{"id":1221,"date":"2011-02-07T12:12:57","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T17:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2011-02-07T12:12:57","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T17:12:57","slug":"under-the-hood-in-the-americas-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/?p=1221","title":{"rendered":"UNDER THE HOOD IN THE AMERICA’S CUP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
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Wingsails for the AC72: 2013 America’s Cup
\nPart 2 with Designer Pete Melvin<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

February 3, 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/td>\nAC45 boat #1. The AC45 wing is 21.5m\/70ft tall. The AC72 wing will be up to 40m\/131 ft tall, about 86% larger by height and nearly double in area.<\/span>
\nPhoto:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\/americascup.com
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Pete Melvin, a co-author of the AC72 Class Rule, explains where technology development is likely to focus for the AC72, why the America’s Cup cats ended up with two wing sizes, and the role of the sailors in what looks like an increasingly computer-driven fast-tracked development environment:<\/em><\/p>\n

The wing sail, brought forward from BMW Oracle Racing\u2019s successful America\u2019s Cup 33 challenge, might just be the area of greatest design advancement for the 34th defense of the America’s Cup in 2013.\u00a0 There is noticeable excitement in Pete Melvin\u2019s voice when he discusses the possibilities of a Class Rule left wide open — and left that way for a reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the wing and the underwater foils will be two huge areas of development.\u00a0 The wing needs to be a certain height and area, but how you get there, how many elements or slots or what your structure is or what your controls are, that\u2019s up in the air.\u00a0 There\u2019s been some good development on the wing in the past, but budgets have been pretty small, so we\u2019re hoping to see development in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

What sort of advancements?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know, things that work better and are simpler and less expensive\u2026.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of promise for wings on boats, so I think this will be one of those areas that will be a good trickle down.\u00a0 We think there is some area for improvement in wing design, so we didn\u2019t want to limit it to geometries that have been used in the past.\u00a0 We looked at a rule that\u2019s more restrictive, such as the wings that are being used in the C-Class, but it was very difficult to write a rule around a 3D object with moving parts.\u00a0 Whenever we wrote a rule to limit something, we would find five ways around it.\u00a0 By writing very restrictive rules, you actually increase complexity and cost, so by leaving things open, things turn out to be much simpler, elegantly efficient.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor instance, the Oracle trimaran originally had six foils,\u201d Melvin points out.\u00a0 \u201cIt ended up with four — the center daggerboard and rudder were removed in the end.\u00a0 The wing could have been any design.\u00a0 But it actually ended up with a fairly simple wing, geometrically, and the appendages were as simple as you could get.\u00a0 If you look at the very successful racing classes around the world, such as the Open 60, they have very few rules.\u00a0 They\u2019re a box rule and they\u2019ve ended up very elegantly simple.\u00a0 Every year, there are incremental performance gains, but the boats don\u2019t any cost more, it\u2019s just different geometry and configurations.\u00a0 If you\u2019re going to spend time and money on something, you might as well leave it a little bit open and let true development happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nWave-piercing bows of the AC45.
\n<\/span>Photo:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\/americascup.com
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\u201cThe parameters of the boat we have restricted to small ranges are really the key elements:\u00a0 Beam, weight, sail area, waterline length.\u00a0 Those are the main restrictions.<\/p>\n

“The hull shape can be anything you want.\u00a0 You\u2019re allowed to have two rudders and two daggerboards, but they can be any shape you want.\u00a0 We\u2019ll probably see wider variations at first, but as everyone tests designs, they\u2019ll probably all start to look alike as we go forward, and performance will be closer.\u00a0 A bigger performance difference will be the actual sailors.\u00a0 These are new boats, so there will be differences in the learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, yes, sailors.\u00a0 Depending upon what you read during America\u2019s Cup 33, what with hydraulically-canted masts, thousands of data points processed per second, and real-time heads-up display of structural loads and alarms, it’s easy to believe that software was running USA-17, not a real live crew, and that computers will win the day for AC34.\u00a0 But as an experienced designer of some of the most advanced multihulls in the sport, Melvin has every confidence in the ability of top sailors to figure out this new design, and he knows that sailing talent is a key ingredient in creating a fast boat in the first place, let alone winning with one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best sailors, sailing either an Optimist or an AC72, the cream will always rise to the top.\u00a0 Some people may not be able to get their heads around a totally different concept, but if you\u2019re a world-class sailor and you have an open mind, there\u2019s no reason you can\u2019t become a world-class multihull sailor as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe design teams should be able to give the sailors a very good idea of how to set the boat up and sail it initially, but like any other new boat, it will have to be developed on the water.\u00a0 It\u2019s impossible to model the real world in a computer, there are too many variables.\u00a0 It will be a development process; most of the teams will be sailing similar boats as they ramp up, like the AC45s, and I would think you\u2019ll see most of the teams sailing other multihulls, getting some smaller boats, designing and testing smaller wings for those boats, testing some concepts and tuning up the sailing team\u00a0and<\/em> the design team.\u201d<\/p>\n

