DNA A-Cat 2013: Flight Development

DNA continues to invest on an already proven platform. For this next season they will offer a J board + ‘ Landy’ Winglets for the production series.
They also tested a TNZ conf dagger and they say they were airborne, it looks draggy beyond being Not Class legal, but it should be great fun and a path for long term developments that can change in the future they we sail and race ‘beach’ Cats.

The interesting analysys is the TNZ vs Artemis conf taking place here on the same boat. Clearly and beyond technical legal aspects, the DNA crew still thinks the Artemis conf will perform better at this stage. Although the AC72 are another ball game altogether, the all round question mark again arise on the ACup design game.
But we will only know which conf rules at the LV series.

The J boards are legal if they can remove them from the daggercase, and it is the case as DNA is offering upgrade kits.

So two separate projects, one for fun and R&D and the other Class legal to race next season.

As always I think we are privileged to be living current Americas Cup times with developments that are going to be a milestone in the history of the sport.

It seems rudder winglets are nobrainer now with Mischa and Landy’s great season. Pity we don´t have this on the N17… Later some feedback from Arno & PJ. 
More info and details at dnacatamaran.com.

PJ report on the ‘TNZ’ boards: “Today tested our ‘TNZ foils’ on the DNA, together with Mischa and Arno.
6th of January, and 10 degrees C !

Although these foils are not class-legal on the A class, it is good fun to see if the A cat can fly!
And it can fly ! not much wind , but downwind with 11/12 knts it lifts clear out of the water… balancing on the rudder T foils, which are standard on the DNA now.
All three of us don’t think it will give any benefits on the race course, because of the extra drag upwind.
We think our new J boards are the smart solution. See dnacatamaran.com”