AC35: AC62 Flying Cat
Just out: Press release Americas Cup – Wing IGS file render left. Comments later…
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Fast, foiling, wing-sailed catamarans will race in the next America’s Cup as the new class rule for the AC62 yacht has been released.
The AC62 is 10 feet shorter than its predecessor, but is expected to be just as fast and challenging to race for the crews, and will produce the same heart-pounding action for spectators.
See what the sailors are saying about the 35th America’s Cup
“This new boat is going to be significantly lighter and under much less load than what we raced last time, which makes for a big cost-saving when it comes to how it gets built,” said ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill.
“At the same time, as designers, boat-builders, and sailors, we’re all starting to come to grips with how to get the most out of foiling, wing-sailed multihulls, so I think we’ll see similar, if not greater performance this time around.”
In the last America’s Cup, boat speeds approached 50 knots (96kph/58mph) at times as the hulls lifted out of the water on their foils, creating a spectacular sight for spectators, not to mention a challenge for the best sailors in the world.
This time the mandate was to get similar performance from a slightly smaller boat, but one that would be significantly less expensive to design, build and campaign. Initial calculations by the designers have the cost of the AC62 at about half that of the AC72.
Pete Melvin, a designer with Emirates Team New Zealand in the last America’s Cup, and his firm Morrelli and Melvin, were commissioned by ORACLE TEAM USA (the Defender) and Team Australia (the Challenger of Record) to oversee the writing of the AC62 class rule.
Download the AC62 yacht class rule
“Writing this rule has been a very collaborative process, with designers associated with several teams helping out. We also had great assistance from Nick Nicholson, the Chief Measurer from the last America’s Cup,” Melvin said. “Since we circulated the draft rule, prospective teams have also given constructive comments that we’ve been able to take on board.”
The AC62s will be crewed by 8 sailors (down from 11) and teams aren’t permitted to begin sailing in their AC62s until approximately five months before racing starts in the America’s Cup Qualifiers in 2017.
“I think it’s going to be hard to wait until then,” Spithill said. “It just looks like it’s going to be a great boat to race. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it!”
I can't believe the blatant unsporting nature of the new rules! No modern AC has ever been won by a one boat campaign. The odds are so stacked in Oracles favour on this point alone, it makes it pointless for teams to fund campaigns that are doomed to failure.
I would rather see a renegade competition develop (perhaps try and bring LV back) using similar yachts and let Oracle play with themselves….The arrogance of it all!!…What am I saying…it's Oracle. Of course they are doing this…
Martin, I'm a huge fan of your site and everything you do to report on and popularise cat sailing and racing. But I can't agree with your points about the 2-to-1 boat format, at least not without trying to put them into a broader context of the whole event.
If the over-riding aim of this AC35 protocol is to ensure the commercial success of the America's Cup, building on the potential from AC34, then the protocol-writers have to start by mitigating the risks that would prevent success. The most obvious risks are around having no match at all, or having a match that can't fit into the pre-booked TV schedules because of wind or sea conditions. Leaving aside wind and sea for a moment, if there's only 1 defender and that defender has only 1 boat, then there's a clear risk of the match not going ahead at all. If I was the custodian of the America's Cup, I'd see it as my responsibility to mitigate that risk.
Secondly, the allowances in the protocol for 2 boats gives the defender equal (or very close to equal) boat-on-boat time in AC62s as the challengers. If the defender has only 1 boat, then the challengers get a clear advantage by having more time racing AC62s (because they race in the horribly-titled Play-offs and the defender doesn't). Don't forget that the protocol places strong restrictions on the usage of the 2nd boat so that the defender doesn't get advantaged by having it beyond the point of equal race time with the challengers (except for mitigating the disaster risk as mentioned above).
If there was only 1 challenger fronting up against only 1 defender, then these rules would be unfair – but that's not going to be the case (we hope) in AC35 as there will be multiple challengers competing for the right to be in the match.
Allowing the challengers the ability to build 2 boats to the same limitations as the defender would also increase the costs of competing – something which is another over-riding priority for the event. A challenger that could afford to build 2 boats would have a clear advantage over one that couldn't.
The problem in the end is that we can't have it every way at once – we can't call for lower costs so that commercial teams can have a chance of winning against the billionaire-funded teams, and want an incredible TV spectacle with guaranteed air-time, and have absolute equality between defender and challenger conditions. The people who spent time writing and arguing about this protocol aren't stupid, and they have a very broad range of scenarios to consider – more than the rest of us have had a chance to think through in the short time between the protocol being issued and all these comments about it being made…!
Hey Gav – see my comment on the article about the protocol. It's worth taking a step back, reading the protocol carefully in full and thinking about why the protocol is the way it is. Taking a single factor in isolation (i.e. the 2 vs. 1 boat thing) isn't doing justice to the complex interplay of factors that the AC has to take into account…!
Hi Kit
I understand your points, and I linked to comments from Gladwell and others, including Dalton unworried point of view in this 2-1 regard.
The bottom line is that at whichever stage of this new Cup (moreover in the Finals) , if a challenger pitchs and destroys the 62 beyond repair it is end of the campaign.
Oracle can give themselves the luxury to have one spare 62 and push the limits of development with the first one. End of the story in this 2 – 1 boat discussion.
On your comments, the defender always has less competition than the challengers.
As we saw and catsailors know, and I even got tired of preventing… they were going to capsize and they did big time.
Same scenario applies for the AC62, so the challenger teams and sponsor will bet all they have in a one shot opportunity. Oracle has a plan B.
This new Cup format has these risks along providing a greater show.
Hello Martin, you make a good point about continuing after a crash / pitchpole. I went back to check the protocol on this – Section 35.3 a) & b) … the defender can only race its 2nd boat if the first one is put beyond repair before the Qualifiers or the Match begins. Once the races begin, the defender and the challenger are equal – especially as if the defender pitchpoles in race 1 of the match and destroys its race boat, it's game over.
So in this regard, my point about the defender's 2nd boat being a mitigation to the risk that the match itself not going ahead is correct.
It's also worth noting that the defender can't sail its 2 AC62s together until the Qualifiers are completed (35.5 c) and can only launch the 2nd boat 30 days before the qualifiers begin (35.4 b) – so the advantages of 2 boat testing are carefully limited.
It is true that the challenger doesn't have the insurance policy of a 2nd boat – and this is a clear outcome of the drive to cut costs. As I said before, the challengers can't have it both ways…
And finally, I'm a huge supporter of ETNZ and BAR (most of all), the two challengers who are probably most reliant on commercial sponsorship… But I'm trying to be even-handed!
Aloha From The-Friendly-Isle,
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Skipper and "da driver" Spithill-san makes it known, "But, Stiil it seems something is Missing, Who's Up for the Challenge?!? Well, You blokes, and kanakas get ready for the Complete Dialed-In All-Female 35th and 36th America's Cup serious Contenders!?!
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a hui hou Ka Kou… Keep Pulling the Apparent with The Attitude all-encompassing Attitude Aptitude Amptitude Altitude (remain One-with–the-Wind and Wave-dance, and Stay Foilborne with Safest and Swiftest Effortless Smoooth-and-Level-Flight-Controll; User-Friendly-n-Best-Cost-Effectiveness) and Again, Attitude: defines as- KISaSS(Keep It Simple and Swiftly-"Safer"
Continue-On, Exude the "given" Robustness and Pono-ness aloha nui jj iruka