If one actually reads the Class Rule (show of hands?), it is instructive to see just how much leeway Melvin and the organizers have incorporated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is interesting about the rule, and the event planning, is that organizers are leaving quite a bit up in the air so they can discard concepts that don\u2019t work and change plans midstream.\u00a0 The size and the type of race course, for example, is still being debated and several ideas will likely be tried during the next year of America\u2019s Cup World Series events.\u201d<\/p>\n

The practical implications of bringing wingsail technology to the America\u2019s Cup illustrate the sort of complexities that arise in adapting to the new class rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were sizing the wing, the end requirement was that the boat would be able to race in 5 to 30 knots.\u00a0 That\u2019s a pretty wide range.\u00a0 But that was one of our challenges, the mandate from the media that \u2018the show must go on,\u2019 that there couldn\u2019t be the delays we\u2019d seen previously.\u00a0 The TV crews are there from around the world, so even if it\u2019s not perfect conditions, we have to race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the demand to be able to start races on time in most wind conditions was essential for the 2013 Defense, the America\u2019s Cup is about both advanced technology and high-intensity match racing, and even if the starting sequence is on schedule, the racing itself has to be America\u2019s Cup-level competition.\u00a0 Bringing the sporting side along in the move closer to the cutting edge required some creative solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nShort (32.7m\/107 ft) and tall (40m\/131 ft) AC72 wings.<\/span>
\nImage: Class Rule\/americascup.com
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\u201cThat was one of the more challenging technical aspects of the rule, to come up with something that could fly a hull in five or six knots, but also race effectively in 28.\u00a0 We ended up with a wing that was a moderate size and some large headsails so you could vary your sail plan area by quite a bit through the range of conditions.\u00a0 We thought that you could still survive in 30 knots, but for anyone who\u2019s raced around the buoys in 30 knots, it is pretty much survival at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than compromise excessively on the new boat, several options for adapting wing sails to the conditions were considered, and the resulting AC72 Class now provides for two wing sizes.\u00a0 A tall wing can be used in lighter breeze, with the shorter wing employed in the types of higher winds that kept the old ACC boats at the dock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe short wing came in toward the end\u00a0—<\/span> the feedback we were getting was that guys would rather be able to race hard in 25 or 30 knots, so we looked at the concept of removable tips at the top of the wing, above the forestay, but the more we researched it we didn\u2019t think it would be effective.\u00a0 So we thought a short wing would be preferable solution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something you have to have in 2012, but in 2013 you have to show up at events with a short wing,” Melvin says.\u00a0 “All that is a protocol issue, so I would imagine the call for a short wing would come the night before a race.<\/p>\n

The two wing sizes each have corresponding jibs, code zeros and gennakers, which shall not be intermixed — bringing up still more questions that Melvin and his team could not answer in the four months they had to write the Class Rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nSetting up the AC45 wing for the first time.<\/span>
\nPhoto:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\/americascup.com
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\u201cWe thought about whether we should do more research into logistics for this rule, but we decided that the task of writing a rule in four months was big enough — to design a logistical program was asking too much.\u00a0 We were a pretty small team, so we knew that all the good ideas were not going to originate with our team.\u00a0 Once the rule was out, incredibly bright people from all these teams would start to figure it out.\u00a0 So the logistical team goes from 10 people to 100 plus people.\u00a0 We thought that was a better way to let it naturally evolve.\u201d<\/p>\n

In absence of hand-on experience with the AC72 in a regatta setting, how the teams and race organizers handle the big cats will indeed be a learning experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso under discussion is whether or not to take the masts out at night and how quickly teams should expect to have to change from the tall wing to the short wing,\u201d says Melvin.<\/p>\n

Knowledge gained from BMW Oracle\u2019s wingsail experience is only of limited help, but Melvin believes the America\u2019s Cup community will progress readily up the AC72 learning curve and gain confidence in how to deal with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nWorking out ways to moor the AC45 in the Viaduct.<\/span>
\nPhoto:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\/americascup.com
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\u201cBOR90 developed ways to handle the wing, which was over 200 feet tall.\u00a0 It was scary taking that thing up and down, because of its sheer size and all the unknowns involved, so it was very stressful.\u00a0 These boats are quite a bit smaller.\u00a0 The Stars and Stripes boat from 1988 is closer in size to the AC72, at 60\u2019, and the owners down in Mexico keep it on a mooring.\u00a0 That seems to work very well most of the time, so, unless you have some extreme weather coming in, the easiest way to park the boats would be in a mooring.\u00a0 As the teams get more comfortable with the boats, all these perceived issues will go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did get written into the rule was a large amount of media-specific design, courtesy of Stan Honey, chair of the media development group.\u00a0 Melvin believes it\u2019s a good move on the part of organizers to focus on the media presentation, to put viewers right on the trampoline of the boat as it screams across San Francisco Bay.\u00a0 The AC72 Rule requires provisions for no fewer than seven High Definition agile mounted cameras, three platforms for camera operators with handheld High Definition cameras, and 18 microphones for surround-sound, plus two media bays for cases, cabling, batteries, etc.\u00a0 This equipment is provided by the America\u2019s Cup Regatta Management and unlike past America\u2019s Cup\u2019s none of it can be turned off by the competitors.<\/p>\n

