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In a full foiling turn the G forces may have surprised this French sailor. He crossed the boat during a fast turn and couldn’t slow down on the other side. Maybe he decided to jump because he remembered that skipper Franck Cammas had his right foot nearly cut off by the rudder wing when he went overboard training in France in November 2015.
Thursday 6 April 2017 – On an official practice race day, Oracle had a scare, nearly capsizing their America’s Cup Race Boat.
Two days later they did capsize. The boat was righted within 10 minutes. After tests and repairs, they were back out sailing the next morning. In the video, Oracle has blurred out the foils but you can see their shape in the video from MyislandhomeBDA, below.
MyislandhomeBDA also captured the incident. In this video it looks like the boat was righted by pulling it up from the side rather than by “flying it up” – towing the boat forward into the wind with the wing trimmed down. There may have been too little wind for that technique. Note that you get a good look at the foils when the boat is on its side – very long with high aspect ratio.
On Thursday 6 April, Artemis Racing won their pre-start against Oracle Team USA, putting a penalty on Oracle. Artemis led going into the first mark doing close to 40 knots, when an errant chase boat from a Red Bull Youth America’s Cup team crossed in front of them. The chase boat did a quick 180. Nathan Outteridge did an emergency bearaway and Artemis planted the bows, damaging the fairing on the forward crossbeam. Regatta Director Iain Murray abandoned the race and cleared the course. Artemis went to their base to inspect the structures and to patch up the damage. They returned for a second race against Oracle. Artemis lost the start and followed Oracle around the first mark but found better pressure later in the race and passed Oracle for the win.
At 1:00 into this video by Jason Smith of MyislandhomeBDA, Artemis and Oracle cross the start line. At 1:45 Artemis leads around Mark 1. You can see the Youth America’s Cup chase boat’s emergency turn on the right edge of the screen. About 15 seconds later, at 2:00 in the video we can see the damaged fairing hanging from the forward starboard crossbeam. At 2:17 a crewman leaves his cockpit and lies down on the crossbeam to pull off the damaged piece. At 2:33 he throws it overboard and at 2:50 the Artemis chase boat stops to pick it up.
Jason Smith’s “MyislandhomeBDA” YouTube channel provides regular video updates on the teams training in Bermuda. You can thank Jason by subscribing to his YouTube channel and by making a donation.
Artemis Racing’s test boat, the AC45x “T2” suffered serious damage. The wing came down and both crossbeams broke. No one was injured. The wing, a spare for their America’s Cup Class race yacht, was damaged slightly.
In the photo above, the daggerboard lifting pole is sticking through the lower segment of the flap element of the wing. Fortunately none of the wing control system is in that part of the wing, so damage was minor. In the photo below you can see the repair work underway. The Clysar film was torn and a few ribs were broken.
The port hull is lying on its side in the photo below. Both crossbeams have broken. Artemis engineers are studying data from the boat to determine what caused the breakage.
Thanks to the Bermuda Royal Gazette for the photos. You can read their full article here.
America’s Cup Class catamarans racing for the first time! Watch the pre-start between Oracle’s Jimmy Spithill and Land Rover BAR’s Ben Ainslie. With port tack entry, Oracle is allowed to enter the starting box 10 seconds ahead of starboard tack, right of way Land Rover BAR. But they are late and cannot cross in front of BAR. Both boats go into a dial up.
Team France has been out foiling in their America’s Cup Class yacht. Thanks to Oracle Team USA coach Philippe Presti for posting this video.
Teams are now permitted to train together on 23 of the 69 days that remained before the first races of the round robin America’s Cup Qualifiers.
(i) March 22-26, 2017;
(ii) April 6-7, 2017;
(iii) April 10-12, 2017;
(iv) April 24-28, 2017;
(v) May 15-19, 2017;
(vi) May 22-23, 2017;
(vii) May 25, 2017;
(viii) May 26, 2017 – June 12, 2017.
The previous ban on sailing together was the result of an oversight. The protocol previously allowed the teams to train together on dates that were to be announced by the Commercial Commissioner at least a year before the first races of the America’s Cup Qualifiers. No dates were announced, effectively creating a ban.
Changes to the protocol can be made by agreement of the defender and the Challenger Commission. The commission makes its decision by majority rule, so at least three challengers must have voted for the change.
Watch a video clip of practice racing here. Download the latest version of the Protocol here.
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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.
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.
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.
The next three photos show polar info that was left in the hulls.
Gordon Baker developed and tested Monitor in the 1950’s. Monitor could get up on the foils in about 13 knots of wind and sail at about twice the true wind speed. Top speed was reported at over 30 knots, with some reports claiming 40 knots. At 40 knots, cavitation would probably have set in.
