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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

 

Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, home of America's Cup winner USA17 AC72 wingsail hydrofoiling yacht

 

Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, home of America's Cup winner USA17 AC72 wingsail hydrofoiling yacht

 

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 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco - daggerboard control buttons
AC72 Winner 2013 America’s Cup – daggerboard control buttons on the cockpit sole: F (forward rake) A (aft rake) UP, DN. The buttons still click when pushed, but of course the hydraulics have been stripped out of the hull and the grinding pedestal has been removed.

 

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.

Comments

  1. randy says

    4 March 2017 at 03:58

    Great pics and info thanks for putting this out there !

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      4 March 2017 at 08:33

      Hi Randy, thanks for writing! Glad you liked the photos of USA 17. It was a lot of fun clambering all over the boat to take the photos.

  2. Hugh says

    4 March 2017 at 12:21

    Any idea why Oracle stripped all the gear? Was in moved over to a development boat?

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      4 March 2017 at 17:17

      Hello Hugh – had Oracle left the gear in the boat it likely would have “decayed” and required ongoing expensive maintenance. They knew the boat would never sail again, so it made sense to strip everything out and re-use whatever they could.

  3. Tim Gardner says

    4 March 2017 at 15:00

    Good info and great to see how almost “crude” and yet complicated the boat really was…….didn’t have a clue until this posting
    Thanks Jack…..enjoy

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      4 March 2017 at 17:23

      Hi Tim, Yes, it is amazing to see a high performance machine up close. “Raw” or “functional” might be a more complimentary word than “crude” but “crude” certainly applies! Seeing USA 17 up close (and Alinghi 5 in 2010) was a bit like years ago when I visited my brother Dan many years ago – he was an F-15 pilot. He took me to the hangar and let me climb up and look into the cockpit. Military planes are crude and complicated, too. It was not shiny the way I expected from watching movies.

  4. Joel Cook says

    4 March 2017 at 16:30

    Why remove so much equipment from “17” when it is the miracle come-back boat? Greatest come from behind in sports history!

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      4 March 2017 at 17:25

      Hi Joel, USA 17 was never going to sail again, so it made sense to remove all the gear. Some could be reused. Other bits might have required ongoing expensive maintenance – think of leaking hydraulic oil, for example.

      Anyone who gets to see her at the Mariners’ Museum is sure to be impressed!

    • Joel Cook says

      6 March 2017 at 04:59

      I guess that makes sense until years go by and the historical importance of the boat increases with time. Seams like the boat best represents the revolution in AC racing. Like going from B.C to A.D. ! Thanks for all your insights.

  5. Martine says

    5 March 2017 at 20:16

    So is this the boat that Larry Ellison had put in the pond at the Oracle Building or the other one?? My husband said there were 2.

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      5 March 2017 at 21:44

      Hello Martine,
      Larry put USA in the pond. That is the 90 foot-on-the-waterline trimaran that won the Cup from Alinghi in the grudge match in Valencia in 2010.

      Oracle did build 2 boats for the 2013 AC. The one in Mariners’ Museum is the boat that raced and won. I don’t know what has become of the other boat – also an AC72. But I will find out. 🙂

      Regards,
      Jack

    • Martine says

      5 March 2017 at 21:59

      Thanks Jack.

      I would love to know also 🙂

      Regards,
      Martine

  6. Andrew Wilson says

    8 March 2017 at 02:56

    Great article Jack, love your blog.

    If this SA Forum is correct, the Wing for this boat is currently being offered at scrap value on Craig’s List!

    Surely the Museum could suspend it from the roof trusses above the hull, or similar..(if they don’t have a wing already)

    Reply
    • Andrew Wilson says

      8 March 2017 at 02:58

      https://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/art/6030755012.html

    • Jack Griffin says

      13 March 2017 at 18:09

      Actually Andrew… The wing span is 130 feet. The boat length is 72 feet, so no, the wing would not fit in the same hall!

  7. Scott says

    23 March 2017 at 19:04

    Jack,

    From a land locked state in the West, thank you very much for the in depth into the weeds blog with pictures about USA 17. I knew this boat was big but your pictures help to put into perspective just how BIG is. For America’s Cup 34 I recorded and watched the races as Oracle made their tremendous come back. For the last and final race I took told my boss I was taking an extended lunch that coincided with the broadcast. That is a day I will not forget. This is right up with with the ‘Miracle on Ice’ victory.

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      28 March 2017 at 04:49

      Hello Scott, Thanks for your note. Yes, USA 17 is *big*. I watched the Miracle on Ice live and was amazed during the whole match. The 1989 Tour de France may be my favorite comeback story – Greg Lemond impossibly made up 1 minute 06 seconds in the final stage time trial into Paris to beat Laurent Fignon by 8 seconds overall. Fignon was getting splits through his headset the whole way. Lemond knew that hearing splits wouldn’t help him. He didn’t wear a headset, he just put his head down and pedalled.

  8. Ron Lewis says

    6 May 2017 at 13:35

    Great copy, Jack. I’ve been a vol at The Mariners’ Museum for 25 years and this is the biggest story I’ve seen! Every visitor to whom I allow a “sneak peek” (gallery opens May 27) says “It’s HUGE! I didn’t know it was so big!” Sort of makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Following the gallery development day by day is also exciting; the crew who assembled the six parts of the platform had some borrowed help from CA (you) but it was still an amazingly complex puzzle to put together!

    Reply
    • Jack Griffin says

      6 May 2017 at 15:38

      Hi Ron, The Mariners’ Museum will now be a “must see” destination for America’s Cup fans. It has been an honor to be the guest curator for the exhibit. Before the yacht was lifted up on its display stands I got a chance to climb all over it. It looks even bigger from on board.

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