With the AC72 Rule officially adopted, these days Melvin has taken off his writing hat and replaced it with his designing hat, working with a heretofore-unnamed Cup team on their first boat.\u00a0 Leaving so much up in the air is great for the rule writer, but for the designer?\u00a0 Not so much.\u00a0 Some might wonder about a conflict of interest when a Class Rule author becomes a designer of that very same class, but for Melvin the design task is no easier because of it.\u00a0 He faces the same questions everyone else does.\u00a0 It\u2019s difficult to know for sure which paths to pursue with the new boat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe courses have not been developed.\u00a0 I know with the AC45s, they\u2019re planning some innovative courses and will do some experimentation there.\u00a0 It is a little bit tough, now that we\u2019re working on designing one of these boats, we\u2019d like to know what the course looks like, whether we\u2019ll have reaches or not, whether you want to design the boat so it\u2019s faster downwind or upwind, or what the right blend there is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the current Protocol, the courses are due to be announced in December of 2011, but designs of the first AC72\u2019s will already be committed at that point, with the boats far along in the construction process and nearing launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no time to understand what the courses are before you design your boat.\u00a0 I really hope they revise that and move that date closer so that when you\u2019re designing your boat, you know.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not sure if that will happen, so it\u2019s a little bit of a guessing game.\u00a0 In some of the meetings, they have showed some prospective courses to some of the challengers, and they involve reaches and even downwind starts, things like that.\u00a0 So it\u2019s all up for grabs right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you proceed with a boat design amid that degree of uncertainty?<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I think you\u2019d better be designing a boat that can do everything well, being able to switch gears and have some ideas on how you might mode your boat for different kinds of courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fun part for us is doing all the \u2018what ifs\u2019, just getting our heads around the rule as it exists, thinking of what the boat might look like and coming up with conceptual ideas, investigating different ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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<\/td>\nAC45, View from the top.<\/span>
\nPhoto:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\/americascup.com
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\u201cOne neat thing about it is it\u2019s as much a management competition as it is a sailing or design contest.\u00a0 If you just hire a group of designers, put them in a room and say \u2018design this boat,\u2019 you could have people going off in all sorts of directions and looking at all sorts of cool stuff, but in the end there\u2019s a budget.\u00a0 And most important is time.\u00a0 This conceptual phase is extremely important.\u00a0 You realize there are some things that we think could be interesting, but we\u2019re not going to have time to look at that.\u00a0 When it\u2019s all new, there are so many things going around everyone\u2019s heads, so many things you could look at and investigate, but you\u2019ve really got to quickly boil those down to the things that are really promising and will give you the best return and get you across the finish line first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question that will linger, if only because definitive proof will take until 2013, is what will a full-bore Louis Vuitton Cup and America’s Cup be like in a multihull class?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that after the match in February [2010], there was a lot of opposition to having multihulls in the America\u2019s Cup.\u00a0 But over the course of time between February and the release of the rule in October, more people had become open-minded about it.\u00a0 If you can change a person from being a monohull fan to multihulls, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 But I think people are willing to have an open mind, let this process play out and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin knows how much is at stake here — including a lifelong reputation as a guru of multihulls.\u00a0 He also knows that many America\u2019s Cup fans and participants alike have a way to go until they are convinced that a multihull will do justice to the event in which they are so invested.\u00a0 All Melvin asks is \u2018Give this a chance\u2019.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wingsails for the AC72: 2013 America’s Cup Part 2 with Designer Pete Melvin February 3, 2011 AC45 boat #1. The AC45 wing is 21.5m\/70ft tall. The AC72 wing will be up to 40m\/131 ft tall, about 86% larger by height and nearly double in area. Photo:\u00a92011\u00a0Gilles Martin-Raget\/americascup.com Pete Melvin, a co-author of the AC72 Class … Continue reading UNDER THE HOOD IN THE AMERICA’S CUP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[2480],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americas-cup","tag-wing-sails"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1222,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions\/1222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stephenlirakis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}