america's cup yacht evolution

The 12m Class and the America’s Cup By Halsey C. Herreshoff

Credit: www.herreshoff.org

The 150-year history of the America’s Cup, the oldest and most distinguished prize in world sport, is summarized from the author’s vantage point of belonging to a family of boat designers and builders who contributed to the dominance of American yachts from the beginning into the 1980s. Particulars and performances of the most important designs are described from AMERICA to the current International America’s Cup Class.

Introduction

The America’s Cup is the Holy Grail of yacht racing. It is much more. This Cup, in competition for a period of 150 years, is the oldest and most distinguished trophy in all sport, outdating the World Cup, Davis Cup, Stanley Cup, Walker Cup, and all others of significance. Excepting the lavish excesses of big time modern professional sport, more talent, effort, and money have been devoted to the America’s Cup than for any other sport competitions. From the standpoint of naval architecture, America’s Cup intensity has inspired countless design breakthroughs, fallout from which benefit all yachts today to an extent generally unrealized by those who sail. Here, a highly focused pursuit of excellence has provided quality, boldness, and dedication to be the best. The most elegant hull lines, most efficient construction, best sails, and most skillful sailing techniques have evolved from America’s Cup competition.

For 132 years (1851 to 1983), the United States enjoyed the longest winning streak in all sport. There were close calls but always the U.S. won the series and most of the individual races. Through that time, American yachts were generally, though not always, the fastest; thus, it may be fairly stated that victories followed very much from technical prowess.

As with any ship design, a sailing yacht embodies many necessary elements, which must dovetail to accomplish its mission. What is nice about America’s Cup design is that the only mission is speed, maneuverability and reliability to best a single match race rival around a closed course. Size, weight, wetted surface, hull form, light but strong construction, efficient rigs with good sails, sea kindliness and maneuverability are necessary. In general the successful boats embody acceptable or superior selections in the above categories. Bold innovation has been rewarded, but nearly always, extremes have failed. In a series of yacht races encompassing generally a variety of wind and sea conditions, an overall good boat wins.

It is appropriate to divide America’s Cup history into seven logical chronological divisions. The outstanding or most interesting yacht of each period will be addressed herewith. Listed below are the America’s Cup competitions by era with the names of the winning and defeated yachts respectively. In each case the focus yacht is in boldface type.

The l2-Metre era: 1958-1987

Following World War II, the conventional wisdom on both sides of the Atlantic was that the America’s Cup was done. The world was rebuilding and there seemed little prospect of funding further J boats given their assumed greatly accelerated cost. The Cup itself remained the pride of the New York Yacht Club, continually on display in the trophy room of the 44th Street Club House. Most of us expected it to just remain there for a long time, perhaps never to be raced for again.

Enter Commodores Henry Sears and Henry Morgan of the New York Yacht Club. By petitioning the Supreme Court of the State of New York, they modified the Deed of Gift to allow smaller yachts without the previous demand that challengers must cross the ocean on their own bottoms. It was agreed to compete in the International 12-Metre Class, which had provided excellent racing for several years before the war. Designed to the rather tight specifications of the International Rule, these boats did not really fit the grand traditions of the Cup but nevertheless provided nearly three decades of some of the finest match racing ever.

1958-1987: The 12-Metres 1958 COLUMBIA vs. SCEPTRE 1962 WEATHERLY vs. GRETEL 1964 CONSTELLATION vs. SOVEREIGN 1967 INTREPID vs. DAME PATTIE 1970 INTREPID vs. GRETEL II 1974 COURAGEOUS vs. SOUTHERN CROSS 1977 COURAGEOUS vs. AUSTRALIA 1980 FREEDOM vs. AUSTRALIA 1983 AUSTRALIA II vs. LIBERTY 1987 STARS & STRIPES vs. KOOKABURRA III

I can write more knowledgeably about the 12-Metre era than any other, as I was an active participant for 25 years and an observer for the full 29 years. Through acquaintance with Harry Sears, I was excused from other duties as a naval officer to sail aboard COLUMBIA, the 1958 Cup Defender, as bowman. Sailing aboard the 12’s in most of their seasons, I participated in four America’s Cup series, a total of 20 races; it was all about the greatest fun I’ve ever had.

The International Rule is an inelegant arbitrary formula that controls and restricts the design of these boats within narrow limits. There is a minimum length, maximum draft, maximum rig heights, and a set relation between length and displacement. Scantlings first in wood and later in aluminum are tightly controlled by specifics of the rule, Nevertheless, innovation in design particularly by Olin Stephens brought about nearly continual improvement of the boats, and the design edge of the United States long seemed to assure retention of the Cup as it did over many matches through 1980.

Curiously, some of the finest racing of all was in the finals of the first selection trials between COLUMBIA, sailed by Briggs Cunningham and designed by Sparkman & Stephens against Stephens prewar 12-Metre VIM. These were great tactical battles with racing margins of a few seconds in many races. The Cup race itself that year was a walk; SCEPTRE was a quite inferior design that had never faced competition before the match. As had happened a few times before, WEATHERLY, a weak American boat, won in 1962 by the brilliance of Bus Mobacher, her skipper. That was the first year of an Australian challenger and GRETEL won a race demonstrating the aggressive posture of Australian sailors.

Another S&S yacht, CONSTELLATION won in 1964. She was a quite elegant all-round boat, which was selected as Cup Defender over the large and powerful AMERICAN EAGLE, which was only superior in heavy weather. This should have been a tip off to the future but the true significance of having to design the smallest possible 12-Metre for Newport conditions was not generally appreciated until Australia II lifted the Cup in 1983. The reason 12-Metres form an exception to the axiom “design big” is the idiosyncrasy of the rule, particularly the prescription of increased displacement with length.

Olin Stephens’ INTREPID of 1967 was a breakthrough yacht. Wetted surface was drastically reduced with a shorter keel and separate rudder and the boat had numerous refinements. With outstanding management and the skill of Mosbacher again as skipper, INTREPID was unbeatable. The quest for further breakthroughs led to some peculiar and unsuccessful designs over the next two seasons.

The 1970 match was saved by repeat defense of INTREPID. In 1974, Olin Stephens designed another very fine boat, COURAGEOUS. Built of aluminum under new scantling rules, COURAGEOUS was powerful and superior in a breeze but did not easily defeat INTREPID, striving for a third defense. The selection trials reduced to a memorable sudden-death race in a 30-knot northeast breeze that COURAGEOUS won through both superior speed and better sailing. While I personally believe that Stephens’s 1977 boat, ENTERPRISE, was a further improvement in the same direction, Ted Turner sailing COURAGEOUS beat her out for the defense. Though not of demonstrably different dimensions, FREEDOM of 1980 seemed very superior. One difference was lower freeboard – providing a lower center of gravity and less hull windage. The new ingredient was a brilliant program of development of sails, gear and crew established by skipper Dennis Conner over a two-year program. The success of the program altered America’s Cup procedures from then on. Even with that, FREEDOM did lose one of the races of the match principally owing to a light-air advantage of Australia employing a rule-beating mainsail that gave her superior windward speed in light air.

Then, in 1983, the unthinkable happened in Newport when AUSTRALIA II beat LIBERTY in “The Race of the Century,” the sudden-death seventh race of that match. AUSTRALIA II was the best 12-Metre yacht to sail in the 25-year history of competition at Newport. Her extraordinary and controversial winged keel was, of course, the conspicuous feature. The ballyhoo about that masked the significant facts that AUSTRALIA II was the first boat to go to minimum 12-Metre length and displacement and that she had significantly less wetted surface than any other Twelve; this latter fact won the Cup! Less wetted surface followed naturally from a smaller boat but also from a keel of radically small planform. Where that had failed 13 years earlier in VALIANT with a conventional keel, it succeeded in spades on AUSTRALIA II because the winged keel provided sufficient hydrodynamic lift (side force) without the conventional large area. Because 12’s have draft limited by a function of length, they crave more draft or the equivalent effect. The lift-enhancing action of the “end plate” wings provided that very effectively.

While the racing ended at Newport in 1983 with the victory by the wonderful AUSTRALIA II, the subsequent events are equally interesting. Dennis Conner took charge again and with a brilliantly conceived and executed plan won back the Cup the first time sailing Twelves in the challenging waters of western Australia. The final STARS & STRIPES was a one-weather boat, big and powerful for the consistent “Doctor” (strong winds) of Freemantle. Others did not have the strength of their convictions to go with such a big and powerful boat. Dennis’s crew and tactics were admirable in this most wonderful challenge at a spectacular sailing locale.

The one-weather quality of STARS & STRIPES was abundantly clear from her total failure to win light-weather 12-Metre races in European waters later in 1987. An AUSTRALIA II type boat was needed there or would have been for continued 12-Metre races in Newport or San Diego.

A Visual History of the Greatest Sailboats of the America’s Cup

From old-school schooners to killer catamarans, check out the evolution of the world’s greatest boat race.

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The 2017 America’s Cup race kicks off this week in Bermuda , but today’s incredible flying catamarans bear no resemblance to the old monohull sailboats that dominated the race for more than a century.

Take a look at how the winning boats have changed since 1851. Two ingredients remain constant, however: thrilling speed and highly-skilled sailing. 

Land Rover BAR skipper Sir Ben Ainslie will pilot his ship using a custom carbon fiber helm, which features gear-shift paddles shaped to fit his hands, giving the Olympic sailing legend perfect fingertip control in his pursuit of the world’s oldest sporting trophy.

Ainslie can use the steering wheel to “fly ” by adjusting the boat’s hydrofoils with greater precision for the fastest possible racing. Current 2.4-ton racing catamarans ride out of the water atop hydrofoils protruding from their keels to minimize drag in the water.