Monitor is on display at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
Sailor Graeme Spence went overboard when Oracle Team USA’s America’s Cup Class yacht dropped off the foils in training on Wednesday 22 February 2017. Graeme was lucky not to be hit by the daggerboard or rudder. Remember that Franck Cammas of Groupama Team France almost lost his right foot when he was hit by the rudder after going overboard in training in France in November 2015. Read about Franck’s ordeal here, here and here.
Emirates Team New Zealand took the America’s Cup world by surprise when they launched their race boat on Valentine’s Day with bicycle grinding stations.
Why is wing trimmer Glenn Ashby looking at the wing? You can see him doing the same thing in the videos. In 2009, Oracle Racing’s wing designer Scott Ferguson had to convince the sailors to trim by the numbers, not the shape of the wing. He made his point by asking them if they had ever seen a pilot looking out the window to adjust the flaps on an airplane. So what is Glenn looking at?
ETNZ’s design coordinator Dan Bernasconi explains how they developed their design. Video includes a clip showing tests they did between arm and leg grinding.
If she is right, then we are all wrong.
All the other teams evaluated using bicycle grinding stations but rejected the idea. The others decided that the improved power output was not worth the problems with crew mobility. It’s harder to get off and on bike grinders during manoeuvres. In 1851, Lord Uxbridge, 1st Marquess of Anglesey and a founding member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, on seeing “America’s” design, remarked, “If she is right, then we are all wrong.” We may be hearing those words again in 2017!
Bicycle grinders have been tried before in the America’s Cup. In 1977, Pelle Petterson’s 12 meter “Sverige” had bicycle grinding stations below deck. They did not work out well, since the crew had a wider range of tasks than today’s America’s Cup Class grinders. And offshore single-handed sailors have used bicycle grinders, especially when shaking out a reef in the mainsail.
The bicycle grinders are not the only surprise. We’ll have to investigate how Glenn Ashby trims the wing, but there is no winch on the deck.
And, this is a pretty extreme shape for the daggerboard wing. Richard Gladwell reported that the Kiwis were foiling smoothly in as little as four knots of wind.
More about aircraft wing shapes and configurations in a good Wikipedia article here.
Oracle’s winning AC72 in the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
I’m on my way today to Newport News to help plan the “Speed and Innovation in the America’s Cup” exhibit that will open in May. I’ve been asked to be “guest curator” – an honor and a lot of fun, working with a great team.
Oracle unveiled their race boat at a party on Valentine’s Day evening. They christened the boat the next day.
Luciana Corral smashed the champagne bottle with a mighty swing. Fortunately the shore crew had built a protective “bottle protector.” Click the photo to see the video.
Spithill on Bicycle Grinding
Naturally, the hot topic at Oracle’s party on Tuesday was the Kiwi grinding stations.
“We looked at it hard, as I know all the teams did, and it’s a compromise,” Spithill said. “Nothing is straightforward. You can get more power on the pedal, but there’s other compromises. You take windage and it’s a little harder getting on and off the pedals, so personally I don’t think that decision will be the deciding factor. We looked at it hard to see how it works out and they are the only team to do it so far from what we’ve seen. We haven’t seen Artemis’s boat yet, but I don’t think they would have done it. Whether it will be a good decision only time will tell and really until we see them sailing up here in the Great Sound we won’t really have any idea of where they’re at.”
Oracle unveiled their America’s Cup Class race boat on Valentine’s day at an evening party for team members and families and a few Bermudian dignitaries. The boat was illuminated in its hangar. The aerodynamic fairings were the only “proprietary” parts on display – no sign of the daggerboards or rudders, and no opportunity to look into the cockpits at control panels.
The next day the team christened the boat and put her in the water for the first time.
With champagne for the boat and rum for the base, Challenger Land Rover BAR celebrated the launch of their America’s Cup race boat last week. Georgie Ainslie did the honours with the champagne. Bermuda’s Minister of Economic Development, Grant Gibbons handled the traditional roof wetting with rum to open the team base.
Thanks to Ber Memes for the drone footage and coverage of the big day.
You can see a replay of the livestream of the event here.
Emirates Team New Zealand had previously said they would launch their race boat in late January and sail in Auckland during February before shipping the boat to Bermuda. That way their 28 day “blackout period” would be spent disassembling, shipping and re-assembling the boat. We have no news of the boat being launched yet. But we have heard that they were sailing very well in December, in their AC45X test boat. The rumor is that they laid out an AC race course and could sail an entire race without dropping off their foils – tacking upwind as well as downwind. We may get some more news when they launch in Auckland (soon?) and, of course, when they first sail on the Great Sound in late March.
