Oracle AC72: Impressive Steady Foiling Vid

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Now we can understand better some twits, and have a clearer first hand view of the progress on this new modified version.
Amazing video, this is an incredible footage. But still I put money on ETNZ! at the moment. But Oracle is progressing fast, still shaky platform as we posted earlier, and still bareaway danger, but hey! I’ll make radio silence for the weekend to see this video over and over again…

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6 Responses

  1. Rene says:
    February 16, 2013 at 9:42 am

    Incredible, makes you wonder if they crashed hull v1 on purpose to get the bugs out and stiffen/redesign the flaws in the original version.

    They look to be on fire right now. I'll just put my money on some cold drinks and watch these rocket ships go at it!

    PS, please Martin, go ahead with your plans for a camera!

  2. Rapscallion says:
    February 16, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    Oracle has made huge strides in 15 days of sailing. ENZ has more than double that sailing time, so they are bound to look more polished at times. Watch Oracle's bear away in the vid.

    I would rather have a lighter boat than high volume floats. The end plate for the wing is also a clever idea. Oracle is about being the lightest boat, and the boat with the lowest parasitic drag.

    What would be really crazy is if Oracle filled the hulls with hydrogen or helium and gained back the 10% buoyancy they lost by going with a low volume, low drag, lightweight design.

  3. Rene says:
    February 16, 2013 at 5:55 pm

    Hydrogen, now that ís crazy. And an huge trade off between buoyancy and the endless amount of no smoking signs needed…..

  4. CSN says:
    February 16, 2013 at 6:01 pm

    In theory Oracle has the fastest boat, but the problem with cats is you have to add capsizing, so all those features I also mentioned and are the expressed goal by Oracle Designers, worth nothing with this boat upside down as we already saw.

    A bareaway under pressure in 25knots with these hulls is way more critical than doing with ETNZ AC72, that is my main issue with Oracle.

    Super light, Low drag, low resistance and …low margin of error. It is a high gamble that may pay, we'll see.

  5. Rapscallion says:
    February 16, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    I agree with your assessment concerning the gamble taken by the Oracle design; I suspect I'm giving them more credit in mitigating those risks for the cup. I'm sure that sound's foolish given 17's capsize, however it appears they have learned from the experience and have a stronger program as a result.

    Let's compare Oracle today with ENZ on sailing day 15. On that basis I believe Oracle is a serious contender. I don't presume to know who will win, my point is I don't believe one team has an insurmountable advantage over the others.

    I suspect the Oracle design took the most probable weather conditions into consideration. The bareaway will be key; Oracle won't be able to unfurl the spinnaker until they are foiling, and they will have to be aware of how much they come up during the bearaway. The loss of 5 days of sailing will undoubtedly hurt them in that regard. I agree with your assessment of the designs in the sense that if I had to buy one myself, I would buy ENZ, but these boats were built for only one regatta, and with a most probable weather condition in mind. It is with this consideration in mind I believe Oracle's design decisions are not as risky as they may appear, that's all.

  6. brucehoult says:
    August 24, 2013 at 4:15 am

    Er …

    Density of water: 1000 kg/m^3
    Density of air at STP: 1.2 kg/m^3
    Density of hydrogen at STP: 0.08 kg/m^3

    Yes, you can get about 1.1 kg/m^3 of bouyancy by using hydrogen instead of air, but that only gets back 0.1% of what you lost by having water in that volume instead of air. Not 10%. 100 times less than 10%.