The design rule for the 36th America’s Cup 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 ...read more
Emirates Team New Zealand may have been the first to launch a new-generation America’s Cup boat, but it was the New York Yacht Club’s challenger, American Magic, that had the last (first?) laugh. Just a few days after ETNZ’s radical-looking AC75 hit the water in mid-September, ...read more
In July, 22 12-Metres from six countries gathered in Newport, Rhode Island, for the quadrennial the 12-Metre World Championship—the second-largest 12-Metre gathering ever, only topped by the America’s Cup Jubilee in Cowes, England, in 2001. The famed class is best known as the ...read more
Coming fast on the heels of Defender Emirates Team New Zealand and the New York Yacht Club, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and the Circolo della Vela Sicilia that it represents have launched their AC75 foiling monohull in Cagliari, Italy. Constructed by Persico Marine, the build ...read more
Images trigger memory. Preparing to interview the golden boy of American sailing, I thought I would find a picture that would show Ken Read at the peak of his sailing career, his heyday, to share and have a warm and fuzzy start to our conversation. It was a commanding image from ...read more
In keeping with its mission of building an all-American team, Stars + Stripes Team USA, challenger for the 36th America’s Cup, has unveiled an open application process for sailors interested in applying for positions both aboard its boats and onshore. Click here, to access the ...read more
If the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco represented a cataclysmic moment for a new form of sailing, the 35th Cup not only took “foiling” to a ridiculously refined level of performance, it created an entirely new archetype of professional sailor: high-performance Olympians like ...read more
For a brief shining moment on Saturday, Cup fans had a glimpse of a hard-fought close battle for the America’s Cup, when the Defender Oracle Team USA finally managed to pull out a win. But then came Sunday. At the close of the first two days of America’s Cup racing the previous ...read more
Following the first two days of racing in the America’s Cup finals—the actual “America’s Cup,” as it were—Oracle Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill all but admitted that challenger-of-record, Emirates Team New Zealand, has his number saying, “The next five days are the most ...read more
The 35th America’s Cup, set to take place on Bermuda’s Great Sound, officially kicks off May 26 with the start of the Louis Vuitton Qualifiers, comprised of a pair of elimination rounds that conclude June 12. The winner then takes on the Defender, Oracle Team USA, in a best of 13 ...read more
Over the weekend the 35th America’s Cup marked a pair of major milestones, with the French being eliminated and the Defender bowing out until the finals two weeks from now after winning the first qualifying round. The high point of the weekend was Saturday’s first race between ...read more
¬© ACEA 2017 / Photo Gilles Martin-Raget Well, somehow they did it: America’s Cup Race Management managed to pull off all four scheduled races on Thursday, despite light winds that rarely climbed much above the 6-knot minimum as stipulated by race rules. It wasn’t pretty, hardly ...read more
Day 4 of the America’s Cup Qualifiers saw the beginning of the second round robin series and what may be the beginning of the end for Sweden’s Artemis. Before the start of the day, it was Sir Ben Ainslie and Britain’s Land Rover BAR that appeared to be in trouble. However, by ...read more
It was the best of times, but it was also nearly the worst of times—as we very nearly witnessed our first fatality in the throes of actual Cup competition See video. Nonetheless, if the first weekend of America’s Cup qualifying racing is any indication, AC35 is going to be one ...read more
Bermuda’s 75-degree water makes sailing foiling catamarans pretty fantastic. Let’s be frank, San Francisco is a cold place to sail. And the fact that you’re on a boat being hosed with spray and 50 knots of apparent wind as normal operating conditions doesn’t make things any ...read more
While it may be a bummer having the “U.S.” team defend the Auld Mug hundreds of miles offshore from the actual U.S. of A (especially if you’re a Cup fan living in the Bay area), Larry Ellison and Russell Coutts would like nothing more than for you to tune in via television ...read more
Oracle Team USA It would be hard to overestimate the strengths of the Defender, Oracle Team USA. A team comprised of some of the best sailing talent in the world, including such veterans as tactician Tom Slingsby and wing-trimmer Kyle Langford—both critical elements in the ...read more
The last America's Cup was fascinating in large part because of how far it went off script. Hydrofoiling Cup boats—the biggest technological game-changer of that cycle—were supposed to have been made impossible by the rulemakers. Artemis crewman Andrew “Bart” Simpson” ...read more
Nuts & Bolts of an ACC 50 The basic dimensions of a 50ft ACC catamaran are: LOA 49ft 3in; Beam 27ft 9in; Wing Height 77ft; Crew 6; Wing Area 1,100 ft2; Weight 5,300lb. Hulls: Hull parameters are strictly controlled, and the hulls are therefore almost identical in appearance ...read more
In the 34th America’s Cup, simply getting your AC72 airborne was a big challenge, with remaining airborne through a gybe was like the “Holy Grail.” Now full-foiling gybes have become routine and full-foiling tacks are the name of the game, not just in terms of boatspeed, but in ...read more
Meet our new favorite America’s Cup skipper: Franck Cammas of Groupama Team France, the French sailing legend who says he perfectly comfortable occupying the position of underdog in the run-up to the 35th Cup. A tenacious sailor who has won pretty much everything else in ...read more
Never mind the silly intro—nor, for that matter, how odd it is seeing longtime Emirates Team New Zealand stalwart Nick Holroyd working for another country—in this video Softbank Team Japan technical director Holroyd provides the best overview of the factors involved in getting ...read more
