FLIGHT CONTROL
The design rule for the 36th America’s Cup’s is the most audacious yet: a 75ft foiling monohull that will race mostly in flight at four times true wind speed, up to 50 knots. It’s more an airplane than a boat; more a story of aerodynamics than hydrodynamics. That is the defining feature of the AC75.
Since September, three challengers—Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team, INEOS Team UK and the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic—and the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, have all launched their first-generation boats and are foiling successfully, thanks to using simulators during the design phase. (A fourth challenger, Stars & Stripes Team USA, has yet to launch a 75-footer.) Simulators were also a major contribution to New Zealand’s success in Bermuda.
The boats are designed to the 36th America’s Cup box rule: in simple terms, the hull can be any shape its designers conceive that fits into a theoretical box of the length, beam and draft set by the rule. It’s much more interesting than one-design, but it’s expensive—American Magic reported
