The Preliminary Regatta for the 2024 America's Cup race will be held in Barcelona beinging on August 22nd. As that date draws near, more video of the boats is being uploaded to YouTube, but most of it still has narration (annoying to people who don't follow racing), or a lot of annoying wind noise. This video is just a short view of one of the boats, showing what an engineering marvel the AC75 is.
The AC75 boats all have to conform to certain standards. Height of mast, etc. But all of the boats are slightly different even so. And they are engineering masterpieces.
Emirates Team New Zealand is the defending champion, having won the previous race. I'm not sure how they settled on Barcelona for the site of this year's competition. They will face the winner of the Preliminary Regatta in October.
There is one more video linked below the embedded video. It is more in the way of an advertisement for the race series, though it also has some great views of the boats. It is about a half a minute long.
The next Amercia's Cup match race will take place in October of 2024. The Louis Vitton Challengers Regatta will be in August before that. But a year in advance the preliminary racing is going to start on 29 November, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The festivities in Jeddah will last through 2 December.
These are some of the highest-tech sailboats in existence. I find them fascinating.
The teams are:
Emirates Team New Zealand (defending champions)
INEOS Britania
Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Swiss)
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italian)
NY Yacht Club American Magic
Orient Express (French)
This the INEOS Britania video AC40 uncovered. The AC40 is the smaller version of foiling monohull that is used in the races. The actual one-design used in the race is the AC75. While there are design constraints, the teams rarely let the bigger boats be photographed, because the constraints do leave room for each team to do some things differently.
The The 100 Guineas Cup was a regatta held in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron on the Isle of Wright. The New York Yacht Club's schooner America won the race. That is how the trophy became known as America's Cup. When the NYYC got home, they instituted a series of races held every 3 or 4 years. The rules about boat design have changed a lot over the years, but in general a regatta, or a multi-boat race, is held to select a single challenger, who them meets the defending champion in a series of match races, one-on-one races between 2 boats.
It is still a long way off, but the America's Cup has released the protocol for the 37th match, and the challengers regatta. They did that back in Novemeber when I wasn't paying attention. They will retain the foiling monohull AC75, with a few changes. And there will be a series of races in smaller AC40 boats.
The details are not important to most of you reading this, but these boats are engineering marvels. I thought I would include a short video of Emirates Team New Zealand showing what these boats can do. Emirates Team New Zealand, representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, won the 36th America's Cup and is the Defender in the upcoming match. Which is 2 years away.
The Royal Yacht Squadron Racing, represented by INEOS TEAM UK is the Challenger of Record. That is an America's Cup thing, that has to do with hammering out the details of boats, among other things.
As for the two American teams: Star+Stripes is partnering with Long Beach Yacht Club. And while it looked like the deal would fall through for a while, American Magic will represent The New York Yacht Club.
For the engineers in the audience, here is a video about the design and function of the boats: The AC75 | Designed to Fly. The video is 7 and ½ minutes from the America's Cup, and features some of the designers.
And for people not that interested in the engineering, here is a shorter video comparing the boat to a small airplane: How the AC75 Flies, by Cooper Dresser, who is a member of the American Magic team.
The PRADA Cup is a series of races that determines who will be the Challenger in the America's Cup Match. That Match will be held in MARCH 6-15, 2021 in Aukland, New Zealand.
The Italians winning the Series 7-1 over INEOS TEAM UK, now move onto the America’s Cup Match, the ultimate goal four years in the making, starting in 12 days time.
Wining seven to one, the Italians looked very strong. They will now face Emirates Team New Zealand in the America's Cup, so called because it was first won by the schooner America in 1851.
If anyone is interested in the history of the race, which dates to 1851, there is a nice video that is short on the America's Cup site. There is also info not in the video. And highlights the phrase, “Your Majesty, there is no second” which has come to describe the nature of the competition. Match Racing at its finest.
So whenever I start writing about sailing, people are confused about the rules. So I thought an explanation was in order, because I just published a bit on boats launched by Ineos/Team UK, and the team Amercian Magic, out of New York.
If anyone is interested in the history of the race, which dates to 1851, there is a nice video that is short one the America's Cup site. There is also info not in the video. And highlights the phrase, “Your Majesty, there is no second” which has come to describe the nature of the competition.
The image at the top right is the Alud Mug, or The America's Cup Ewer, so called because it was originally won by a boat christened America, at the original 1851 competition held by the Royal Yacht Squadron.
Teams are gearing up for the 36th America's Cup Race, which will be held in New Zealand in March of 2021. As a result, there is some interesting video becoming available.
The foiling monohulls which fly on leeboard-like foils are high-tech racing machines, that are more mind-blowing than the foiling catamarans.
Hydrofoils work just like the wing on an aircraft, but because water does not compress, they can be much smaller and still generate the needed lift. They need to be able to sustain tremendous forces. These are large boats weighing thousands of pounds, with a crew of 11, traveling at high speeds. The Wiki says that simulations have yielded speeds of 50 knots, though I would believe 40 or 45 knots in the real world. I haven't seen any actual speeds posted, though we may see some after the Christmas races.
And this is a video of the New York Yacht Club's team, American Magic, getting some time with their new boat, Patriot. I like this video because it gives you a better idea of how fast the boats move, and what happens when something goes wrong. This video is only about half a minute.
The boats have a length of 75ft overall, with a hull length of 68ft (20.7m). The extra length goes to the bowsprit (2m). The beam is 16ft (5m). The mast is specified at 87ft (26.5m) above the deck, and the rig is a standard Bermuda Sloop with soft sails. These specifications, together with some other rules, were meant to reduce the cost of competition.
The original foiling design adopted by America's Cup was the AC-72 catamaran. They were incredible machines, but they were prohibitively expensive to build, and difficult to sail. One sailor, Andrew "Bart" Simpson, lost his life in an accident. The two minute video at this link is still one of my favorites. After the AC-72, the competition adopted the AC-50, which was also a catamaran. They hoped it would be cheaper to build and attract more competitors. This video, which I don't like quite as much as the previous one, does have some good info about how those boats work.
The original HMY Britannia was the royal yacht of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Built in 1893 she was raced by the prince and then used just for cruising after he was crowned Edward VII, and the yacht was also used by his son George V.
The image at the top right is the Alud Mug, or The America's Cup Ewer, so called because it was originally won by a boat christened America, at the original 1851 competition held by the Royal Yacht Squadron. The New York Yacht Club renamed the cup as America's Cup when it and the boat were donated under a deed of gift establishing the ongoing international competition.
