Is the America’s Cup a futures influencer? Or just a billionaire’s playground and a big waste of money? Jan Pehrson looks for answers following the4 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona, Spain:
Some people feel the money spent around the America’s Cup should be better spent helping humanity instead of on sailboat racing. They argue, “How about spending the mega money that it costs to host and compete in the America’s Cups on education, for example, or medicine, or lifting people out of poverty?”
But let’s consider an America’s Cup cost/benefit analysis – what if the benefits to humanity of the America’s Cup trickle down into our global culture, and exceed, over time, the cost of the event?
What if there are spin-offs from the America’s Cup that produce something additional, something not originally planned? The space program has spun off many new commercial applications. Why not the America’s Cup?
Since its inception in 1851, the America’s Cup, the oldest competition in international sport, has been the research and development arm of the sport of sailboat racing. Innovations do not necessarily originate at the America’s Cups, but due to the prominence of the event, experimental technologies are refined here and made visible to the public.
Sometimes, unexpected spin-offs from these innovations happen, both in and out of the realm of sailboat racing.
Many new technologies have been tried in the America’s Cups, some successfully and some not. New technologies that increase boat speed are easy to spot – they translate into which boat wins the 173-year-old America’s Cup.
Twelve Metre Class boats were the rule used in the America’s Cup from 1958 to 1987. In the 1987 America’s Cup in Freemantle, Australia, Tom Blackaller entered an experimental design with fore-and-aft rudders USA (US-61), nicknamed “R-1” for “Revolutionary.” The boat was fast, although it could be difficult to control, and did not win.
After 1987, the America’s Cup moved away from the 12 Metre Class, leaving even more room for innovation, and since then we have seen America’s Cup boats with various designs made of various materials. Permutations, to name just a few, included large catamarans, small catamarans, monohulls, winged keels, canting keels, hard wingsails, and soft sails of composite fibers.
Team New Zealand was the first to foil an America’s Cup boat in 2012, a huge innovation. The Kiwis say that a big reason their team has won the last three America’s Cups is that creativity is in their DNA. Right from the first challenge for the America’s Cup in 1987, New Zealand designers have always been thinking outside the box. Travel back in time and their ancestors came up with equally radical designs to conquer the mighty Pacific!
Since 2012, foiling technology has evolved, with today’s AC75 Class boats using hydraulic foil cant systems which enable the boats to rise up on hydrofoils, minimizing drag and allowing for unprecedented speeds.
In between America’s Cups, teams continually experiment with ideas that are permitted within the rules in effect at the time. During the actual sailing competition of the America’s Cups, shore teams and data engineers work day-and-night, pouring over data continually fed from the boats on the water, looking for ways to make their boats faster.
AC75s can sail at more than 50 knots of boat speed — boats have managed 40 knots of boat speed upwind in 7-10 knots of wind — so even the tiniest addition to boat speed can make the difference between victory or defeat.
Advancements made through America’s Cup research and development over the years are trickling down and changing traditional sailboat racing and cruising.
The popularization of foiling technology has transformed the world of high-performance dinghies and high-performance superyachts. Carbon fiber rigs and Dyneema for running rigging have enhanced performance by reducing weight while maintaining strength and durability.
So, back to the original question – all these America’s Cup innovations are exciting, but expensive. Are there spin-offs, and do they affect only sailboat racing and cruising, or do they reach into other realms?
I asked futurist, rocket scientist and fluid dynamics expert Dr. Jack Bacon for his opinion about spin-offs from America’s Cup research and development.
Dr. Bacon has written three books on technology and its impact on society. He has lectured on these topics in 33 countries on all seven continents. A 31-year veteran rocket scientist at NASA, he spent his career as a key technical integrator of the International Space Station, coordinating national and global practices to reduce the production of orbital debris.
Dr. Bacon compares the America’s Cup campaigns to the space race.
“Any technological development effort that strives to push beyond past limits will, of necessity, bring some new capabilities into the human experience,” he replied. “In the space race, the USA and Russia were challenged to reduce the weight and to improve the reliability of every facet of human life—-food, waste management, energy generation and storage, insulation and thermal control, navigation, optics, materials and more.
“People marveled at the cost and wondered if it was worth it. Consider that the printed circuit board originated within the space program as a way to survive launch loads and eliminate most of the mass in electrical systems. Examine how it now permeates every facet of our lives. An untold multitude of improvements have evolved from our challenging the limits of space travel.
“Today, America’s Cup technological developments are filtering up to the space industry, for example, in the design of space suit fabrics and forms and carbon fiber space launch systems.”
The America’s Cup of recent years is often compared to Formula 1 auto racing.
Formula 1 has led to spin-offs into all facets of road travel, as described by Dr. Bacon: “In high performance motor sports, the heavily financed racing syndicates have pioneered new materials and techniques, including fuel injection, piston design, aerodynamics, transmissions, tire manufacture, and perhaps most importantly, safety.”
There is overlap in personnel and sharing of information between the America’s Cup and Formula 1. For example, The Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli includes Pirelli racing as a key part of their development team. Also, the British team INEOS Britannia has partnered with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science with the objective of bringing together the best of the world’s high-performance marine and automotive engineers.
In the America’s Cup AC75 boats, airflow is harnessed efficiently for speed. Can this apply to the world of maritime transport?
“Yes,” says Dr. Bacon. “Many people dismiss sailboat racing (in particular, the America’s Cup) as a rich man’s pastime. However, the hundreds of millions of dollars invested in each Cup campaign inevitably evolve new technologies, materials, and techniques that can someday become important to overall maritime practice. Consider that the wing sails of past Cup campaigns have evolved to significantly reduce the fuel requirement of the European Space Agency’s large MV Canopée.”
The MV Canopée, a pioneer in the energy transition of maritime transport, is the world’s first hybrid industrial cargo ship powered by wind, using both wind and fuel to propel itself across the oceans.
Launched in 2022, MV Canopée is 121meters long, 22 meters wide, and is operating today under the flag of France. It has four wind-powered Oceanwings that can cut fuel consumption of the engine in half. Additionally, Roll-On, Roll-Off cargo transports are currently under construction using this same technology, at enormous fuel savings and a reduced carbon footprint.
Dr. Bacon looks into the future and envisions a potential America’s Cup spin-off that may advance one of the greatest maritime engineering challenges – how to reduce cavitation, a limiting factor in marine performance that slows boat speed. Cavitation mitigation has been the subject of major maritime research for decades as scientists seek positive environmental impacts by increasing efficiency and reducing fuel.
“Cavitation is an unwanted feature of propellers and any other fast object in water, where pressures in the accelerated water can drop below its vapor pressure, resulting in disruptive vapor pockets that ruin performance. Cavitation is the limiting factor in America’s Cup foiling yachts. In such a fiercely competitive environment as the America’s Cup, it is possible, and maybe even probable, that advancements in this area will spin-off to the marine industry.”
As to what spin-offs the future may bring, we can only speculate because the future isn’t here yet.
One thing is for sure – boats are getting faster with each America’s Cup cycle, and these performance changes will likely trickle down and spin-off to advance other fields. Do these improvements justify the cost? Only time will tell!
Photo of Canopée. © Jifmar Group Library / Tom Van Oossanen
Jan Pehrson is a sailing photojournalist who spends summers in San Francisco, California and winters in St. Pete Beach, Florida. As a racing and cruising sailor and Coast Guard licensed skipper, Jan’s familiarity with sailing and the sailing community lends an in-depth element to her prolific array of photographs and articles. Contact her at www.janpehrson.com.
