Crows have fascinated humans since the beginning of time. Throughout literature crows have played an important role. When young I had a crow which I tried to teach to talk. I convinced myself that it had indeed learned several words. I cannot tell you with any certainty that the crow actually did. I eventually let the crow free; he did have an enormous walk-in cage while in captivity.
International C Class Catamaran Championship -Hydros Walkthrough with Mischa and Bastiaan from CClassCats on Vimeo.
The “C” Class catamarans concluded their championship recently in Falmouth UK. This is where the real progress is made. They were foiling and using wing sails long before anyone.
Ted Hood passed away this summer. I was traveling and did not have access to me archive of photographs. For me he will always be the quiet man; after nearly a year of sailing on the same boat we only ever exchanged a handful of words. He was a clever man that mostly saw the whole picture and must have have exceptional three dimensional vision. He could make a boat go fast, however, I believe match racing did not fit his personality.
The America’s Cup will never be the same. It was already on this path, but it has crossed over into the next level of commercial sport.
ac photos from ws lirakis on Vimeo.
As America’s Cup followers watched in wonder at the speed gains made by Oracle Team USA, attention turned to the influence of technology on the performance of the spaceage catamarans.
It may or may not ease New Zealanders’ pain to learn that one of our own masterminded the computer programs that underpinned the American boat’s comeback from the netherworld.
Computer whiz Asim Khan oversaw Oracle Racing’s immense database, developing the hardware and software systems that fed “live” performance data to the crew and helped unlock the secrets to performance gains before and during the regatta.
“These are complex boats – their performance doesn’t just happen,” Khan told the Weekend Herald from Oracle Racing’s San Francisco base.
“That big data definitely helped us turn our fortunes around because without it [helmsman] Jimmy [Spithill] would have just been going on intuition.”
Since Oracle’s victory, international media have honed in on technology in the search for answers to Oracle’s remarkable improvements in upwind speed and stability in the second half of the regatta – some implying the fastest computer won the Cup.
The focus on IT is unsurprising given that the winning boat is the flagship of the world’s leading business database company. Larry Ellison’s resources undoubtedly helped Oracle Racing’s brains trust engineer the improvements – but the data they relied on was entrusted to a 32-year-old from Pakuranga who has rarely set foot on a yacht.
Khan has spent nearly 10 years with Oracle. The computer science student was working on a building site in 2001 when he answered a Student Jobsearch ad placed by Oracle’s fierce rival, OneWorld, ahead of the 2003 America’s Cup in Auckland. He liked the outdoors but was firmly focused on terra firma, knowing little about sailing when he took the holiday job – and nothing of the sailing legends he was working with, including an Australian prodigy called James Spithill. But they made him feel welcome.
When time came to resume his studies, the syndicate, part-financed by Microsoft mogul Paul Allen, told him he was indispensable – until OneWorld was eliminated and he went back to Auckland University to finish his degree.
On his OE a couple of years later, he started getting phone calls about the next America’s Cup and eventually signed with Oracle. Ten years on, he still doesn’t fill out the Oracle Racing suit in the way the sailors do and he’s still happy to watch from the shore. Most days, he says, the sailors returned heart-in-mouth. “It’s scary.”
The advent of the wing-sail cats and other advances have brought an “order of magnitude leap” in the live data transmitted from each boat, he says.
“Back in the 2003 Cup the team were still transitioning from video tapes – the sailing coach could spend all weekend looking at the 10 best tacks one after the other and comparing them to the 10 worst tacks. Now we can do that instantly whilst overlaying the data, images and audio with just the click of a button.”
From backing up about 4 gigabytes of data on a single DVD after Oracle’s 2007 campaign, Khan estimates he’s collected “in the order of 300gb” this time. “On a daily basis, you can’t really analyse it unless you’ve got really good tools.”
He credits new hardware added in April for a “10-times” speed improvement on some tasks and faster wi-fi connections for the onboard crew.
With more than 300 sensors mounted on the boat, the speed with which performance data is conveyed and analysed is vital, he says. In trialling, data is relayed to the chase boat, the “analytical hub” where the performance team can call and monitor the impacts of various changes.
