The Yachting Year 2018

20 | THE YACHTING YEAR 2018

B

efore the 35th America’s Cup began, there

were clues but no guarantees as to how it

would play out. Even amongst themselves,

there was the sense that the Kiwis had

taken a gamble with their technology, with

a clear departure from the ‘norm’.

eir win was a win for the underdog, a blow to the

billionaire Larry Ellison backing Oracle Team USA for

what he must have felt certain was destined to be a

hat-trick victory, following San Francisco (2013) and

Valencia (2010).

But the Kiwis were gunning for a hat-trick of their own

• although not a consecutive one, 2017 marked the third
  time their country lied the coveted Cup (San Diego 1995,
  Auckland 2000). eir helmsman, Peter Burling, is the
  youngest helm to have ever won, doing so in front of a
  crowd of over 100,000 watching the drama on the blue
  waters of Bermuda’s Great Sound. Burling was backed up
  on board by Blair Tuke, his 49er team mate with whom he
  won both silver and gold Olympic medals, and directed by
  Cup veteran and skipper Glenn Ashby. Also on board was
  cycling’s 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Simon van
  Velthooven and rowing’s 2012 Olympic gold medallist Joe
  Sullivan, taking the mercenary roles in the primary cyclor
  station, along with a wealth of Kiwi sailing talent.
  e team’s determined ght back from their 2013 defeat
  began with a solid third in the AC World Series. By the
  time they arrived in Bermuda, they meant business,
  winning eight from 10 races in the qualifying series – a
  score equal to that of the defender. Crucially though, the
  Kiwis’ two losses were both to Oracle.
  It’s part and parcel of the Cup that teams continuously
  improve and that was once again the case, with rening
  boat handling a key focus. ETNZ, however, had already
  cracked their manoeuvres; smoother, faster and with
  superior ‘ytime’ stats. eir weak spot lay in boat on boat
  tactics. ey chose to hone their skills against Land Rover

BAR in the semi nals; it was not without a ght, but they

dispensed with the Brits in a 5-2 showdown. On to the

challenger nals, where a 1-1 opening score tipped in the

Kiwis favour the next race as Nathan Outteridge ew o

the back of his Swedish boat. Artemis did their best to

level the points but the Kiwis walked away with ve wins

to their two.

It was the h time in an AC nal for the Kiwis –

starting one race down, due to Oracle’s win in the

qualiers. ey dominated early, winning the opening two

races by enough to cause Jimmy Spithill embarrassment.

Proving it wasn’t a uke, they scooped two more the

following day; Spithill vowed to come back. Race six

nally gave that opportunity; time in the shed had

delivered a speed improvement for USA and, now, a race

win. But it wasn’t enough. e next day, the Kiwis were

back with strong starts and speed to burn in races 6 and 7,

needing only one more win the following day. Even when

Spithill won the start on the nal race and led round the

crucial rst mark it was all for nothing; the Kiwis simply

sailed faster, picking their moment to overtake and cement

their place in the history books.

What next for the cup? As unveiled in broad terms by

New Zealand in November, the new 75 America’s Cup

class will feature two large articulated foils which will be

weighted to provide righting moment and, signicantly, no

keel. ese articulating foils can both be dropped down to

provide a ‘stable’ three-point foiling system (along with the

rudder) but will usually sail with the windward foil raised

and just the leeward and rudder foils in the water.

Although the New Zealanders and Italians have made

clear that they intended to move the Cup back to

monohulls, this design clearly indicates that there was

much from the last edition that the teams wanted to keep

• certainly in technology terms. It does not take a great
  deal of analysis of the boat to conclude that, although this
  is technically a monohull, the line between this boat and a
  multihull is signicantly blurred.
  e hull design will be open, which should lead to teams
  having clearly dierent looking boats – a criticism oen
  levelled at the AC50 was that the one-design nature of the
  hulls made the boats appear identical to the outside
  observer. But those who were hoping to see a more
  traditional AC match race will probably be disappointed as
  this is clearly a design aiming to replicate the kind of
  speeds which we have seen in the last two cups. Further to
  this, it will be interesting to see what sort of
  manoeuvrability might be achieved in the class. For all the
  complaints about the catamaran era, once foiling was
  achieved – which could be done in relatively little wind


• fully foiling tacks where not that expensive. Foiling tacks
  and gybes are stated here as a design aim, but we will have
  to see what levels of eciency might be achieved.
  e rig options are something that are still being looked
  at. e release shows a huge code 0 being deployed around
  a windward mark and, again, traditionalists will be
  appeased by the reintroduction of changing sails, but it is
  hard to see that a code 0 could be more ecient at the
  kind of foiling speeds it is imagined the design will reach.
  Still this will certainly extend the light wind range of
  foiling.
  e key component of the rig, shown in renderings as a
  wingsail, is still apparently in discussion, but there is an
  aim to use ‘aordable and sustainable technology’.

BELOW: USA skipper

Spithill and team

ponder the loss

“

New Zealand dominated early, win-

ning the opening two races by enough to

cause Jimmy Spithill embarrassment

”

Peter Burling is a star – probably the finest helmsman in the world

TYY4 Americas Cup+J-class 2.indd 20 04/12/2017 17: