America's Cup: Oracle putting pedal power into action

Oracle Team USA in action during the America's Cup in Bermuda. Photo / ACEA

Oracle Team USA appear to have taken further steps with their cycle grinding development, with tactician Tom Slingsby spotted pedaling on the back of the boat during today's racing.

Oracle last month revealed they have been trialing a pedal-grinding station on at the rear of the boat, just behind the cockpit of skipper Jimmy Spithill. Today we saw it put to use for the first time in racing, with Slingsby positioned there down the final run of Oracle's 1 minute 56 second win over Team France.

The US team still have four traditional grinding platforms, which are used for the majority of the race.

Spithill has previously been coy on whether the team plans to stick with the pedal-grinding system, but today gave the strongest indication yet that Oracle are pushing ahead with its implementation for racing.

"It's a hybrid system we've developed," the two-time America's Cup winning skipper said.
"The shore guys have been developing it for some time now, we think it's a pretty good blend and it's something we're going to continue to keep getting the most we can out of the system given as we've seen how close and how physical this racing is."

Oracle's introduction of pedal power was no doubt inspired by Emirates Team New Zealand's radical cycle-grinding set-up, which they unveiled in February, but the US syndicate's is much different both in terms of functionality and aesthetics.

"The Kiwis look like they've got some race bikes, we've got a BMX in - being somewhat of a younger generation," joked Spithill.

The advantages of Team NZ's pedal power operation has revealed itself through the early stages of racing of the America's Cup qualfiers. With every manoeuvre demanding a heavy power output from the grinders, several grinding teams have been left exposed in the latter stages of the races when fatigue sets in.

Keeping the hydraulic fluid pumping through the cylinders is crucial to ensuring the boat maintains stable flight, with the pressure powering all the control systems on the boat.

Over the last four days Burling has regularly made mention of his crew on the pedals powering the boat around the track, crediting them for the ability of the team to out-manoeuvre their opposition.

He once again paid tribute to his cyclists after today's stunning come from behind win over Artemis in what was another tight battle with the Swedish boat. Team NZ found themselves in a hole earlier when they lost control after losing grip on the rudders while attempting to pull off a luff on Artemis.

The Kiwi boat leapt out of the water, before almost coming to a complete stop - an error that cost Team NZ about 250m. Over the next three legs Team NZ slowly worked their way back into the race, before engineering a port-starboard penalty against their opposition approaching the final top mark. Burling said the win came down to the cyclists "producing plenty of oil" to enable the boat to do slick manoeuvres and grind their way back into the race.

When asked if the advantages of pedal power were overstated, Burling replied:

"It's definitely a genuine thing, frankly we wouldn't be able to sail our boat as well as we can without the power output of the guys. We're pretty happy with it."