COMMENT
THINGS ARE CHANGING SO RAPIDLY IN THE AMERICA’S CUP ARENA THAT, WITH ONE YEAR TO GO, ANYTHING COULD HAPPEN
As we passed through the narrow harbour entrance you could feel the tension on board. No one really knew what to expect. We could see the gusts on the water outside Auckland’s Viaduct Basin and, while they wouldn’t have been an issue with a conventional sail plan, a solid wingsail is a different beast.
Efficient yes, low drag, yes, but unlike the analogue feel to handling a soft sail, there’s little between full ‘on’ and ‘off ’ with a wing. Think riding a motorcycle with a switch rather than a throttle and you’re getting the picture. At least that’s what we’d been told.
It had been a breezy day from the outset on the day of the first practice races for the brand new AC45 cats back in 2011, with a forecast for little change. Just stepping the wing masts had been a nervewracking affair, although no one wanted to admit it.
The reality was that while wingsails had been around for some time, very few people outside the A-Class cat scene (and one famous Cup defence) had actually sailed with one. Few had ever hung one from a crane either. So, while they were doubtless proud to be at the cutting edge of the Cup, most of those holding onto the guy ropes would probably have preferred fewer members of the press there to record the first steps of the ambitious and controversial new America’s Cup cycle.
As we headed out into the Hauraki Gulf that day I was placing my trust in skipper Santiago Lange, accomplished multihull sailor and Olympic sailing legend in the making.
‘What could possibly go wrong?’ I asked myself. And of course, nothing did. But there was still an underlying nervous excitement that we were breaking new ground as the Cup took its first controversial steps into one design cat racing.
During the same event there was a well publicised capsize aboard the Oracle AC45 catamaran. Until then ‘capsize’ was not a term that had been used in the Cup, now there were signs this might become the norm. Traditionalists were up in arms.
No sooner were we getting used to AC45 crews in wetsuits, than the cats were riding high on foils. The learning curve was vertical for most and it was difficult to imagine this period of rapid development being surpassed.
Twelve years later it’s clear the cycle is repeating itself, but at an even faster rate as the AC40s and the LEQ12 development boats push the performance bar even higher.
By the time you read this we’ll know what a fleet race in AC40s looks like as the first America’s Cup preliminary regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú will have taken place (see Yacthing World’s report from on the water on page 10).