This lets them achieve speeds of a bracing 58 mph on wind power alone, fueling the Cup’s legacy as the “world’s most dangerous sailboat race.”  The steering wheel turns the boat left and right as it would on a car, while the “gear shift” paddles control its height above the water by managing the lift from the hydrofoils.

“This is not just a great piece of design and engineering, but beautiful craftsmanship,” said Ainslie. “The controls are intuitive and smooth, with just the right amount of feel and feedback. It really has made a difference to how I control R1.”

In addition to the Land Rover BAR team, other competitors in the 35th America’s Cup include Oracle Team USA, Emirates Team New Zealand, Artemis Racing (Sweden), Softbank Team Japan, and Groupama Team France.

Who will achieve sailboat supremacy? You’ll just have to tune in to find out. 

H/T: Telegraph

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The Evolution of Yachting at The America’s Cup Finals

From sir thomas lipton’s shamrock v to the newly launched svea, the 35th edition of the america’s cup is bringing together the biggest fleet in the history of the j class to race in the waters off bermuda..

The evolution of yachting will be televised this year—the hydro foiling cats will be bombing around the cans and the J-Class, which competed for the cup throughout the 1930’s, will bring back the spirit of the one design class challenging for the ‘Chart’.

The original winner of The America’s Cup in 1851, “America”, was the boat that gave the trophy its name. It was a 101 foot monohull schooner which carried over 5,400 square feet of sail, and the golden years of the Cup with the J’s.

Technology and development has been a big part of the America’s Cup since the beginning—and this year’s cup is no different as teams search for any advantage to get that extra knot of speed.

In terms of evolution, the boats themselves are controversial, yet innovative, changing the AC Class of boat by two-folds.

[gallery type="rectangular" size="full" ids="8339,8341"]

In contrast is the America’s Cup Class, a 50 foot long carbon fibre catamaran featuring a wingsail and hydrofoiling technology that enables the boats to fly above the water. This is achieved by the boat being lifted above the water by a carbon fibre fin about the size of a 5’2 fish known as a foil. As the boat speeds up, they lift out of the water.

Using the lift generated by the daggerboards and rudders, the game is to keep the hull above the water line, sailing on a set of carbon-fiber foils that give enough lift to have the boat looking at fly time hitting speeds of up to 50 knots, which has come a long way from the Schooner America, the J Class and the monohulls of the 80’s and 90’s.

The clear waters of Bermuda will have an evolution that, in design, has changed, but with the tactics remaining the same. From the J’s to the AC’s, we are looking at a month’s sailing that for the spectator, professional and novice alike, will showcase an ocean of history in the water.

With the contest for the cup already begun, the challengers have been fighting it out in a one-on-one knockout series of sailing, with it coming down to the playoffs final with Emirates Team New Zealand and ‘The Swedes’ Artemis racing, with helmsman Peter Burling’s Emirates coming out on top.

The teams are now challenging for the oldest trophy in sport, with the team to beat being cup holders ‘the’ Oracle Team USA.

The next days of sailing are going to be epic!

The next round of races take place June 24th-27th and The Outdoor Journal is on the island and in the sheds to bring you some of the action from the water, with updates on the boats and a bit of behind the scenes beers and discussions of the days racing with the captains and crews. Stay tuned!

35th Americas Cup - The Finals: Oracle Team USA the holders Emirates Team New Zealand the challengers

Americas Cup J Class Regatta The line-up for the J’s is an amazing 7 boats, Being the biggest fleets of boats in the history of the class.

JK3 Shamrock V 1930 JK7 Velsheda 1933 J5 Ranger 2004 JK6 Hanuman 2009 JH1 Lionheart 2010 J8 Topaz 2015 JS1 Svea 2016

For more information, head to the America's Cup website .

Feature image by Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup Match

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HOW ‘AMERICA’S CUP’ CAME TO BE THE PINNACLE OF YACHT RACING

The oldest international sporting contest in the world has a rich and glorious history that spans over 173 years with a silver ewer, crafted by master silversmith Edmund Cotterill at the design studio of R&S Garrards, in Panton Street, London at its very heart.

What was originally the ‘RYS £100 Cup’ came to be known as ‘America’s Cup’ after a victory in a race around the Isle of Wight on the southern coast of Great Britain in 1851, by the yacht ‘America’ and its subsequent bequeathing by syndicate member George L. Schuyler under a strict ‘Deed of Gift’ in 1857 to the New York Yacht Club. The club famously retained the trophy for 132 years.

A legend was born that summer in England, but how much is ‘legend’ and how much is truth? How much do you know about that race and the backdrop of Victorian England and the emergence of the New World? And what of the race itself – did ‘America’ win fair and square and what happened to the British fleet – at the time regarded as ‘ruling the waves?’

America’s Cup writer and journalist, Magnus Wheatley, spent two years researching the events that led up to the race, the socio-political backdrop, and the real events of the race itself to create the definitive account, and it’s available now as an official product of the Louis Vuitton 37 th America’s Cup.

“History has a funny way of being re-hashed and re-presented so I was determined to go not just back to the original sources but to try and understand the thinking of those accounts. What I uncovered were plenty of untruths and narratives, plus plain wrong accounts of the race that have been pedalled through journals and books ever since. It was a fascinating process,” said author Magnus Wheatley.

“The find though was the name of the ‘Signal Master’ who uttered the words to Her Majesty Queen Victoria who, whilst sat at anchor in Alum Bay in the western Solent witnessing the yacht America come around the Needles, asked “and who is second?” The famous reply came of: “Ma’am, There is no Second.” The research required investigative journalism involving the Royal Archives and the Naval Archives before the final reveal at the National Archives in London and it still gives me goosebumps to this day to have opened the seal on 173-year-old documents and find perhaps the Holy Grail of the America’s Cup. It was a pleasure to research and write.”

Rich with lithographs and imagery throughout the book, including a front cover uniquely presented by renowned marine artist Steven Dews, and with a foreword written by Grant Dalton, CEO of America’s Cup Events and Emirates Team New Zealand, the journey takes you from the Battle of Waterloo through to the very first challenge for ‘America’s Cup’ in 1870 and features the most remarkable characters throughout.

‘There is no Second’ will challenge what you thought you already knew about that first race and is a must-read for all fans of the America’s Cup full of facts and research from a wide variety of sources including the John Hopkins University, the Badminton Sports Library, The Times newspaper and the satirical journals of the mid 19 th century.

‘There is no Second' is available to buy now through the America’s Cup webstore:

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

America’s Cup boats: 8 facts about the AC75 and why they’re unique

• Toby Heppell
• August 20, 2024

The America's Cup boats to be used on the 2024 edition of the event are immensely complicated high tech bits of kit. They might be officially sailing craft but they behave in some remarkable ways

The AC75 is the class of boat that takes part in the America’s Cup and are arguably the most radical boats the compeition has ever seen.  This type of America’s Cup boat was first used in the 2021 America’s Cup so this is the second event in which these boats have been used.  

The America’s Cup is, fundamentally, a design competition, and successive America’s Cups have featured the most extreme yachts yet – for their time – ever since the first race in 1851.

However, the foiling boats we have seen in the last four editions of America’s Cup racing (the AC72 and AC50 catamarans, and now the AC75 monohulls) do represent a new direction for the highest level of sailing.

There are plenty who argue that this technology is so far beyond the bounds of what most people consider sailing as to be an entirely different sport. Equally, there are those who believe this is simply a continuation of the development that the America’s Cup has always pushed to the fore, from Bermudan rigs, to composite materials, winged keels, and everything in between.

Good arguments can be made either way and foiling in the world’s oldest sporting trophy will always be a subjective and controversial topic. But one thing is certain: the current America’s Cup boats, the AC75s, are unlike anything seen before and are showcasing to the world just what is possible under sail power alone.

Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup

1 Unimaginable speed

Topping the 50-knot barrier used to be the preserve of extreme speed record craft and kiteboarders. A World Speed Sailing Record was set in 2009 of 51.36 knots by Alain Thebault in his early foiling trimaran, Hydroptere , and was bested in 2010 by kite boarder, Alexandre Caizergues who managed 54.10 knots.

Only one craft has ever topped 60-knots, the asymmetric Vestas Sail Rocket 2 , which was designed for straight line speed only and could no more get around an America’s Cup course than cross an ocean. Such records are set by sailing an average speed over the course of 500m, usually over a perfectly straight, flat course in optimum conditions.

America’s Cup class yachts, designed to sail windward/leeward courses around marks, are now hitting speeds that just over a decade ago were the preserve of specialist record attempts, while mid-race. American Magic has been recorded doing 53.31 knots on their first version of the AC75 class, Patriot.

Perhaps even more impressive, in the right conditions when racing we have seen some boats managing 40 knots of boatspeed upwind in around 17 knots of wind. That is simply unheard of in performance terms and almost unimaginable just three or so years ago.

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2 A storm onboard the AC75

Related to the speeds the boats are sailing through the water, particularly upwind, is the wind speeds the sailors will feel on deck.

When sailing, the forward motion affects the wind we experience onboard, known as apparent wind. The oft’ trotted out explanation of how apparent wind works is to imagine driving your car at 50mph. Roll down the window and stick your hand out of it and there will be 50mph of wind hitting your hand from the direction your car is travelling.

So when an AC75 is sailing upwind in 18 knots of breeze at a boatspeed of 40 knots, the crew on deck will be experiencing 40 knots of wind over the decks plus a percentage of the true wind speed – depending on their angle to the wind.

The AC75 crews might be sailing in only 18 knots of breeze – what would feel like a decent summer breeze on any other boat – but they experience winds of around 50 knots.

To put that into context, that is a storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale!

3 Righting moment changes

The single most radical development of the AC75 is to take a 75ft ‘keelboat’, but put no keel on it whatsoever.

When the then America’s Cup Defender and the Challenger of Record, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli respectively, announced that the 36th America’s Cup (to be held in 2021) would be sailed in 75ft monohulls, conventional wisdom had it that the boats would look something like a TP52 or a Maxi72 – both impressively high performance keelboats.

By doing away with the keel entirely, the design is now like nothing we have ever seen, particularly when it comes to how dynamic the power transition is between foiling and not foiling.

The boats are designed to foil on the leeward foil, with the windward one raised to help increase righting moment: to help balance the boat. This means that when the AC75 is not foiling they are extremely tippy – much more so than most other boats of the same size.

Essentially, when the wind catches the sails, the boat wants to fall over as there is too much sail area for the amount of weight underneath the boat – something a lead keel usually counters on a yacht or keelboat.

Once the boat is up and on the foils, however, that all changes, as everything to windward of the single foil in the water balances the sails. That means, the hull, the crew weight, the sail and rig weight, and the windward foil, all work to counter the sails.

What all this means is that the boats go from being extremely tippy, to hugely powerful in just the few seconds it takes to get up on the foil. “The [AC75s] are really very tippy pre-foiling and then they go through the transition where they will need to build significant power. Then immediately [once they lift off] you have more stability than, well, take your pick, but certainly more righting moment than something like a Volvo 70 with a big canting keel.

“That change all happens in a very short space of time,” explained Burns Fallow of North Sails, who was one of the team who developed the soft wing concept back when the concept was revealed.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

4 ‘Cyclors’ return to power America’s Cup boats

Bak in 2017 Emirates Team New Zealand stormed to America’s Cup victory in an AC50 foiling catamaran which was, by some margin, quicker than any of the other teams.

The most glaring difference was their use of pedal grinders to produce power rather than traditional pedestal arm grinders. ETNZ’s sci-fi style term for their grinders was ‘cyclors’, cyclist sailors.

The idea had actually been tried before in the America’s Cup; Pelle Petterson used pedal grinders on the 12-metre Sverige in 1977. But ETNZ’s set-up now was very different: here it was part of a linked chain of innovations, the most obvious emblem of a radical approach.

One obvious benefit was the greater power output from using legs to pedal, but beyond this it left cyclists’ hands free and allowed the team to use a highly sophisticated system of fingertip control systems, and thus to use faster, less stable foils, and then to divide up crew roles so ETNZ could be sailed in a different way.

When the AC75 was first introduced in 2021, Cyclors were specifically banned by the class rule. However, with a reduction of crew numbers from 11 to 8 in the second AC75 class rule – in use for the 2024 America’s Cup – cyclors are now allowed once again and all teams look set to be using pedal power onboard.

5 America’s Cup boats may not be heading where they point

With the AC75 sailing on its foil, drag is dramatically reduced, vast amounts of power can be generated and so speeds rapidly increase. But the foils can serve another purpose too.

In order to be able to lift each foil out of the water, the foil arms must be able to be raised and lowered. Hence the foil wings, which sit at the bottom of the foil arms (and are usually a T or Y shape), do not always sit perpendicular to the water surface and the AC75s often sail with them canted over to something nearer 45º to the surface.

The further out the leeward foil arm is canted – essentially more raised – the closer the AC75 flies to surface and, crucially, the more righting moment is generated as the hull and rest of the boat gets further from the lifting surface of the foil.

There is another positive to this: as the lifting foil is angled, it produces lift to windward, which can force the boat more towards the wind than the angle it is sailing.

Due to this negative leeway (as it is known when a foil creates lift to windward) the boat can be pointing at a compass heading of say 180º but in fact will be sailing at eg 177º as the foil pushes the boat sideways and to weather, essentially sailing to windward somewhat diagonally.

6 The foils are heavy. Very heavy.

As the foils work to provide stability to the boat (when it is stationary both foils are dropped all the way down to stop it tipping over) and to provide massive amounts of righting moment, they are incredibly heavy.

A pair of foil wings and flaps (excluding the one-design foil arm which attaches them to the boat and lifts them up and down) weigh 1842kg. To put that into perspective, the entire boat itself with all equipment (but without the crew) weighs between 6200kg and 6160kg. So the foil wings at the base of the foil arms are nearly ⅓ of the total weight of the boat.

It is partly due to this that you will see some teams with bulbs on their foils. If you decide to go for a skinny foil wing (which would be low drag and so faster) then there will not be enough volume to cram sufficient material in to make the foil weigh enough. So some teams have decided to add a bulb in order to make it weigh enough but to also keep a less draggy, slimmer foil shape.

7 Sails can invert at the head

As with everything on the AC75, the mainsail was a relatively new concept when the boat was first announced. It consists of two mainsails which are attached to both corners of a D-shaped mast tube. This has the effect of creating a profile similar to a wing.

It is well established that solid wing sails are more efficient at generating power than a soft sail and for this reason solid wings were used in both the America’s Cup in 2013 and 2017. But there are drawbacks with a wing: they cannot be lowered if something goes wrong and require a significant amount of manpower and a crane to put it on or take it off a boat.

One reason a wing makes for such a powerful sail is that the shape can be manipulated from top to bottom fairly easily with the right controls. With the AC75 the designers wanted a sail that could have some of this manipulation, produce similar power but could also be dropped while out on the water. The twin skin, ‘soft wing’ is what they came up with for this class of America’s Cup boat.

In addition to the usual sail controls, within the rules, the teams are allowed to develop systems for controlling the top few metres of the mainsail and the bottom few metres.

What this means is that the teams are able to manipulate their mainsail in a number of different ways to develop power and control where that power is produced in the sail. But it also means that they have the ability to invert the head of the sail.

Doing this effectively means ‘tacking’ the top of the sail while the rest of the sail is in its usual shape. The advantage here is that instead of trying to tip the boat to leeward, the very top of the sail will be trying to push the boat upright and so creating even more righting moment. The disadvantage is that it would come at the cost of increased aerodynamic drag.

We know that a number of America’s Cup teams are able to do this, though whether it is effective is another question and it is very hard to spot this technique being used while the boats are racing at lightning speeds.

8 America’s Cup meets F1

A new America’s Cup boat is a vastly complex bit of kit. Each team has incredibly powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software packages and simulators in order to try to understand the various gains and losses.

To make these simulators and computer projections as accurate as possible each team has been getting as much data as they can over their three year development cycle.

In the case of this America’s Cup it does seem the development process is genuinely getting closer to Formula 1 (albeit with smaller budgets than a modern F1 team has behind them).

INEOS Britannia have been work alongside the all powerful Mercedes F1 team (both of who are backed by INEOS) and have been open about how much this has helped their development process and after a relatively small amount of collaboration in 2021 the British team and Mercedes have created a much tighter relationship for the 2024 America’s Cup .

But the British team is not alone. When two-time America’s Cup winner, Alinghi announced they would be coming back to the event after some years on the sidelines, they also announced their own tie-in with current F1 World Champions, Red Bull Racing, to for Alinghi Red Bull Racing .

“It’s really similar to F1,” explains Mercedes Applied Science Principal Engineer Thomas Batch who has 11 F1 titles to his name and is was with INEOS in Auckland 2021. “Certainly in this campaign the technology is close to what we have in F1.

“In terms of raw sensors on the boat you are probably talking in the 100s but then we take that and we make that into mass channels and additional analysis with computational versions of those channels that we then analyse and get into in more detail. So you are looking at 1000s of plots that we can delve into [per race or training session].

“That level of data analysis and then feedback with the sailors is very similar to working with an [F1] driver.”

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Where are they now? 6 famous America's Cup yachts

1851 schooner america’s sad demise.

In 1851, the schooner America , sailing for the New York Yacht Club, beat the Royal Yacht Squadron and laid claim to its 100 Guinea Cup. Thus the America’s Cup was born – what is now the oldest trophy in international sport – earning its name from that first winning yacht rather than the country, though the US did go on to hold the trophy for 100 years.

Where is America's Cup yacht  America now?

The famous America's cup yacht America changed hands – and names – a few times after the first historic race, and then wound up in the American Civil War as a Union ship. She stayed in the military as a training ship for the Navy until 1873, when she was sold to a former Civil War General for $5,000 (about $98,000 today). The general raced, maintained and refitted the boat, but after his death in 1893, she was passed down to his son who lacked interest in the schooner and allowed her to fall into disrepair. Despite being eventually donated back to the Navy, lack of maintenance left her seriously decayed. The nail was driven into the coffin when a major snowstorm caused the shed she was stored in to collapse in 1945, and America was scrapped and burned, bringing the history of one of the most famous sailing yachts of all times to a close.

America ’s legacy lives on to do this day, and there are replicas of the schooner you can sail on to relive the glory of this historic vessel. Climb aboard the 32 metre America 2.0 replica (pictured in the inset above) in Key West (November-April) and New York (May-October), or on a 42 metre replica out in San Diego .

1930 Shamrock V is still sailing

J Class yachts are synonymous with the America’s Cup as these slim, graceful beauties once represented the fleet racing for the Cup. The 36.42 metre Shamrock V , commissioned by Sir Thomas Lipton for his fifth and final bid, she was the first J Class yacht to compete for the Cup. The fact that she is the only J Class yacht to be built in wood makes it all the more remarkable that Shamrock V is still floating today.

Where is America's Cup yacht  Shamrock V now?

The Camper & Nicholsons -built J is in pretty perfect condition for a lady of her years. J Class yacht  Shamrock V is currently for sale and looking for a good home. The right owner could sail away on this piece of Cup history just in time as the  J Class yachts make a triumphant return to the America's Cup .

1987 movie star Stars & Stripes still racing

While the film Wind , one of the best boat movies , was inspired by Dennis Conner’s experience competing for the America’s Cup in 1983 on board Liberty , the yacht that was actually used in filming was the 12 Metre type sailing yacht Stars & Stripes 87 . She was called Geronimo in the film, but Stars & Stripes 87 was more than a screen legend. When Conner launched his own campaign, he wanted a culmination of all the Stars & Stripes yachts that came before her, and she was designed to be fast in heavy air. Stars & Stripes 87 wound up being the final 12 metre yacht to win the America’s Cup.

Where is the America's Cup yacht  Stars & Stripes 87 now?

Stars & Stripes 87 can be found in the Caribbean now, able to be sailed with the St Maarten 12 Metre Challenge , giving you a chance to take the helm (if you're lucky) of a real Cup winner.

1988 Stars & Stripes multihulls

Paving the way for the high-performance multihull America's Cup yachts that are redefining the competition is  Stars & Stripes – the catamaran. The first America's Cup multihull yacht, the US team's Stars & Stripes came to be by a cunning interpretation of the Deed of Gift, which only stipulated the challenging yachts be single masted and no more than 90 feet LWL. The result was anything but a true match race, with the much faster, wing-masted multihull Stars & Stripes winning the Cup in 1988.

Where are the America's Cup multihull yachts Stars & Stripes now?

Two versions of the multihull Stars & Stripes were built, a soft sail (S1) and a wing-masted yacht (H3). Stars & Stripes (S1) was acquired by American entrepreneur Steve Fossett and used to set speed records around the world before being sold in 2017 to Key Lime Sailing Club and Cottages in Key Largo, where she is used for day charters and racing. The actual Cup player, Stars & Stripes (H3) was bought by Mark Reece in Naples, Florida and was used for sailing charter trips, but her current status is unconfirmed.

1994 Stars & Stripes once used as a training yacht by Oracle Team USA

America’s Cup yacht Stars & Stripes (sail number 34) is probably most famous for not winning a Cup. It wasn’t because she didn’t perform under pressure, but because she never got the chance. While the 24 metre yacht, designed by David Peddic and built in 1994 by Goetz Boat Works, won the right to defend the Cup, Dennis Conner chose Young America (US 36) over Stars & Stripes . The new choice was no match for Team New Zealand’s Black Magic , which beat out Team Dennis Conner four times in a row.

Where is America's Cup yachts Stars & Stripes (US 34) now?

Famed America’s Cup Stars & Stripes (US 34) is earning a chance to prove herself on the racecourse yet again. She sails out of Chicago, racing against Abracadabra (US 54). After failing to win the Cup in 2000, this iteration of Abracadabra was bought by Larry Ellison, who used her as a training boat for his Oracle Team USA.

2003 USA 76 still sailing in San Francisco Bay

Sailed by the US challenging team in preparations for the 2003 America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, USA 76 never made it to the Cup, but she came quite close. Making it to the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup final, USA 76 faced the Swiss Team Alinghi but didn’t come out on top. So the US team arranged for a “rematch” against Alinghi, with two races set in San Francisco Bay. While it didn’t change the results of the Cup, this time USA 76 bested the Swiss competitors twice over.

Where is America’s Cup yacht USA 76 now?

Fittingly, USA 76 resides in San Francisco Bay and is available for sailing. Capture the spirit of the most recent America’s Cup that was raced in the natural amphitheatre of the Bay by climbing aboard USA 76 for a racing adventure under the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Featured Stories | August 26, 2013

Inside the fastest boats in america’s cup history with mit meche.

By Genevieve Wanucha

“….It’s a clean start!” the America’s Cup commentator shouted yesterday . “And the Kiwis take the lead!” Two sailboats blasted through a foggy San Francisco Bay, dueling for a chance to race against the defending champion Oracle Team USA. Minutes later, Emirates Team New Zealand sailed to victory past Italy’s Luna Rossa Challenge, and now wait to confront their formidable rival in the finals on September 7.

The America’s Cup is the world’s oldest sporting trophy, backed by 162 years of sailing tradition. This year’s motto hints of something new: ‘Best Sailors. Fastest Boats.’ After winning the last cup in Valencia, Spain, in 2010, Larry Ellison, the billionaire entrepreneur and the owner of Oracle Team USA, pushed to reinvent the competition into a spectacular television-friendly event. He got his way—big time. The 2013 America’s Cup is now taking place much closer to the shore, within view of cheering spectators, music concerts, and grandstands. The biggest change is the newfangled boat design.

The new yacht, called the AC72 (America’s Cup 72 class), is unlike any sailboat that’s ever raced in an America’s Cup. The 72-foot-long, wing-sailed catamaran can travel more than twice as fast as the boats that competed in 2010. When the slick carbon-fiber crafts really get going, both hulls levitate out of the water and begin to fly over the surface on retractable underwater appendages called hydrofoils. The decrease in drag during foiling mode can boost the yacht’s speed past 45 knots, or 52 miles per hour. “It’s surreal,” says Team New Zealand’s wing trimmer Glenn Ashby.

Several professors in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering , experts in naval architecture, marine hydrodynamics, and fluid mechanics, know a thing or two about sailboat design. Some have led the design of past U.S. America’s Cup boats. And they say that these AC72s have sailed straight into a new frontier in advanced marine technology. So, Oceans at MIT invited professors Doug Hart , Paul Sclavounos , and Jerome Milgram to answer a few questions about the fastest yachts in America’s Cup history. Knowing what they know will change the way you watch the race.

What makes the AC72 catamarans so fast and unique?

“In order to counter the side force generated by the sails, boats must have a wing shape below the water that generates a force in the opposite direction. Catamarans use long thin rudders and hydrofoils near the center of the hull called daggerboards. The AC72’s are unique in that they have rudders and daggerboards designed to push up on the hulls and lift them out of the water while, at the same time, countering the sideways force of the sails.

In addition, AC72s use “wing” sails rather than the typical canvas sails you see on most sailboats. These are structures built very much like the wings of an airplane.  They are “monocoque”-type structures, which means that part of the load is carried by the outer skin. This support allows the sails to be very thin and ridged. This design provides a means of controlling and optimizing the shape of the sails in ways that traditional canvas sails can not be controlled or optimized.

Finally, as with all catamarans, the hulls are long and thin. The force on the sails acting to flip the boat is countered by the weight of the crew and the weight of the part of the boat that is upwind of the sail. The two hulls of catamarans can be separated by considerable distances providing significant leverage against flipping. The long thin hulls also generate little wave drag (drag caused by the generation of waves by the boat itself) and help to pierce oncoming ocean waves rather than slamming into them and decelerating the boat.”

Designing innovative yachts must involve a great amount of fluid mechanics or marine hydrodynamics. What specific research areas are critical for this kind of sailboat design?

Paul Sclavounos, MIT PhD ’81, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture. Interests: Marine Hydrodynamics, Marine & Mechanical Engineering. Professor Sclavounos has been a design contributor to three America’s Cup syndicates.

“The design of the new AC72 boats is a complex process lying at the intersection of a number of disciplines; marine hydrodynamics, aerodynamics, structural mechanics, advanced composites, and optimization theory. Of these disciplines the ones that are critical for the design of AC72 boats are marine hydrodynamics, aerodynamics and carbon fiber composites. The fluid dynamics involved in the design of the AC72 boat may now he handled reliably by computer programs that solve the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes Equations reducing the need for extensive tank and wind tunnel testing.”

Jerome Milgram , MIT PhD ’65, Professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering, William I. Koch Professor of Marine Technology, Emeritus. Professor Milgram has been a design contributor to more than eight America’s Cup syndicates.

“For the hydrofoil boats, called foilers, the fluid mechanics of lift is paramount. It differs from the lift of airplanes in that there is a free surface (water) very close to the foils, whereas an airplane lifts in nearly an infinite fluid (air). Lift in the presence of a free surface is the new field of fluid mechanics for foiling boats. In an ordinary boat, there is lift in the form of side force generated to counterbalance the side force of the sails. However, most of the lifting surface of an ordinary sailboat (the downward-projecting centerboard ) is further from the free surface than is the case with a foiler, on which most of the underwater appendage is horizontal and close to the free surface. (See this video: Hydrofoils: Flying on Water )

The new AC boats have rigid wings instead of fabric sails. Their elliptical leading edges can have a suction force on them, which cancels out much of the drag. Thus, the drag coefficient of a rigid wing can be much lower than the drag coefficient of a sail. Furthermore, rigid wings can withstand small areas of pressure difference reversal that would cause an ordinary sail to luff, or flap. This increases in the amount of available control of the lift distribution.”

“Sailing yacht design is extremely complex. Sailboats are anything but simple – generally far more complex then airplanes. They are a balance of compromises between rules governing their construction, structural properties of the materials they are made from, wind and water forces, crew safety, and the controls needed to operate them. While a tremendous amount of modern technology and numerical modeling goes into the designs of these yachts, much of their design is based on practical experience, experimentation, and trial and error. Sailboat races are often won by fractions of a percent difference in overall speed. These differences can be the result of the ability to out maneuver the other boat, point slightly higher into the wind or any number of other factors. Such tiny differences are very difficult to account for by simple numerical modeling thus, yacht design is still very much an art.”

Are there any downsides to this AC design?

Jerome Milgram:

The interaction of a high speed boat with waves is different than the wave interaction of an ordinary low speed boat. When an AC boat traveling at high speeds has its bow hit a wave, the wave can cause an instantaneous increase in drag, slowing the boat with the air wing force and the inertial force of the boat slowing down can cause the boat to pitch pole. Unfortunately, there has been one death due to this kind of inertial and hydrodynamic interaction between the boat and sea waves.

There is some criticism of this departure from tradition and of the increased danger associated with the new design. But, others are excited to see this as more of a spectator sport and demonstration of futuristic technology. What is your personal reaction to this sea change in the America’s Cup?

Paul Sclavounos:

“There is a long and illustrious history of Americas’ Cup mono-hull yachts and many are nostalgic of this tradition. The innovations introduced under the IACC rule have led to outstanding boats that had almost exhausted every corner of the rule, leading to margins of victory often less than a minute for a three-hour race. The new Americas’ Cup rule represents an evolution that is, in a sense, a consequence of the maturity of the designs developed under the previous rule.

The design of the AC72 yachts draws upon advanced marine technologies, e.g. computational fluid dynamics and advanced composites, increasingly used for the design of other marine structures, e.g. fuel-efficient ships, composite mooring systems for offshore platforms and multi-megawatt offshore wind turbines. As has been the case in the past, the races of new AC72 boats will be exciting, and they stand to raise an awareness of the importance of technology in the design of advanced marine vehicles. As to the dangers associated with the new design, it is a risk that is hopefully small yet to a certain degree inevitable given that a new frontier in yachting is being explored.”

“I see both sides of this issue and each has merit. The boats do depart from tradition and are certainly dangerous, but they have the thrill of very high speed. I would not personally get on one of these boats. I have too much sense for that. Others see it differently.”

“While safety is certainly a major concern, as an engineer, I find these new yacht designs extremely exciting. My own feeling is that the America’s Cup races became too bogged down in rules and lost sight of what made them exciting. I hope these new yachts spark people’s imagination and usher in a new generation of young sailing enthusiasts.”

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The Rise of Cyclors: The high-wattage cyclists who power America's Cup teams

How many watts does it take to power a 75-foot carbon-hulled sailing yacht at speeds over 55 mph?

A new breed of endurance athletes is answering that question and leaving a historic impact on International sailing.

It would be velominati folly bordering on bicycling blasphemy to suggest that a sailor possessed the force, fortitude, and finesse to conquer Paris-Roubaix's iconic cobbled secteurs . In late October 2024, in the waters off the coast of Barcelona, a new breed of cycling strongmen will play a critical role in reclaiming a trophy older than the blue-gray granite cobble that the Spring Classic winner will hoist overhead.

The America's Cup is the oldest international competition still in existence, dating back to 1851. The Cup lay in wait at the home of the defender, the New York Yacht Club (NYYC), until 1983, when Royal Perth Yacht Club's Australia II broke the longest winning streak of any sport, 24 defenses in 132 years.

The Cup is a match race between sailing yachts from two rival clubs: one from the "defender" who earned the honor in the previous edition and the other from a "challenger" seeking to claim one of the most coveted trophies in sports history. The last defense occurred in 2021. 

The America's Cup doesn't follow a fixed schedule; the champion retains the title until a challenger emerges, initiating a technological, strategic, and highly secretive arms race for sailing supremacy.

The epic feat of challenging man and machine to bring the Cup back to its hallowed home at the NYYC will require a well-choreographed ballet of sailboats, sailors, and cyclists. Yes, cyclists!

American Magic's AC75 Patriot, a testament to the fusion of technology and athletic performance, represents the pinnacle of sailing innovation. Dubbed the "Formula One" of sailing by the team, it even features a race car-inspired steering wheel and carbon hull.

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Traditionally, the hydraulic power needed to operate the mast, winches, and trim the sails necessary to propel the 75-foot hull at speeds exceeding 50 knots relied on crew members known as "grinders," who manually operated hand cranks. However, engineering ingenuity has replaced these hand cranks with a leg crank mechanism akin to a fixed-gear bike drivetrain, and the athletes who operate them are now called "cyclors."

"What we're finding is a 30 to 50 percent power increase using the lower body as opposed to the upper body," explains Ben Day.

Everything above the deck of an America's Cup boat must be human-powered. Emirates Team New Zealand's innovative interpretation of the rules harnessed the increased force production of their crew’s glutes, quads, and hamstrings to victory in 2017, introducing cyclors to the sailing world.

Day, a former Pro Cyclist and ProTour Team Coach, now leads the charge as American Magic's Head of Performance. His task? To identify and train the elite cyclor squad that will challenge Emirates Team New Zealand in 2024. His unconventional role began in 2022 when he recognized that recruiting athletes who fit the cyclor mold wasn't like filling a Tour de France team.

"We needed to find very strong, robust athletes," said Day, because "This is not a power-to-weight sport; this is just an absolute power sport."

The America's Cup rules require a minimum crew weight for the four cyclors and the four afterguard that pilot the vessel. With a limited pool of 90 to 105 kilogram (198 to 230 pounds) and 198 cm (6'6") cyclists to choose from, Day broadened his search to other endurance sports.

That's where he found the 93-kilogram and 192-cm champion swimmer from Boston, Colton Hall, and the 95-kilogram and 191-cm Olympian and K-1 kayak American record holder, Tim Hornsby. The remainder of the ten-man cyclor squad includes a diverse group of competitive rowers, sailors, track athletes, and professional cyclists, such as the most diminutive member of the cyclor team at 88 kilograms and 175 cm, World and National Champion Ashton Lambie.

"I still consider myself a professional cyclist! I’ve just traded the wooden boards of a velodrome for a carbon racing yacht," quips Lambie.

As Day explains, the recruitment drive testing protocol was no laughing matter.

"The testing was a 30-second effort, a four-minute effort, and a 20-minute effort within a one-hour protocol. We were starting to talk to people if they could produce over 1100 watts for 30 seconds, over 520 to 540 watts for four minutes, and over 440 watts for the 20-minute piece. So that's our marker of when we were opening up conversations with people to understand how they might fit into the team environment here and whether they had what it takes to contribute."

American Magic's AC75 demands significant power to perform maneuvers, such as tacking, jibbing, and turning corners. The cyclors can't top off the hydraulic system and stop pedaling to take a break during races, so athletic performance, strength, and endurance directly affect race outcomes.

Their swift trimming of the sails improves the boat's agility and responsiveness, and the harder and faster they pedal, the more rapidly power is available.

The yacht's hydraulic accumulator tank stores the pressure generated by pedaling, rather than the pedalling directly moving anything mechanically by itself. A hydraulic actuator converts this pressure into force. As the pressure in the tank is used, the cyclors must pedal harder to maintain it. The fuller the tank, the harder it is to add more pressure, and the harder the cyclors must pedal. 

The American Magic Team partnered with SRAM to assist in designing the flywheel-less drivetrain, which they coupled to the AC75's hydraulics and directly to the rigging for certain maneuvers. Without inertia or momentum, the cyclors describe pedaling against the pressure of the filling tank as "pushing and pulling a dead weight."

Envision grinding up The Muur on a single-speed tandem track bike tethered to a giant rubber band dragging the AC75's 7-ton hull. Then, respond to Mathieu van der Poel's 2021 race-winning attack.

The team reports that the two-and-a-half-year development and build process totaled over 108,000 design hours and 65,000 construction hours. For the next generation AC75 sailing vessel, the USA has opted for recumbent cyclors, which have the rider in a laid-back reclining position but also facing aft rather than forward. They positioned two cyclors on the port and starboard side of the hull, with the drivetrains linked in tandem.

Day describes the 20 to 30-minute races as "very much a stochastic, undulating over-under effort, like a criterium."

During the pre-start period, the cyclors will perform multiple high-intensity anaerobic efforts when the boats are jockeying for position. The front-loaded race demands include sub-threshold efforts during straight-line sailing interspersed with high-intensity bouts while maneuvering. A cyclor will routinely have a normalized power in the 350 to 450 Watt range for the 700 kilojoule effort.

Day was tight-lipped when asked to reveal specific details of his cyclor training regimen, only saying, "It depends." He did reveal that the athletes train upwards of 15 to 20 hours a week on the bike and in the gym.

He quickly pointed out the value of American Magic's partnership with Wahoo Fitness and the 20 Kickr bikes and 10 Kickr smart trainers they provided to the team.

"Wahoo is the best indoor trainer brand in the World. These are big, muscular guys, and during several hours of riding, they will do everything they can to destroy them, and they haven't won yet. We do the hardest testing of this equipment in the World. We're up to 20 hours a week of intense riding and multiple daily sessions on these things."

Day also relies on the power meter's precision to guide the cyclor training plan and ensure that the crew meets the parameters necessary to sustain maneuvers aboard the AC75.

"We needed reliability, accuracy, and high-performance products. These athletes produce very high numbers, so it was crucial to have strong support throughout their training and competition."

The America's Cup challengers include INEOS Britannia from Great Britain, Alinghi Red Bull Racing from Switzerland, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team from Italy, Orient Express Racing Team from France, and NYYC American Magic from the United States. Cyclors will be powering the pedals beneath the deck of every vessel.

Excitement mounts for the upcoming Preliminary Regatta in Barcelona from August 22-25, where all six AC75s will compete for the first time. Afterward, attention turns to The Louis Vuitton Cup from August 29 to October 7, where American Magic aims to secure their spot in the America’s Cup match from October 12-27 against defenders New Zealand.

Where will the achievement rank for the highly decorated American Magic cyclor crew members?

Unlike anything else, says Hall. "When we win the Cup, this will be the most prestigious of my athletic achievements. It is the oldest trophy in international sport and is much more than just a trophy or personal accomplishment."

For the talented athletes of the American Magic cyclor crew, the daily training to excel in their field is an unstoppable force. The cyclor challenge is a crowning career achievement driven by a pursuit of excellence and new experiences. Being part of the first group of American cycling athletes to transition to the top of sailing is a historic achievement beyond comprehension.

"The America’s Cup is a unique opportunity to be on a team with so many people serving various roles, all in pursuit of bringing the Cup back to the US. The sense of unity and nationalism is also quite special," shares Hall

Though seemingly unrelated, the synergy between cycling and sailing has sparked an intriguing exchange of technology and scientific knowledge. Integrating cyclors into sailing reflects a forward-thinking strategy, allowing a technology-driven sport to seamlessly incorporate advancements from a different discipline.

