ONELIFE #33 – American English

03 HULLS
America’s Cup sailors talk about
three modes of sailing: ‘H2’ is when
both hulls are in the water; ‘H1’ when
they’re flying one hull; ‘HZero’ is,
however, where every skipper wants
his boat. With neither hull in the
water, the drag is at its minimum. All
six teams are perfecting techniques
to keep their boats in zero mode on
all parts of the course, upwind as
well as downwind and throughout
maneuvers likes gybes and tacks.
Keeping the boat on its foils has
seen some describe the hulls as ‘foil
delivery systems.’ The boat that stays
on its foils longest – the ‘flytime’ – is
the boat that will win the Cup.
06 FOILS
If you’ve sailed a dinghy, then
you will know about the daggerboard
that keeps the boat from
being blown sideways and over.
The foils on America’s Cup boats
evolved from daggerboards
but crucially turn through over
90 degrees, feature a hydrodynamic
tip (roughly the size of
an ironing board) that’s a foil
(like a wing) in section. Some call
04 CROSS MEMBERS
The hulls and the cross members
that hold them together, as well
as the trampoline the crew uses
to cross the boat, is called ‘the
platform.’ It’s much more than
just a foundation for the wing
and foils. The cross members are
aerodynamic in section giving
the entire boat more lift, but also
providing ‘righting moment,’ the
force that stops the boat from
being pushed over by the power
of the wing – they’re not allowed
to use the upwind foil to keep the
boat flat and stable.
them ‘daggerfoils.’ Regardless
of what you call them, they have
made a profound difference to
the sport, increasing speeds
three fold. Such is the force of
the dense water (786 times more
dense than air) that the small
foils can lift the entire boat and
crew, which together are about
the weight of a Range Rover,
right out of the water.
05 WHEEL
Sir Ben Ainslie will steer the ACC
boat with a wheel and not the
tiller he uses on the World Series
boat. There’s a wheel on each
side, just behind the grinding
stations where the ‘power crew’
pump hydraulic pressure into the
control systems. That includes the
rake adjustment for the foils on
the wheels that Ainslie will use to
control the pitch and ‘altitude’ of
the boat. Some skippers have said
keeping the boat stable is more
like flying a helicopter than sailing
a match racing yacht.
07 RUDDERS
The tips of the rudders that jut
out from the rear of the two hulls
of the catamarans feature smaller
foils that also contribute lift and
help keep the platform stable.
The angle of attack of the foils
is controlled – just like the main
foils – by Sir Ben Ainslie from the
steering wheels.
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