By TIMOTHY COLLINGS in LAUSANNE
Sleepless nights lie ahead for a team of university scientists and students now that Alinghi and Team New Zealand are on the water.
An international team of academics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have been closely involved with the creation of, and
modifications to, the successful Alinghi yacht, working from their university campus.
At night, they will abandon their studies and stay up into the small hours to follow their team in the regatta.
"It is too exciting to miss. It is a marvellous opportunity and I think a lot of us will not be going to bed," said Professor Jan-Anders Manson, of Sweden, director of the composites and polymer technology laboratory and chief co-ordinator of the institute's partnership with Alinghi.
"I don't want to miss it. I stayed up to follow the Louis Vuitton Cup and will do the same this time.
"This is a project that is very important to us and to the evolution of our ambitions to develop life-science work here. It is the stimulus of our group."
Manson, who has generated great enthusiasm for Lausanne's technological role in Alinghi's bid for glory, admitted that he was enjoying the attention sparked by the institute's work and the Swiss team's success in getting through the challenger series.
"It helps us, it inspires everyone and it is good for Switzerland and for Alinghi," he said.
"This has given us a unique opportunity to show what we can do.
"The America's Cup is very like Formula One motor racing. The latest technological findings must be used as quickly as possible to improve the performance. Everyone likes that kind of involvement."
As a young man, Manson hoped to become a leading tennis player in his native Sweden, and devoted a year of his life to the sport before abandoning his dream.
Now, settled in the Alps, he is using his scientific knowledge to support landlocked Switzerland's bid for glory at sea and develop the technologies that will enhance other sports and improve people's lives.
"Why am I involved like this in sport? That is easy to explain. It is just a fantastic way to communicate with the students and to produce a dynamic synergy that can produce applications for many other areas of life - it means sport becomes a kind of test-bed for life science."
The team's efforts in the research, design, construction, creation and modification of the Alinghi boats have helped to create a showcase for the institute and delivered a stimulant for further work on technological developments.
"The techniques we have used, for example to measure water flow around the hull of the yacht, can be applied in other completely different fields like aviation or blood-flow analysis," said Manson.
"Our experience can speed up the application of research findings for aerospace and medicine, as well as in sport."
Manson has plans to create a material that can temporarily replace missing bone in shattered limbs while the bone grows back.
These uses of his team from many countries and many disciplines are part of his bid to establish the institute as Europe's leading research establishment for life science, with sport used as a test-bed in the same way that the motor industry uses motor racing to examine its prototypes.
In the build-up to the America's Cup, Manson's team of 15 senior scientists, working from four laboratories, and 20 students have worked with the Alinghi team in Auckland through overnight exchanges of information.
The team was first assembled in September 2000 and in the early stages was involved closely in the research, design and construction processes.
The work has been continuous. Alinghi's engineers in Auckland sent ideas for new components back to Lausanne before they went to bed and, with luck, received the data and answers when they rose the following morning.
"We are just one part of the big puzzle that makes this Alinghi team," Manson said.
"The racing team has experienced sailors, they have trained hard and are very disciplined, they have focused teamwork and a well-constructed yacht with their own designers and engineers. We just play a small part."
- REUTERS
nzherald.co.nz/americascup
Racing schedule and results
By TIMOTHY COLLINGS in LAUSANNE
Sleepless nights lie ahead for a team of university scientists and students now that Alinghi and Team New Zealand are on the water.
An international team of academics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have been closely involved with the creation of, and
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