Ashton Lambie agrees, saying, "The Cup is a huge achievement as far as any sporting career. I'm no stranger to working towards a big goal over several years, but the dynamic goal of "Winning the Cup" makes this one incredibly special."

The dedication, determination, and sense of pride that Day and his cyclor squad personify, often reserved for cycling champions, is evident and echoed by Hornsby, who summed it up by saying, "It's time to bring the Cup back!"

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A physical therapist with over 25 years of experience, Christopher Schwenker is on a journey to give back to the cycling community for rewarding experiences and fulfilling relationships through the pages of his virtual cycling blog, The Zommunique’, and his cycling-related non-profit, The DIRT Dad Fund .  

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It was like a funeral at the New York Yacht Club when Australia II won the America's Cup after 132 years

Topic: Sailing

Australia II and Liberty race in the finals of the 1983 America's Cup off Newport, Rhode Island. ( Larry Moran, Chicago )

A weepy, funeral-like procession in midtown Manhattan and an empty champagne bottle turned upside down: two striking images from the day the US lost the America's Cup for the first time after more than a century of dominance — exactly 38 years ago.

The New York Yacht Club in mourning might be the last place you'd expect a visiting Australian to try to gatecrash.

But that's where I found myself on that fateful night: borrowing an oversized blue blazer, jumping in a yellow cab to West 44th Street and talking my way into the members' only enclave.

And all because an elitist yachting competition had somehow captivated our entire nation.

It was on September 26, 1983, that Australia II completed an improbable comeback over US boat, Liberty, winning race seven at Newport, Rhode Island, for a 4-3 victory overall, having trailed 3-1.

Back in Australia, a nation celebrated, led by a champagne-soaked prime minister in Perth.

After a night of watching the drama on television, Bob Hawke effectively declared the following day — a Tuesday — a national public holiday, saying: "Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum."

Three hundred kilometres south of the racing off Rhode Island, the New York Yacht Club was in a state of shock, unprepared for the end of a winning streak — the longest in sports — dating back to 1851.

There, more than anywhere else, at the club's home since 1901, the impact of Australia II's triumph was being felt. As uplifting as the result was for underdog Aussies 16,000 kilometres away, it was, in equal measure, devastating for those supporting the losing favourite.

This moment in history coincided with my first trip — a backpacker-style vacation — to the United States. I'd started the marathon journey from Sydney with Australia II headed for a noble defeat but arrived in New York City with John Bertrand's crew pulling off the near impossible.

The America's Cup was the last thing on my mind when air tickets were booked several months earlier.

In holiday mode, joining some fellow Australian journalists in a Manhattan bar, someone remarked what a great story it would be to sneak into the New York Yacht Club to see how the members were handling the shock of losing the cup.

The New York Yacht Club won the first America's Cup in 1851. ( Facebook: New York Yacht Club )

Along with the world's most dangerous and politically unstable hotspots of the time, the New York Yacht Club on that particular September evening might have been a place where all Australians would have been advised against travelling.

Two days before the races started, the club had unsuccessfully tried through the courts to ban Australia II's controversial winged keel, effectively accusing the Royal Perth Yacht Club syndicate of cheating.

Cup transported by armoured vehicle

Precisely when I arrived at the club, its main doors opened and about a dozen members filed out towards a parked van. Half of them were carrying a large wooden box that looked like a coffin. It didn't take long to work out the America's Cup was inside.

The van was a Brinks armoured vehicle, ready to drive sailing's most famous silverware up Interstate 95 to Newport for the official handover — to the enemy.

Ben Lexcen's winged-keel design caused an uproar in the New York Yacht Club. ( ABC News )

Funerals are often slow and measured affairs but this process was rapid and urgent. While the emotions flowed as they might alongside any cortege, there was also an air of chaos and confusion as a trophy representing 132 years of achievement was ingloriously yanked from the gentrified Beux-Arts landmark in less than 60 seconds.

Jason Dasey lands in New York City in September 1983. ( Facebook: Jason Dasey )

Once the vehicle was out of sight, a few of the members lingered on the footpath, trying to make sense of what they had just witnessed, including a middle-aged man with red eyes.

Fortunately, the man did not throw punches in a fit of New York rage when approached by a journalist from Sydney interested in hearing his views. Instead, there was an invitation to join him and his wife for a complimentary dinner at the club.

So, the New York Yacht Club visitors' book for the evening of September 26, 1983, registered one Australian guest.

'Therapy session' over steak dinner

In the heart of a city with the world's highest concentration of psychiatrists, the meal with a gracious American host had the unfettered air of a therapy session. And, with the Cold War still in full swing, it was also a kind of entente cordiale: two potential adversaries breaking bread in the name of a higher cause.

That same day, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov averted a possible nuclear war by correctly identifying a US missile attack warning in Moscow as a false alarm. On American soil, Zimbabwe Prime Minister Robert Mugabe, who had risen to power three years earlier, was on a tense state visit to Washington DC.

The New York Yacht Club successfully defended the America's Cup 24 times in a row before its 1983 defeat. ( Facebook: California Academy of Sciences )

During our dinner, the man opened up in a way one wouldn't have imagined, speaking about his personal pain and sense of loss in saying goodbye to the Auld Mug. For him, the America's Cup — the trophy — was like a close friend whose reassuring presence provided almost daily comfort within the exclusive confines of the club.

The man also shared an insider's account of how the decisive seventh race of the series played out for him and the other members.

Club with no TV and 'ship-at-sea echo'

In contrast to Manhattan's rowdy sports bars, the New York Yacht Club had (in its own words) a "ship-at-sea echo". Then, like now, it was a cosy and refined refuge where members could peacefully enjoy a drink, meal and thoughtful conversation without distraction.

So, with no television or radio on the premises, the only way to get updates on the racing was from an open telephone line to Newport.

Because retaining the America's Cup was almost a formality, members hadn't felt the need to closely follow each day's racing. Most of the previous series were lopsided, with the defender rarely troubled. The US had lost only three of 39 races dating back to 1937, and had dropped just nine races since the America's Cup began in 1851.

But, with the 1983 series tied at 3-3 going into race seven, one member, with a no-dial rotary telephone in hand, was given the job of relaying information from Newport to an increasingly concerned gathering within the club.

Dennis Conner (right) with Alan Bond in 2005, suffered an unexpected defeat as skipper of Liberty. ( AFP: Greg Wood )

Under respected skipper Dennis Conner, Liberty started well and seemed on course for victory. But after surrendering the lead on the penultimate leg, the American yacht was unable to get it back, despite Conner tacking 47 times before the finish.

Australia II, expertly piloted by Olympic medallist Bertrand, crossed the line 41 seconds ahead to clinch the series, meaning the challenger had defied sudden death by taking the last three races to win.

After we had a magnificent steak dinner in the dining room, the man introduced me to other members, with an invitation to look around the club that had operated on that site since 1901. Walking through the various sections, the detail and quality of the many replica boats and ships on display in its trophy room was impressive.

Skipper John Bertrand was hailed as a hero on his return to Australia in 1983. ( National Archives of Australia: A6135, K31/10/83/2 )

Champagne bottle replaces missing cup

What stood out was the sizeable display case that had protected the America's Cup until a few hours earlier.

Instead of showing off precious silverware, the structure now housed an empty champagne bottle, its spout pointing to the floor, symbolic of an institution whose world had been turned upside down.

After the man and his wife had gone home, I wrote my story by hand on New York Yacht Club letterhead in a quiet corner of the club. Then, in those early days of computers long before email, the article was dictated on a reverse-charges telephone call to a typist back at the Sydney Morning Herald for the next day's edition.

Just after midnight, this Australian visitor was the second-last person to leave the club, let out the front door by the night security guard.

John Bertrand and Alan Bond joined former prime minister Bob Hawke in Sydney on the 30th anniversary of the America's Cup victory in 2013. ( AAP: Dean Lewins )

For someone who didn't live through Australia's unexpected success off the Rhode Island coast, it is difficult to explain four decades later the significance of winning — let's face it — a relatively obscure sporting event.

But Bertrand's unexpected success, powered by Ben Lexcen's winged keel and Alan Bond's cash, seemed to energise a nation down on its competitive luck.

Australia had won just nine medals at the ill-fated and partly boycotted 1980 Moscow Olympics and only five — with no gold — at the Montreal Games four years before that. Compare that to 46 medals, with 17 golds at the recent Tokyo Olympics.

Boxing Kangaroo flag galvanises a nation

The boxing Kangaroo flag that fluttered in the Rhode Island breeze off Australia II's forestay became a symbol of its triumph. And it would epitomise our fighting spirit in decades of other sporting battles to come. Rather than the nagging feeling that we might not be good enough, sticking it to the Yanks in their own — ahem — waterways when all seemed lost, proved that anything was possible.

The triumph came just seven months into Bob Hawke's first term as prime minister and remains one of his most endearing moments, setting the tone for his tenure. Wearing a gaudy Australian-branded sports coat, his euphoria bubbled over in the early hours amongst a packed crowd at the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Indeed, as a proud West Australian, this moment was even sweeter.

Years later, the America's Cup would be voted by the readers of my old newspaper as the greatest day in Australian sports history, more significant than winning world cups in rugby and cricket and staging the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The boxing kangaroo at the Australian team's base at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. ( Mark Raltson: AFP )

It remains the only time Australia has actually won the America's Cup. In a disastrous defence at Fremantle four years later, Kookaburra III was trounced 4-0 by Stars and Stripes 87, skippered by 1983 loser, Dennis Conner. Conner's tale of redemption is featured in a 1992 film, Wind.

New Zealand is the current holder of the America's Cup, having successfully defended the trophy in March — winning it for the fourth time — after  Emirates Team New Zealand defeated Italy's Luna Rossa by seven races to three off the coast of Auckland.