“We’ve got about 3000 variables running about 10 times a second when we’re sailing, from sensors that measure strain on the mast to angle sensors on the wing sail that monitor the effectiveness of each adjustment.”
But in racing, the telemetry “black box”, which allows remote control of boat componentry, is removed and the sailors rely only on data measuring the boat’s performance and weather and tide information sent to their tablets and PDAs – the wristwatch-like monitors worn on their sleeves.
“It’s quite customised – each person is looking for different information. Grinders may be interested in hydraulic pressure so they can redirect power to a foil and the trimmers in checking the sheet load so they don’t break anything while they’re pulling on a rope.”
In a pre-regatta statement, grinder Gilberto Nobili said, “We drive the boat basically on numbers, so it’s a big problem to have information that is even seconds late. The foiling requires real-time information that needs to be really accurate.”
Some of the media focus on technology has had a sinister edge: could Oracle’s speed gains have been computer-assisted, illegal under yacht-racing rules that require only manual adjustment of components? Like others in the Oracle camp, Khan is quick to dismiss the talk of computer-controlled stabilisers to improve Oracle’s upwind foiling ability.
He says the physical tweaks during the regatta – including changes to the rudder foils, wing sail set-up and other modifications – stemmed from a combination of technical and sailing knowledge and data analysis.
A lot of the improvement was down to the sailors improving their techniques, particularly when tacking and gybing, he says. “But that could not have taken place without the data and applications that we have in place. Jimmy [Spithill] and [sailing coach] Philippe Presti spent hours and hours late into the night poring over video, images, audio and data of hundreds of previous manoeuvres and hundreds of Team New Zealand’s manoeuvres. The tools that our team developed meant that they could do this incredibly quickly.
“To me, there wasn’t a lot of change in straight-line performance during the regatta, but there were gains in the tacks and gybes and better balance and that was more because of technique. A lot of things, such as changes to the rudders, were born out of analysis. But there wasn’t anything magical that we found in the data. There were just a lot of small incremental changes.”
He believes, however, that Oracle had technological advantages over the New Zealand boat in a couple of areas – “although I’m not familiar with Team NZ and how they operated their boat.
“I can’t tell you what our systems were [for competitive reasons] but I think one area in which they suffered was with daggerboard control.”
A month before the regatta, Oracle was cleared to use an electro-mechanical device to open a hydraulic valve when adjusting the daggerboards. “It’s quite a complex area with several variables and it’s one of the things we solved quite well. One of my colleagues did a pretty exceptional job there. There were certainly improvements in our acceleration out of manoeuvres. At the start of the regatta we had a lot of leeway which affected our fast mode. Later, we changed some settings, which improved things in higher wind.”
Khan says that while the technology has leapt ahead, there’s room for further developments to help the boats go faster. “There’s one or two tools that, if I’d had more time, would have allowed an evolution in the software packages.
“To be honest, I think the wish-list of what I’d like to do will always be longer than what I’ve got time to do. When my wife phones to ask me when I’ll be finished, I tell her I could work for 10 years and not be finished.”
He’s married to Katie, a friend from school days he ran into on a visit home. She joined him in San Diego ahead of Oracle’s 2010 challenge. They have a 3-year-old son. They’re looking forward to a post-Cup break that will involve a summer in Auckland, where Khan will venture on to the water – but on something a little slower than a high-tech catamaran.
He says nothing is set in stone about Oracle’s next Cup defence. “I guess I’m going to be unemployed but I’m not immediately looking for work.
“I’ve got a few ideas for IT projects I want to look into and if I get bored I can jump on my paddleboard.”
Top students
Just as Kiwi boatbuilders, componentry manufacturers and sailors contributed greatly to the rival America’s Cup syndicates, Asim Khan’s involvement and that of other graduates has the University of Auckland basking in the Cup afterglow. Engineering graduate Kevin Borrows worked with Kahn as Oracle’s aerodynamic analyst. Another engineering graduate is CEO Russell Coutts, while Emirates Team New Zealand had ex-Auckland engineers Nick Holroyd, Burns Fallow and Chris Blake in design, instrumentation and technical roles.
