AC34: Oracle Rudder Winglets Explained by Tom Slingby
Following the current controversy with the “Rudder Gate” Oracle just launched a good video with Tom Slingby detailing their different Winglets. Nice PR move by Oracle and educational. So now what they have to do is select the current Legal one and Race with no active trimming, Tom affirms Oracle can only trim the rake but stopping the boat. Oracle have the best resources, two super fast spaceships and a first class sailing team. There is no excuse for this Cup organizers (Regatta Director and else…) to change the rules now. See Doug Schickler doc on Rudder Winglet I published yesterday.
Good video. Nice to get some data on what has been tested, vs. the safety recommendations. But, as to the loading, the span chosen by the design team, and with it the high(er) aspect ratio, is far from the challengers. This means the load argument can be solved by handled another way, by reducing span. Further, max beam, distance from the stern plane, and maximum span were not addressed by TS. He did not seem in his element talking about the structural or flow aspects.