venue for this racing is to be announced by 15 February 2015. (Update 17 April 2015: America’s Cup Event Authoritiy announced Bermuda as the venue for the America’s Cup Qualifiers.)

“America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs” – semi-finals and finals

The top four challengers move to the venue of the AC Match. Both semi-finals and finals will be “first to five points.” Racing is likely to be in late May / early June 2017

Got all that? In summary, to win the 2017 America’s Cup:

Win the AC World Series in foiling AC45s to carry two points into the round robin AC Qualifiers. You will need to decide to race one or two AC45’s – if you race two, their results are averaged. Even if you don’t win, fight for every race – if you tie someone in the AC Qualifiers, your ACWS results will break the tie.
Launch your AC62 (changed to “America’s Cup Class”) as early as allowed: 150 days before the start of the AC Qualifiers. This probably means September 2016.
Decide where to launch your AC62 (changed to “America’s Cup Class”). You only have five months for training and development. Maybe you want to assemble it at the venue of the AC Qualifiers and then to launch it there. That way you don’t lose time shipping it.
Win the round robin AC Qualifiers! This will give you one point going into the AC Match. Remember – your result from the ACWS will be used as a tie breaker.
Ship your boat to the AC Match venue. Try not to get too frustrated while your boat is in transit and the defender is sailing their second boat at the venue.
Move your team to the venue. You have about two months to prepare your AC62 for the conditions at the venue before the start of the AC Challenger Playoffs.
In the “playoffs,” win five races to win the semi-finals.
Win five races to win the finals and become the Challenger in the AC Match.
Did you get the bonus point in the AC Qualifiers? Then win six races to take the America’s Cup! If you don’t have the bonus point, win seven races!
Now, choose your Challenger of Record for the 36th America’s Cup very carefully!

2017 America’s Cup Background

The rules have changed several times since they were first announced in June 2014. Here’s a quick summary of the major changes. Read the details on the competition format below the photo.

The Protocol was released in June 2014.
The original Challenger of Record, Australia’s Hamilton Island Yacht Club resigned in July 2014, shortly after agreeing to the Protocol and the AC62 Class design rule.
Their replacement, five time challenger from Italy, Luna Rossa, resigned in April 2015 when the other competitors voted to change from the eight man AC62 to the smaller, six man America’s Cup Class yachts.
The original plan to hold the round robin “AC Qualifiers” in a venue other than Bermuda was dropped in April 2015 and the AC Qualifiers were moved to Bermuda.
The deadline to announce the full schedule of AC World Series races was postponed and then ignored. As of 20 April 2016 the “Asian venue” (presumed to be Tokyo) has still not been confirmed.
ACEA announced that the AC World Series would be extended into Q1 2017 and a group on Australia’s Gold Coast (near Brisbane) announced that they had strong support from AC Regatta Director Iain Murray to hold the event. Since then infrastructure issues at the Gold Coast venue mean that there will be no racing there in 2017.

Background – How the rules have been changing for the 2017 America’s Cup

Holding the AC Qualifiers in a different location from the AC Match was probably the most contentious issue between the challengers and the defender:

Added cost estimates are in millions of dollars.
Sailing conditions would have been different, requiring challengers to optimise their boats for two venues.
At least a month of training and development would be lost while the boats were in transit.
Since only the defender has two boats, they can train with one at the AC venue while their other boat is in transit.

No wonder the challengers were unhappy with this and got it changed!

Update, 17 April 2015:

The AC62 Class has been dropped in favor of the “America’s Cup Class,” a 50 foot, largely one design foiling wing sail catamaran with a crew of six.
ACEA has announced that all racing in 2017 will be in Bermuda, dropping plans for holding the America’s Cup Qualifiers in Auckland.

Update, 25 November 2014: The AC45s will be modified to foil. Four America’s Cup World Series regattas have been scheduled in 2015.

Winning the 35th America’s Cup in 2017 will require navigating a radically different format for the competition.

One team may start the America’s Cup Match with a score of minus one (-1) before the first race is sailed. Read more.
Fleet racing in AC45’s will count towards the score in the Match and towards challenger selection.
The defender will be racing in the challenger selection series and can influence which challenger goes through to the Match.
Challengers’ boats will need to be optimized for conditions in two different venues. (No longer true, as of 17 April 2015, when ACEA announced that all 2017 racing will be in Bermuda.)

12 April 2017 By Jack Griffin Leave a Comment

America’s Cup Sailor Washed Overboard! Oracle Wing Trimmer Kyle Langford

America’s Cup defender Oracle Team USA lost Kyle Langford overboard last week. Kyle had crossed the boat to prepare for a manoeuvre. He was washed right out of his cockpit when the leeward hull dug in.

Thanks to Oracle coach Philippe Presti for posting this to his Instagram feed!

12 April 2017 By Jack Griffin Leave a Comment

America’s Cup Wind Model for Bermuda’s Great Sound

Looking for every possible advantage in the America’s Cup, Oracle Team USA has a small scale wind model for Bermuda’s Great Sound. Technical partner Airbus built the model for them using large quantities of wind data the team has collected over the last two years from their test boats, chase boats and the crane at their base. Large scale models for the Atlantic cannot be scaled down into reliable models for the Great Sound, since it is enclosed and subject local effects unrelated to the rest of the Atlantic.

3 March 2017 By Jack Griffin 19 Comments

America’s Cup Winner “USA 17” AC72 at Mariners’ Museum

Winner of the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, USA 17 has become a permanent exhibit at Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. She will be the highlight of an America’s Cup exhibition, “Speed and Innovation,” which will open in May 2017. I got the chance to climb over and inside USA 17 during my recent meetings at the museum in my role as “guest curator” of the upcoming exhibit.

