The arrival of New York Yacht Club's second AC75 created a lot of media attention and America's Cup fan interest while revealing very little.
Having two AC75's at the America's Cup venue positions NYYC's team American Magic's program well ahead of the othertwo challengers. The logistics of running an America's Cup campaign are vexed in normal times, with Covid-19 upping the degree of complexity by a significant factor.
The usual procedure with a second boat is to at least commission and briefly launch the race boat, and sea trial - if only for a few days before shipping to the Cup venue.
The issue for the race boats being sent to New Zealand by the Challengers is that the six-week commissioning will have to be done in Auckland using facilities within their Auckland bases. Get stuck, and they will have to draw on the resources of the New Zealand marine industry. From that perspective, they are in the best location in the world, with spar makers, sail lofts, composite engineers, all with world-leading technology, plant and staff all within an hour's drive of the team bases.
Most of the attention on the second boats has been around whether American Magic and INEOS Team UK opt for skiff genre hulls preferred by Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa, or if they continue with their scow-style bow shapes.
But across all four teams, the real point of interest will be how they treat the bustle or centreline skeg used by Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand. The device is unique to the AC75 hull form, and from observation and study images, clearly works to soften the transition in and out of foiling mode.
While INEOS Team UK and American Magic launched without a bustle/skeg, the feature was on Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa's boats from the launch date. INEOS Team UK did a retrofit bustle/skeg within the class rule limitations of being allowed to alter 12.5% of the hull surface.
The bustle on Emirates Team New Zealand's Te Aihe makes a soft contact with the water surface, providing some lift as it starts a tack. Credit: Richard Gladwell
The burning design issue will be whether Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa continue with the approach used on their first boats, or in the light of that experience and performance data come up with something completely different. Equally American Magic and INEOS Team UK will have seen the approach of the Kiwis and will be able to use photogrammetry to develop 3-D designs of bustle/skegs used. Next step is to access the benefits of the feature and how to improve on it.
One of the key performance criteria in the 2021 America's Cup will be foiling performance and speed at the minimum wind speed of 6.5kts for before a race start, and which can fluctuate below that level.
With AC75's able to sail at three times wind speed, when foiling in 6-7kts of breeze, being caught in displacement mode, while your opponent is foiling will be race (and maybe Cup) determining. That was indeed the case in Bermuda, where Team New Zealand's ability to run their light weather foils higher up the wind range gave a crucial advantage over Artemis Racing in the Challenger Final, and Oracle Team USA in the main event.
Meanwhile, the on-water build-up intensifies, with waterfront scuttlebutt reporting one brief capsize, and a full-on nosedive at sub-50kts. In both incidents, along with similar previous occurrences, the AC75's sailed away. They could have raced later that day - underlining not just that the AC75 is a robust design concept, but also one that provides some spectacular sailing action - justifying the six months spent developing and testing the AC75 concept and developing the Class Rule.
The more we see of the AC75 - and despite all the off-stage action - the 2021 America's Cup more than upholds its promise to be a sailing spectacle the likes that have never been seen previously in the sport.
