AC72 Oracle Team USA Spaceship has landed

This isn't really knowledge but, apparently the 33's are test platforms and they are trying every type of foil they can think of on them. even the 72's have 2 different foils often.
from the photos it looks like the curved part of the foil is mostly in the hull when in the down position. the business end is an

L

. the cant of the

L

is something to play with as are the tip foils shape/angle, etc.
Rudders have similar aspects to play with as well. it seems to me that an end plate on a daggerboard would help quite a bit to windward as well as become a hydro-foil off the wind. finding a happy medium between these 2 points of sail and the characteristics of the end plate would be a job, and require all sorts of testing.

there is some debate as to whether the extreme fineness ratio of the 72's may be fast enough to eliminate the need to fully foil in an upwind/downwind course with some 1-2 minute legs.

I really don't think we will see them foiling upwind. I think they'll use the foils to make the boat a little lighter in the water - but not foil born. Downwind, however, probably.

Agreed, the no foiling to windward seems to be the consensus.
Most likely they are canting the lee board for sailing off the wind, which when combined with the wing tip or

L

gives the enough vertical lift to fully foil. Their speed may or may not increase, and their angle downwind may improve. Some speculation says both speed and angle will improve from foiling.
They are limited in the number of 72 dagger boards that they are allowed to make, but they can make as many SL33 or ac 45 dagger boards as they want to help figure this new development out. Mr. Melvin is on the design team for NZ so it makes sense for them to use the 33 as a test platform. Atrtemis focused on the big wing first and don't appear to be in agreement that fully foiling is the way to go.
the original mockup of the 72s showed banana boards, but i imagine that they work better on small cats that are crew weight trimmed, and big tris that have a regular board in the center hull. once they tried

L

and

T

foils they didn't look back.
can you imagine flying into the leeward gate at 40 knts., having to round up and crank the daggerboard to a de-canted position? what a learning curve this contest must have.
On the jibes it seems like they would set the new board before the jibe, but when 17 capsized going into their jibe they still had the 1 board up. if it had been down maybe both hulls would have been clear of the water and nosing in would not have been an issue.

Dear Santa:
All I want for Christmas is a wing!

America's Cup in Photos

Can't wait to see some video of Jimmy foiling the Moth.

New Years Resolution? . . .

keep the AC72 upright

. . .

Oracle's New Wing

ETNZ boat#2

Coutts:

Oh my!
Free swag . . .

no way is that for free.

somebody's pulling our leg

I think it's legit, it's also posted on the official AC's Facebook page.

Maybe they already tried selling it, the market for 130ft trimaran day sailors can't be that big <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

and it's in two pieces.... on purpose?

it's probably the one that broke...but I don't understand why they have pictures of dagger board molds and the like in that posting. It seems out of character.

Other carbon fibre items (molds, boom, broken mast, etc) from the same boat are available.

Hmm, how to get from SF to Annapolis...

Go get the free mast, stick it on a Laser, and sail it 'round the Horn!

Looks like the board molds are up for grabs.

Looks like something Krantz could use to turbo his Reynolds 😛

Karl #2 has been looking into a bigger mast for his viper. Maybe this will work for him.

Its easy to forget how big that crap is until you see those molds in the parking lot.

If the add is fake, I cant really see how they could be worth much.

Not many bridges high enough for that mast either.

Oracle countdown to relaunch

Team NZ has launched their 2nd AC72 today.
article here
Let's pour the champagne on the hull to christen her, don't want to break the carbon!

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Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific in SF . . .
Looks like the new Oracle boat has done away with the tiller.

more boat porn . . .
image 1
image 2

What makes you say that?

http://livesaildie.com/oracle-team-usa-ac72-v17-1/

http://www.americascup.com/en/news/8/teams/11540/improved-oracle-team-usa-boat-back-in-the-water

Some pics from Jeremy at Sail Revolution

wheel
more
more

Somebody mentioned this early on in this thread and was spot on . . .

“The amount that the platform racked (twisted) was a trade-off with weight and windage in the structure of the boat,” he explained. “That trade-off is still there. We’ve made some subtle changes that will reduce the racking, but again, it’s a design decision trading off windage and weight.”

Some NZ goodies . . .

I hope that wheel base articulates (it looks like it might)...it's AWFULLY close to that winch.

I have wondered why some of the foils haven't been shaped like the new OR foils. From my aviation days, it seems the dihedral there would create some extra stability.

Dont really understand why the helming position is so low (apart from windage), shouldnt he be able to oversee the whole boat from that position? (Especially with matchracing?).

Great interview with Grant Dalton! Enlightening indeed.

Dalton referring to Oracle 17

It's going to go like stink upwind!

NZ named their second AC72 - Aotearoa
(Aotearoa is the Maori name for New Zealand, meaning the land of the long white cloud, said to the the first sighting of New Zealand by the first migration.)

This is first of a series of four with Grant Dalton, Kevin Shoebridge (COO on the shorecrew), Dean Barker (Skipper on the sailing aspects) and Nick Holroyd (Design Director).