AC72 Winner America's Cup at Mariners' Museum — *USA 17 –* AC72 – Winner of the 2013 America’s Cup, at Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia

AC72 Winner America's Cup - mast step on crossbeam — The view from near the middle of the forward crossbeam made me realize how BIG this yacht is! And, how much higher the top of the pod is compared to the hulls. In manoeuvres, the crew were scrambling up and down much greater heights than you think when you see the videos. Athletes? You bet!

America’s Cup Geek Warning!

If you read on, I’ll take you deep in the weeds with details only America’s Cup geeks like me enjoy. Proceed at your own risk.

In the previous photo, did you notice those two circles on the centerline? The forward one is the mast step. The aft one was not used, but was prepared when the designers considered moving the wing aft to counter the lee helm problem. I wrote about this in my book “Turning the Tide” – so it was very cool to see it.

AC72 Winner 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco - starboard helm wheel. Oracle Team USA — Jimmy Spithill’s view. Notice the black buttons on the inside of the wheel – controls for daggerboard rake. Do you see the black button on top of the post for the wheel? Before a tack or gybe, Tom Slingsby would cross over to the leeward side to prepare the wing winch, and then hold down that button until the moment it was time to let the daggerboard come up.

Here’s a video that will show how important the button was. This is from Race 4, at Gate 2, the end of the first downwind leg. Ouch! In spite of the error, Oracle won this race, their first win. The error shows that early in the America’s Cup Match, they had still not mastered how to sail the boat. But by the finish of Race 8, their second win, they had improved dramatically, and were on their way to winning, even though at that point the score was 6-0 for the Kiwis.

Grinder Simeon Tienpont was called “Hydro” because he ran a lot of the hydraulic controls on the boat. Some of his controls are shown in the next two photos. Not shown are the controls to switch the flow of oil between hulls and the controls for daggerboard cant. A lot of hardware was stripped out of the hulls long before USA 17 was donated to the Mariners’ Museum.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - daggerboard control panel — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – daggerboard control panel connections in Simeon Tienpont’s cockpit

AC72 Winner America's Cup mast step - 2 positions — AC72 Winner America’s Cup mast step – two positions. To correct the lee helm problem, the designers considered moving the wing aft but decided against the move. Do you remember the story about the famous lay day, Monday 16 September, with the score 7-1? ETNZ rejected Regatta Director Iain Murray’s suggestion to race, in order to get back on schedule. ETNZ did not sail that day, but Oracle did, testing a simpler solution than moving the mast step aft – they put an additional 1.5° of rake in the “mast.” They thought this might help reduce their lee helm problem, but it did not, so they went back to the previous rake setting, and they never changed the mast step position.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - mast step inside pod — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – mast step inside the central “pod.” That post is just below the forward circle in the previous photo. Presumably they would have needed another post like that, had they moved the wing aft.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - electrical panel inside pod — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – electrical panel and battery brackets, inside the central pod

AC72 Winner America's Cup - daggerboard seen from forward cockpit — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – daggerboard seen from forward cockpit. That’s the daggerboard you see through the circular hatch. This is the cockpit where Shannon Falcone and Joe Spooner worked the grinding pedestal. BTW, just to the right of that red arrow, you can see one of the scuppers.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - daggerboard & box inside hull — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – daggerboard & box inside the port hull. The daggerboard “cage” has been removed, with the mechanical feedback foil control system designed by Dmitri Despierres (still with Oracle) and Neil Wilkinson (now with ETNZ). This is where the imaginary “Little Herbie” would have been installed, had it existed. I’ve actually corresponded with the retired Kiwi 747 pilot who wrote the (unsigned) description of the mythical “computer controlled gyro-stabilized Stability Augmentation System” that got the Kiwi media all aflutter. He said the media blew his document all out of proportion. My conclusion: Little Herbie either did not exist or was the best coverup since NASA faked that landing on the moon.

Some Interesting America’s Cup Artefacts

The next three photos show polar info that was left in the hulls.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - polars wing trimmer — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – polars pasted next to the wing trimmer’s position.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - polars deltas — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – polars deltas.

AC72 Winner America's Cup - polars & daggerboard settings — AC72 Winner America’s Cup – polars & daggerboard settings. A couple of things to notice… The table is dated 8th September 2013 – the second day of racing. It has data for boards Nr 9 and Nr 10. On the first layday, Monday 9 September, they tested an asymmetric setup, with boards Nr 5 and Nr 10, but they chose not to race with that configuration. Oracle used the symmetric setup with boards Nr 9 and Nr 10 in all 19 races.

7 November 2016 By Jack Griffin Leave a Comment

SoftBank Team Japan Breaks Their Wing

On 26 October the wing on Team Japan’s AC45x test boat broke apart while training in over 20 knots of wind. The lower forward corner of the trailing element – the flap of the wing – gave way and then the entire lower flap segment tore loose. Click the photo to watch the short video. If you stop the video at about four seconds, you can see where the breakage occurs. The wing trim line was holding the lower trailing corner of the wing (equivalent to the clew on a soft mainsail) and the rest of the flap simply blew apart. No one was injured and the team was back out sailing a few days later using their “AC45x” wing, which has a different shape. The wing that broke was their “AC50” wing, which meets the design rule to be used on their race boat next year. I pointed out the difference in shape with photos in this earlier article.