Team New Zealand had an exclusive deal with the university’s Yacht Research Unit and wind tunnel and unit manager Dave Le Pelley assisted in aerodynamic and instrumentation work.
But Khan stresses the international flavour of Oracle’s performance-design team: his IT unit includes three Spaniards responsible for onboard software design, and Italian grinder Gilberto Nobili who programs the on-board PDAs and tablets. Khan was responsible for the database and wrote performance analysis software. He wore another hat as IT director, responsible for the databases for Oracle Racing websites and event information systems.
The framing is complete. Preparation for planking will start I expect. Finally the shape looks finished. She is the antithesis of the AC 72’s.
By Andy Rose
First, congratulations to Commodore Norbert Bajurin and the Golden Gate YC and Larry Ellison’s Oracle Team USA on an incredible comeback and successful second defense at the 34th America’s Cup. Congrats also to the Hamilton Island Yacht Club of Australia as Challenger of Record for the next Cup and the GGYC for accepting that challenge.
I think it is only fitting that after the most amazing America’s Cup, that the Challenger of Record for the next edition is from a country that held what generally is considered the best previous America’s Cup, in 1987. While Fremantle is about as far from Hamilton Island as you can get and still be on the Australian continent, they are all Aussies and it will be great to have them back!
Of course, I am somewhat prejudiced towards Australia given that I sailed as tactician on Australia I in the 1977 Cup, the first American to sail for another country. As America’s Cup Management head Iain Murray said to me, “You’re the guy that screwed this up”.
So, with regard to reflection, I might as well start with the nationality rule:
A Nationality Rule Should be Reinstated ?
I had good reasons for what I did way back then in the mists of time but I think the complete abandonment of the rule was a mistake. Given various concerns expressed by others, perhaps a sliding scale with three minimum percentages of national crew based on things like a country’s participation in major ocean races, Olympic Games, sailors with ISAF Match Race Rankings and to allow smaller countries to still compete, perhaps some credit for population or GNP. So, an inexperienced country might only have to have 33% national crew, an experienced but small country 50% while the US, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, etc. might have to have 66%. Obviously no one is going to listen to me, but some minimum percentage should be reinstated.
Don’t Give Up on “Majestic” –
I believe Russell Coutts was quoted as saying the 72’s were a mistake and they should have used the 45’s or at least something smaller but they thought they needed the boats to be big enough to be “majestic” for the America’s Cup. Russell, you weren’t wrong, you do need boats big enough to be a bit “majestic” and while we don’t need mega?yachts or 100 footers, the boats should be quite a bit larger than a typical ocean racer. Don’t underestimate the “wow” factor.
The TV was Great But Don’t Let That “Tail Wag the Dog” –
You can paint a NASCAR type number on the side of a hull but that doesn’t make it NASCAR or command those type of TV ratings. Congrats to Stan Honey and his team for the truly fabulous TV graphics but despite his best efforts, it doesn’t look like TV revenues are ever going to be a huge part of funding America’s Cups, at least if US viewership is a factor. Necessary, yes; fun to watch, yes: important for sponsor fulfillment, yes; providing significant revenue to share with teams, probably not.
If that is true, then it seems to me that you start with designing the best sailboat race you can and then perhaps make a few modifications to accommodate television, not the other way around. And what’s wrong with billionaires anyway? For better or worse, rich people have always been integral to getting Cup campaigns going and probably always will be.
The Catamarans Were the Big Draw, Monohulls Would Have Bored the Audience –
The cats were indeed spectacular and there were more lead changes than ever in the Cup. But does that mean that a 70?75 foot planing monohull with identifiable helmetless crew members in various positions on the boats grinding, trimming, hiking and setting and dousing huge spinnakers (instead of lined up in a row grinding hydraulics) with the boats a lot closer than 150?500 meters apart as was often/mostly the case in this Cup would not have attracted the same excitement on shore and on TV?