After leaving the New York Yacht Club on that autumn night in 1983,  I took a reflective stroll back to my accommodation a few blocks away near Times Square.

I rounded a corner, past the open doors of a late-night bar whose house band was cranking out a raucous version of Who Can It Be Now? by Men At Work. The Melbourne group's other big hit, Down Under, was the unofficial anthem of Australia II's challenge, but I'd never heard US musicians covering Australian artists before.

In those pre-Crocodile Dundee days, the full brunt of Australia's cultural awakening and transformation — and the resulting international invasion — was still a few years away.

But for a split second on that last Tuesday in September 1983, I caught a glimpse of the future.

BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM: American Racing Tradition TALE OF AN AMERICAN SPORTSMAN

The america's cup, the america’s cup – 1958, text by kane rogers.

View photographer Cory Silken’s “Yacht Columbia – America’s Cup Winner 1958” gallery here .

Click here to read “The America’s Cup: An Insider’s View,” by Bob Bavier.

Prior to 1958, the last defense of the America’s Cup had been in 1937, by the J-Class yacht Ranger , owned by Harold S. “Mike” Vanderbilt. The J-Class rules prescribing a vessel of some 120 feet in length were promoted by Vanderbilt and others for the defense planned for 1958, but economic concerns and the desire among aspiring competitors to employ smaller dual-purpose yachts won the day. The New York Yacht Club settled on the twelve-meter class rules, reducing the length of the average vessel to around sixty-five feet. Harry Sears, then the club’s commodore, formed a syndicate to build the ship and asked Briggs to join to help with finances.

Although building and racing his cars had long been Briggs’ primary field of endeavor, he had never stopped sailing, and he agreed to join the effort. Sailing legend Cornelius Shields was appointed as the team’s skipper but, when he suffered a heart attack, Sears asked Cunningham to take Shields’ place.

As a member of five East Coast yacht clubs, with almost thirty years’ experience racing several different classes of vessel, Briggs was a solid choice to lead. The one thing he lacked was experience with the starting strategy required by the head-to-head style of America’s Cup competition. Shields, a master of this type of racing, was happy to impart his knowledge to Cunningham, who proved an able student.

Unfortunately, as skipper it was Briggs who had to inform Shields that he could not remain a member of the crew; if he suffered an attack during competition and had to be taken to the hospital, it would leave them a man short and result in their disqualification. It was a tough moment for both men, but it was also characteristic of both to do what was best for the team.

The eliminations for the American side would prove to be more exciting than the final races. Four twelve-metre yachts, Easterner , Weatherly , Vim and Columbia , survived two months of run-offs to compete in the final eight-day round of match races to determine the defender of the America’s Cup. Of the four contenders, only the Vim had raced previously, but the nineteen-year-old vessel was so completely refitted as to be virtually brand new. The Easterner and Weatherly had been hurriedly completed and neither was fully prepared to compete, although the Weatherly would successfully defend the Cup in 1962.

Columbia benefited from a strong syndicate whose membership included Harry Sears, Olin Stephens, the designer of the Vim , and Cornelius Shields, Jr., who occasionally spelled Briggs as skipper. The competition finally narrowed to Vim and Columbia , which prevailed by virtue of her ability to better handle rough seas and strong winds.

The British challenger, Sceptre , entered by the Royal Yacht Squadron and skippered by Graham Mann, was a quite rotund 68,000 pounds compared to the svelte Columbia at 57,000 pounds, and the event was decided in four straight wins by the Americans.

During the post-race celebrations, Briggs located a pay phone and called Alfred Momo at Watkins Glen, where Ed Crawford had just won the main race. As Briggs was returning to join his crew, a reporter approached and commented, “Briggs, that was a fine race!” to which Briggs, still with the Glen on his mind, replied, “That’s what I just heard. I wish I could have seen it.”

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De Antonio Yachts E23 chosen official electric boat of 2024 America’s Cup.

The 37th edition of the America’s Cup, which has already mandated hydrogen fuel cell chase boats, has now selected the De Antonio Yachts E23 the Official Electric Boat of the event as it embraces sustainability as a core value.

This new De Antonio model, a 100% battery electric boat, will be launched in Barcelona this Spring and  commercialized during 2024. The first units will be used to set the racecourse of the America’s Cup, which starts on 22nd August 2024. They will also assist the new autonomous electric racecourse marks throughout the competition.

Grant Dalton, CEO of the America’s Cup Event, believes this is an additional significant step in sustainability, continuing to reduce the fossil fuel carbon emissions of the event alongside the advancements with and introduction of the Hydrogen powered Chase Boats.

April 2022 – New hydrogen chase boat for America’s Cup

“Since the last America’s Cup, we have been acutely aware of doing what we can to replace fossil fuel guzzling vessels where possible. Obviously, we are not yet at a stage where they can be completely eliminated, but where we can eliminate or reduce, we will. This is why we have chosen to partner with De Antonio Yachts and their E23 as electric support vessels.”

De Antonia Yachts first electric boat

De Antonio was founded in 2012 by Marc de Antonio and Stan Chmielewski and has collected a string of European Powerboat Awards and nominations for their boats’ performance and simple, avant-garde lines. In 2019 its model D46 Open won in the category of boats over 45 feet and in 2023 the D36 Open won for powerboats up to 14 meters.

This is the company’s first all electric boat, a catamaran with an integrated foil. The motor is not outrageously powerful, at 50 kW / 75hp, but the hydrofoil lifts the boat out of the water so there is almost zero water resistance and drag to overcome.

That enables the De Antonio E23 to achieve a top speed of  30+ knots (55 km/h  34 mph). With its battery storing 40 kiloWatt hours (kWh) of electricity, that gives a range of about 2 hours and 40 Nm at top speed. At a lower speed of 6 knots the range is 10 hours and 60 Nm. The battery can be charged in 1 hours 15 minutes with a fast charger and  in 12 hours with a standard system.

Top speed: 30+ knots, top autonomy: 10 hours

As a comparison, for the hydrogen-powered support boats in the America’s Cup – that must keep up with the racing yachts – the rules state they must be at least 10 metres long, start foiling at 24 knots and achieve a top speed of 50 knots and a 180-nautical-mile range. 

Because the De Antonio Yacht E23 has the much easier task of assisting with the laying out and monitoring of the autonomous course markers and will thus be very suited for recreational boating.

The company’s co-founders Marc de Antonio and Stan Chmielewski,  said “As a Barcelona born company, it is an honour for us to be the Official Electric Boat of the 37th America’s Cup and to present this new model to the world at an event of this magnitude.”

“It is a privilege to be able to support the organization and contribute, with our boats, to the most sustainable edition in the event’s history. With the new launch of the E23, De Antonio Yachts intends to contribute to the revolution of a more sustainable yachting.”

De Antonio Yachts   37th America’s Cup

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America's Cup sets sail in Barcelona with New Zealand defending: Here's a preview

Ineos and red bull racing take to the water.

BARCELONA, Spain — The world's oldest international sports trophy, best yachtsmen and cutting-edge design and technology have come together in Barcelona for the 37th edition of sailing's America’s Cup.

Five boats – from Italy , the United States, Britain, Switzerland and France – will spend the coming weeks racing in the Mediterranean waves to decide which will earn the honor of trying to dethrone the almighty Emirates Team New Zealand for the Auld Mug. After Thursday's opening races, the British team from Ineos leads the standings .

As the two-time defender, the Kiwis chose Barcelona’s choppy waters as the venue and helped establish the rules and boat design for this edition. They also get a guaranteed spot in the final to be held in October.

The results of three years of work and massive investment will now be put to the test.

“It is starting to get serious in a hurry. We are now racing for keeps,” Ben Ainslie, skipper of British team INEOS Britannia, said Wednesday.

Here is what else you need to know about the equivalent of the World Cup of sailing.

Sci-fi boats

For anyone who has not followed the foiling revolution in sailing over the past decade, America's Cup yachts look more like something designed to fly through outer space in a sci-fi film than a traditional sailboat.

The only parts more or less recognizable are the rudder, mast, mainsail and jib on the foiling 75-foot monohull that the champions chose as the boat type for these regattas. This AC75 is an evolution of the 2021 monohulls, which were a radical leap from the catamarans that the same New Zealand team sailed to victory in 2017.

If you are looking for a skipper standing tall at the helm while sailors scamper around the deck, then forget it. The helmeted crew members are tucked into cockpits, keeping them out of the wind and favoring the boats' aerodynamics.

But the most remarkable feature of these boats are the two hydrofoils, attached to winglike appendages port and starboard, that make these boats look like giant water strider insects. The foils enable these wonders of nautical engineering to spend more time with the bottom of their hulls above the water than submerged while racing. Their “T” shape resembles the inverted tail of an orca whale, and their 4.5-meter span sustains the more than six-ton boat as it rockets over the water at 50 knots per hour (92 kph/57.5 mph).

All the teams have two helmsmen for this race – copying a move made by the Italian Luna Rossa team three years ago. The two helmsmen take turns steering and watching the other's blind spot since each one has half his visibility cut off by the sails. There are also two trimmers.

Gone this time are the grinders. Instead, each boat has four cyclists, called “cyclors” — many of whom are world-class rowers — who pedal away to power the hydraulic mechanisms needed to trim the sails and rotate the mast.

The defenders

Emirates Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup in 1995 and 2000 before winning the last two editions.

They are without a doubt the team to beat.

The team led by Grant Dalton has earned the respect of their rivals for their daring boat designs and flawless execution. They will participate in the opening round, but their points won’t count. They will then sit out the next two rounds while the remaining teams duke it out to see which will meet them in the final.

Peter Burling is back at the helm after helping the team win in 2017 and 2021. He is joined by fellow Olympic medalist Nathan Outteridge in steering their super-sleek Taihoro yacht.

