THE 35th AMERICA’S CUP BERMUDA ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

DUNCAN JOHNSTONE puts on his sea legs and explains to landlubbers the various sailing terms they’re likely to hear plenty of in the next month.

A – is for the America’s Cup, affectionately known as the Auld Mug. The world’s oldest international sporting trophy was crafted in 1848 and first raced for in 1851. It is sterling silver and originally stood 68cm but is now 1.1m after two bases were added for the growing list of winners. B – is for Bermuda, the British territory in the Atlantic Ocean which American holders Oracle controversially chose to stage the 35th America’s Cup. C – is for catamarans. They’re no strangers to the Cup, think Dennis Conner in 1987 against New Zealand’s “big boat” and Alighi in 2010 when their cat was out-gunned by Oracle’s trimaran. But this is the second cycle where they are compulsory. D – is for daggerboards, the j-shaped foils that drop through the centre of each hull and are used to control the boat’s lift out of the water. E – is for the Events Authority, the slick operation that runs the regatta and is headed by Kiwi Sir Russell Coutts. F – is for foiling where the boats lift on their daggerboards, clearing them from water resistance and increasing speed. Revolutionised by Team New Zealand for the last cup, it has progressed so far that the goal this time is to complete the course without getting your hulls wet. G – is for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, the blue-collar San Francisco outfit which backs American magnate Larry Ellison’s wealthy Oracle Team USA. After hosting the last cup, they have seen yachting’s biggest show head to Bermuda. H - is for hydraulics. Fuelled by humanpowered grinders and “cyclors”, they are key to activating these energy-hungry cats, providing the energy to move the wingsail and foils. I – is for Iain Murray, the genial and well-respected Australian who will again be regatta director. J – is for Jimmy Spithill, the Oracle skipper who has won the last two America’s Cup. He’s nicknamed Pitbull for good reason – he’s aggressive and relentless. K – is for KZ7, New Zealand’s first America’s Cup boat whose spirit lives on after a thrilling 1987 Cup campaign in Fremantle. Named Kiwi Magic but dubbed “Plastic Fantastic”, it showcased Kiwi ingenuity as fibreglass hulls were used for the first time. “If you want to build a glass boat, why would you do it unless you wanted to cheat?” complained American Dennis Conner whose conventional Stars and Stripes boat beat the Kiwis 4-1 in the challenger final and went on to thump Australia in the match and regain the trophy he had lost four years earlier. L – is for leeward, the direction the wind is blowing towards. Get used to your yachting terms. This one will be often repeated as the leeward hull, the one away from the wind that is slicing through the water while the windward hull is elevated by the force of the wind and has the bulk of the crew in it. M – is for The Match ... that’s yachting-speak for the actual sail-off for the America’s Cup, the final between defenders Oracle and the top challenger. N – is for nautical mile which equals 1.852km. The course, set in the natural amphitheatre of Bermuda’s Great Sound, is up to 12 miles in length, depending on wind conditions. With these boats capable of top speeds nearing 90kmh, the races will be over in around 20 minutes. O – is for Oracle Team USA, the America’s Cup holders who have radically transformed the scene into a multi-hull extravaganza. They have plans in place to keep this format going and even hope to hold the regatta every two years rather than four. But they might have to win in Bermuda to retain those goals. P – is for pedal power, the radcial system being used by Team New Zealand to power the hydraulics. Reasoning that legs are stronger than arms, they have four cyclists on their grinding stations, reportedly generating 40 per cent more power. Q - is for the Louis Vuitton qualifying series which is the first phase of racing. It involves all six teams, including the defenders for the first time. After two rounds of round-robin racing the bottom team drops out, Oracle go off to develop their boat on their own, and the top four qualifying challengers go into their semifinals. R – is for rudder, the mechanism that helps steer the boats. The catamrans have one at the back of each hull with adjustable winglets at the bottom to improve stability. S – is for Sir as in Russell Coutts and Ben Ainslie, the knighted sailors. Coutts oversees the cup event operation as well as guiding defenders Oracle. Ainslie, the most decorated sailor in Olympics history, won the cup with Oracle last time but now has his own British syndicate named after him. Don’t forget Sir Michael Fay, the man who backed New Zealand’s first Cup challenge in 1987. T – is for trampoline. That’s the springy mesh that separates the two hulls which the sailors must negotiate in bouncy steps as they cross from hull to hull during turns. U – is for under control, a crucial element to winning races in these high-speed cats. They are so over-powered for their six-man crew that’s not always easy. V – is for velocity made good or VMG, a complex equation needed because a boat often cannot, or should not, sail directly to a mark to reach it as quickly as possible. So it’s a matter of working out the quickest and shortest route based around trade-offs between speed and progress via the number of turns. W – is for wingsail. That’s the giant 24m triangle in the middle of the boat that looks more like an aeroplane wing and acts in much the same way. X – is for X-factor, the ingredient that inevitably sets the winners apart. Will it be pure speed via design genius, will it be efficiency through tricky moves like foiling tacks and gybes, or will it be a tactician’s gamble? Y – is for the Youth America’s Cup. New Zealand won the inaugural title last time with Peter Burling, Blair Tuke, Guy Endean and Andy Maloney now having graduated to the big dance. The fleet style racing will feature 12 teams. They will race in foiling 45-foot cats. Z - is for zero, as in the number of points Team New Zealand, Team France, Team Japan and Sweden’s Artemis Racing start the qualifying series with. Ben Ainslie Racing (GB) have two points in the bag after winning the world series over the past three years and Oracle have one point as runners-up.