Match racing maxi?boats in the old days was pretty exciting, but a 5 minute match race pre?start among two modern boats in 25 knots of breeze would be breathtaking – both literally and figuratively – and both such boats planing within a boat length or two of each other at 20?25 knots of speed downwind with the spray flying wouldn’t be too bad a visual either. And finally, don’t underestimate the venue. San Francisco provided without a doubt the best visuals of any America’s Cup and I believe that added greatly to the visual impact of the Cup races and that would have been true no matter what boats were used.
Celebrate the Sport –
I cringed at a couple of the commentators statements to the effect that “now this is a real sport” as if only 72 foot catamarans sailing 20 minute races was “real” and things like, for example, the Volvo Round the World Race, the Olympics, the Sydney?Hobart, Bermuda or Fastnet Races, the World Match Race Tour, and frankly even those races in which us amateurs still sail offshore are some kind of quaint hobby. Sailing is a real, difficult, sometimes dangerous and incredibly complex sport and it seems to me that the America’s Cup of all things should highlight and honor that.
As Roger Vaughn wrote about this Cup, “We are still calling it sailing, calling it the future. The speed and the technology is intriguing, even momentarily arresting. But is it sailboat racing?” Well, of course it is part of our diverse sport, but couldn’t we include a few more parts of the sport in the next Cup? While every once in a while a “tactic” broke out, for the most part, the races were drag races and the only sail changes were the rare deployment of a code zero on a furler. And the fact is that the early races weren’t really close and neither ultimately were the later ones, the only difference was that one boat was faster at first, the other later.
Conclusion –
There were moments at the 34th America’s Cup that were nothing short of spectacular and exciting, especially the first mark roundings. But, since it sounds like these boats are about to be history due to expense and safety concerns, if the next Cup is in soft sail multi?hulls, logic would say that they are going to be somewhat less spectacular and yet the drawbacks of multi?hulls will still be there (lack of maneuverability thereby allowing less tactics; just as boring to watch as monohulls in light air; generally very large leads/deficits).
Yes, I know monohulls have drawbacks too but I’d sure love to see the boats I described above given a try. They’d be cheaper, more easily accessible to more countries (gotta have a bunch of challengers this time and it would probably help Oracle a lot to actually have competition to defend) and I think just as spectacular to watch in the long run. Of course, many of the great innovations from this Cup should continue including the World Series races in non?Cup years (something like Russell’s RC?44’s would be a good vehicle), and shorter courses than in the “old days”. I truly hope it will be held in San Francisco again and can imagine one race a day, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours long with the first weather leg about a mile and a couple of short reaches requiring gybes and/or sets of asymmetric chutes right in front of GGYC and the boundary on the City shore even closer. Trust me, that would require just as good an athlete as was touted and required on the 72’s this year.
Having said that, I’m old and obviously out of it and have absolutely no influence on anyone. But, just some thoughts from someone who still sails actively, has been involved in a number of Cup campaigns, and still remembers them as highlights of my life. But whatever the venue and boats next time, I will support GGYC and Oracle and can hardly wait for the next Cup.
Andy Rose (center) at the 2013 Governor’s Cup, the 47th Annual International Junior Match Race Championship
I sailed against Andy in college and then again in 12 meters later in life. I have made my share of criticisms, but The America’s Cup was a success. We, in my opinion, can never go back from this spectacle.
As I have stated before, I believe that there will be at least one foiling dinghy class in the Olympics; not in 2014, the the following one.
How does one reduce 99 days of travel including the America’s Cup in San Francisco, to a few photographs? It was there and back, east to west and west to east. We still saw so little, yet so much. Each photo represents a story of it’s own.
How Oracle turned their boat into the rocket ship that won the 34th America’s Cup
Having remained in San Francisco for a few days after the end of the event, I got to speak to a number of people about what was really going on. It didn’t take long for the real picture of what was behind the speed improvements to emerge.
Oracle’s jump in performance half way through the America’s Cup is still the subject of hot debate, particularly among the New Zealand press who are convinced that the black cat had some special device that allowed them to foil more effectively. Was the ‘Herbie’, as it became nicknamed, legal? Would Team New Zealand take legal action?
The speculation should have been brought to a halt after team boss Grant Dalton confirmed on Saturday that the team would not be taking legal action over the alleged device. But the chatter still goes on.
