America’s Cup yachts could break 50-knot barrier
An America’s Cup guru is predicting the new monohulls to break the 50-knot barrier for the first time and says they are so radical that teams will struggle to come up with the right training platform.
Australian Grant Simmer, an America’s Cup Hall of Famer who has won the Auld Mug four times, is on board with Britain’s Ben Ainslie Racing for the next campaign.
The Brits have been kept well up to speed with plans by Cup holders Emirates Team New Zealand and Simmer has crunched some staggering numbers on the 75-foot foiling monohull to be used in the 2021 regatta expected to be sailed in Auckland.
‘‘It can go up to 50 knots and potentially over 50 knots,’’ Simmer told World Sailing Show.
The top speed recorded by the foiling multihulls of the last two Cups was 47.57 knots posted by Emirates Team New Zealand on their 72-foot catamaran in San Francisco in 2013. That remains the America’s Cup record.
Simmer was involved with Oracle Team USA for that successful defence in San Francisco and the subsequent loss to the Kiwis in Bermuda last year. He knows what made the foiling catamarans fly but predicts this monster monohull to trump them.
‘‘It’s bold, it’s radical, it’s exciting. Tactically it’s really exciting and it will be really challenging for the sailors to sail it because they have just never sailed a boat like that before,’’ Simmer said, saying the lag of drag enhanced the boat’s speed.
‘‘Why is it so fast? Because it has a lot of righting moment and it only has a rudder foil and a t-foil in the water.’’
BAR have entered the TP52 Super Series,the world’s leading monohull championship, just to get their potential crew into rhythm, having sailed catamarans for so long for the last America’s Cup in Bermuda.
‘‘We have been looking at what boats we should focus on sailing just for our sailors to get used to sailing a boat like that in the America’s Cup class and really we haven’t found anything yet.’’
Simmer predicted the massive foils would weigh 1.2-1.5 tonnes each. The beam of the boat (it’s widest point) would be around 5.4m but could potentially be 15m with the boards out either side. The foils were so large they would need battery assistance to power their movement.
While the AC72 multihull had an all up weight excluding crew of just under
6000kgs, the AC75 is expected to tip the scales at
7500kgs.
With the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron closed until January 15, announcements of entries weren’t expected until the middle of the month.