Oracle’s two boats were very different in their handling characteristics, indeed so much so that they were nicknamed by the crews, ‘the wife’ and ‘the mistress’, the latter being boat number one, the more lively, wayward boat. Modified extensively after the big crash in October, the mistress, which was the boat Ben Ainslie helmed during two boat training, was twitchy and difficult to keep under control. (Incidentally, I’m told that Ben’s full-on attitude towards helming the mistress often gave her crew the jitters.)
Boat number two ‘the wife’, Spithill’s machine, was a far better balanced and dependable machine. This was the boat that went on to be in the Cup, but even then she was a very different boat by the end of the event.
Here are some of the modifications that took place.
Rudder T foil modification
This was one of the biggest performance enhancing changes.
The T-foils on Oracle’s rudders were found to be cavitating at speed which caused drag and reduced the lift of the foil. The bubble was developing at the intersection of the vertical rudder and horizontal foil, towards the after end. To reduce this a filet was added.
But I’m also hearing that a nose cone type device was also fitted to the forward end of the rudder foil intersection to move the pressure distribution, much like the bulbous bow on a ship.
While the modifications may have reduced the drag of the rudder, there may well have been an improvement in the trim of the boat too. With more efficient lift at the back, it may have been possible to reduce the angle of attack of the main foils, reducing drag further.
Hull interceptor
A vertical plate like device known as an interceptor was fitted to the transoms to modify the flow out from the stern and reduce drag. The system acts like a boot spoiler on a car and is a popular device on boats like Open 60s.
Asymmetric set up
I’m told that the boat was set up asymmetrically, possibly with a bit more angle of attack on the starboard daggerboard. This improved the boat’s performance on port tack, allowing the crew to put the bows down, go for more speed, pop up onto the foils, increasing speed as the drag reduced and yet still maintain the same true wind angle on port.
On starboard the boat performed less well, but with the breeze cranked around more to the left, there was more port tack action than starboard.
When they were sailing downwind on starboard, the boat sailed deeper for the same speed as the foil hauled the boat to leeward making a better VMG downwind. Again with left hand breeze there was more starboard tack than port.
Mast Rake
The rig was raked further aft to make the boat point better and improve her balance.
Wing power lower down
More power was generated in the wingsail by sailing with a more vertical leech in the lower sections and twisting the op off more.
Bowsprit
The team made plenty of play of this, most likely as it was the most visible change, but the reality was that removing it for breezy days reduced weight and windage. The latter was however particularly important with 50knots over the deck upwind.
Main foil adjustment
Contrary to the Kiwi press’ speculations, the boat did not have a ‘Stability Augmentation System’ (SAS) fitted. I’m led to believe that the team did look into something along these lines early on but ditched the idea.
Instead, the main foils were adjusted with a mechanical ratchet style device that had fixed settings for a variety of angles of attack. Broadly speaking similar to the way that a bicycles gears are changed with a lever and fixed settings.
Other differences
Although not specific alterations, there were other key differences with the main foils. Oracle has much shallower foils, by around 1m and are much less curved than the Kiwis. Presumably one of the advantages here was lower drag from the reduced wetted surface area. A visible clue to this was how Oracle rode lower to the water’s surface than the kiwi boat. A less welcome characteristic aboard Oracle when at speed was that the boat would rise up so far that the main foil would run out of lateral support and jump sideways, planting the boat back down on the water. We saw this on a few occasions when she was being pressed hard on the first leg and around the first mark.
Key game changer
I’m also told that Oracle’s big changes, I think to the rudder, were made on the 16 October, the day that both teams agreed to take off rather than race. In hindsight this could have been one of the Kiwis’ big mistakes as they were on a roll at this point having 7 points to Oracle’s one. Agreeing to a day off allowed Oracle to engineer their biggest leap in performance as the built the major mod. Although this didn’t give them an instant win straight away, it took just one race to tweak the boat after which they won every race from the 19th onwards.
The Kiwis only won a single race after the 16th.
International C Class Catamaran Championship- Oracle Lead Designer – Dirk Kramers from Penalty Box Productions on Vimeo.
Once again thanks to Sailing Anarchy