“The challenger group is the strongest it has been in a long time at the America’s Cup,” Burling said. “It is going to be super exciting to see what happens over the next weeks.”

The challengers

— Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team reached the last final in 2021 — and lost 7-3. The team representing the Sicily Yacht Club is steered by helmsmen Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni.

— INEOS Britannia is hoping to end Britain’s painfully long search for a title. No team has challenged as many times as the British, a losing streak which started back in 1851 when they were bettered by the schooner America in a race around the Isle of Wight. INEOS is led by helmsman and Olympic great Ainslie and is supported by the Mercedes Formula 1 team.

— NYYC American Magic is back after its 2021 campaign ended shortly after its Patriot boat capsized and almost sank. The New York Yacht Club draws on the history of having won the first edition and then successfully defending the title 24 times until that incredible 132-year run ended in 1983. It's helmed by Tom Slingsby, the sailor of the year, an Australian who has an American passport thanks to his American mother, and Englishman Paul Goodison, a fellow Olympic gold medalist.

— Alinghi Red Bull Racing is backed by the sports drink giant and its F1 team. The Swiss outfit is seeking a title after the landlocked nation won the cup in 2003 and 2007. It has been training in Barcelona the longest after setting up base here two years ago.

— Orient Express Racing Team comes with a boat based on a design it purchased from the New Zealand team. The last team to arrive in Barcelona, the French face the extra challenge of having less on-site practice time.

A round-robin stage will eliminate the weakest challenger by Sept. 8. The remaining four will have two playoff series to decide which boat will take on New Zealand in a best-of-13 series starting on Oct. 12.

This year’s event also includes a new Women’s America’s Cup and a youth competition.

The racing will take place in the same stretch of water used for the sailing events at the 1992 Olympics.

Boats zigzag back and forth across a rectangular race course located in waters just off the Barcelona beachfront, within view of fans on the shore. Boats have to pass through a pair of buoys – called a gate – and perform hairpin turns by shifting from one foil to the other.

Several teams have said that Barcelona’s waters can produce trickier race conditions than, for example, Auckland, since there is no natural bay to stop the wave action that comes from far offshore and often goes in a direction off-angle from the wind.

Race starts are crucial as boats maneuver to be in a leading position when they hit the starting line.

In choosing Spain, New Zealand broke with its tradition of picking Auckland as this edition’s venue because of the need to ensure a big payday. And what better place to ensure people would flock to see the event than one of Europe’s major Mediterranean destinations?

The last regatta in New Zealand was held when the world was still in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic. That meant there were scant crowds and little of the glamor – think superyachts and wealthy sailing amateurs — who are expected to be back en masse at Barcelona. Fashion and luxury goods designer Louis Vuitton has returned as the official sponsor of the race, and the trophy is secured in a custom Louis Vuitton case when it travels.

Barcelona calculates the event will attract some 2.5 million tourists and leave over a billion euros in the city. It is being held during an upsurge in citizen complaints against what they consider “overtourism” and skyrocketing rents .

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America’s cup news.

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America's Cup 2021

The 36th edition of the America's Cup - also known as AC36 - will take place at Auckland , Waitemata Harbour and the Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand commencing on the 6th of March 2021 and concluding on the 21st of March 2021.

Five courses have been selected that span from the north Auckland suburb of Takapuna to Waiheke Island. According to Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton, the courses were chosen to cater for all wind and tide directions and conditions while ensuring that land-based spectators and the large spectator fleet that is expected have excellent views of proceedings.

The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia, who are represented by the Emirates Team New Zealand and the Challenger of Record - Luna Rossa respectively, have collaborated on the building rules for the AC75 to ensure there is plenty of room for creativity and innovation while maintaining fair competition between vessels. The rules include:

• Strict limitations on the number of components that can be built including hulls, masts, rudders, foils, and sails, thus encouraging teams to do more R&D in simulation and subsequently less physical construction and testing

• Supplied foil arms and cant system to save design time and construction costs

• Supplied rigging

• One design mast tube

While the previous two editions used catamarans, the 36th edition of the America’s Cup will be contested in the AC75 mono-hulled foiling yacht, which has a hull length of 20.7m/67.9ft with a bowsprit of 2m/6.5ft, and a maximum beam of 5m/16.4ft. The total weight will not exceed 6.5T, while a crew of 11 has an expected weight range of 960-990kg.

The twin canting T-foils have a maximum span of 4m/13ft and a depth of 5m/16.4ft, while the centreline T-foil rudder has a maximum 3m/9.8ft span and a draft of up to 3.5m/11.5ft.

Attached to the 26.5m/86.9ft mast is a sail plan with a main sail of 135-145m2/1453-1560.7ft2, a jib of 90m2/968.7ft2 and a code zero of 200m2/2152.8ft2.

The World Series will take place in the second half of 2019 and in 2020, with a Christmas Regatta to end the year.

Timetable running up to the 36th America's Cup:

• Entries open - January 1 2018

• Entries close - June 30 2018

• America’s Cup World Series - 2019 - 2020

• America's Cup Christmas regatta - December 2020

• Prada Cup Regatta (Challenger Selection Series) - January - February 2021

• America’s Cup - 6th-21st March 2021

Save the Date

• 29th January to the 1st of February 2020: New Zealand Millennium Cup Superyacht Regatta in the Bay of Islands

• 31st December 2020: Royal New Zealand Rock Squadron – New Year’s Eve Race to Kawau Island

• January 2021 (exact dates to be confirmed): Prada Cup Challenger Series in the Hauraki Gulf

• 1st January 2021: Royal New Zealand Rock Squadron – 150th Anniversary & New Year’s Day Round Kawau Island Race

• 3rd to 6th of January 2021: Royal New Zealand Rock Squadron – Cruise to Great Barrier Island

• 12th to 14th February 2021: Superyacht Fishing Competition at the Bay of Islands Swordfish Club

• 15th to 18th February 2021: New Zealand Millennium Cup Superyacht and J Class Yacht Regatta in the Bay of Islands

• 24th to 26th February 2021: Royal New Zealand Rock Squadron – Superyacht Regatta

• 1st to 5th March 2021:

• 6th March 2021: J-Class Exhibition Sail J-Class Championships in the Hauraki Gulf

• 6th to 21st March 2021: 36th America’s Cup in the Hauraki Gulf

• 24th to 26th March 2021: The Superyacht Gathering

Four teams have been confirmed by the 1st of July 2019 deadline set by the defending Emirates Team New Zealand. They are:

• Emirates Team New Zealand

On 6 September 2019, Emirates Team New Zealand launched its mono-hull racing boat TE AIHE. Her aerodynamic design represented by an arrow-headed appearance, while two deep cockpits are desgined to increase efficiency while underway. TE AIHE was designed to strict rules of the competiton and her total weight doe not exceed 6.5T. This racing boat is expected to reach a speed of more than 50 knots. 

• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

• INEOS Team UK

• American Magic NYYC

Of note is a change in the rules requiring at least 10 of the 12 crew to have to be citizens of the country that they represent, while the other two must meet strict residency criteria.

In addition, defenders Emirates Team New Zealand will not be taking part in the challenger series unlike previous winners ORACLE Team USA and will enter the competition once the America's Cup commences.

Stars + Stripes Team USA have joined the competition as late challengers and are liable to pay a $1,000,000 USD late entry fee with is due in instalments before the 1st of October 2019.

Although Royal Netherlands Yacht Club, DutchSail, were one of the original contenders, they were unable to secure a naming rights sponsor and therefore could not commit by the set deadline, resulting in their withdrawal from the competition.

Royal Malta Yacht Club also intended to take part in the 36th America's Cup, however a $40,000,000 USD package promised by backers did not come to pass.

No fee for luxury yachts dropping anchor in waters around Auckland

Auckland Council in consultation with NZ Marine have dropped fees for luxury yachts over 40m/131ft in length that wish to drop anchor in the waters surrounding the city. Instead, there will be a new visitor-friendly 12-month navigation and safety fee for vessels that fit into this size category, allowing foreign visitors and New Zealand residents from other parts of the country to take their time exploring the clear waters, coves and sandy beaches surrounding the metropolis. Find out more...

Upgraded marina facilities in the run-up to the 36th America’s Cup

New Zealand has a wall-established marine industry with shipyards on both islands and extensive repair and refit facilities in Auckland, and these are being further developed along with additional berthing ahead of the influx of superyachts expected for the America’s Cup.

New infrastructure includes a marina in the Bay of Islands plus a superyacht village in Auckalnd for the event. There will also be travel lifts available at Vessel Works in the Bay of Plenty and at Orams Marine in Auckland.

DYT Yacht Transport is also providing extra services to take luxury yachts to New Zealand waters for 2020/21 and returning them to the Mediterranean in time for the summer luxury yacht charter season.

Local luxury yacht charter attractions

Auckland is New Zealand's largest city and as such has a massive array of galleries, museums, boutiques and shopping centres with international brands on offer. Nicknamed the 'City of Sails', one in three households owns a boat and the stunning surrounding islands and coast are well worth exploring on the water. 

The Bay of Islands - North of Auckland, the Bay of Islands reportedly has the second bluest skies anywhere in the world (after Rio de Janeiro) boasts some incredible beaches and ideal conditions for sailing and wind-powered water toys. The sport-fishing here is known internationally, with visitors coming to hook a kingfish or marlin. Dolphins and whales can also be spotted within the region, and the uninhabited islands make for a quiet sunbathing spot away from the pressures of the modern world.

The Bay of Plenty & Hauraki Gulf Marine Park - With 80 islands to explore by yacht, it's possible to spend an entire week exploring the northern tip of the North Island and still not see all of its wonders. Rangitoto Island is a dormant volcano and the closest island to Auckland. Trails lead to the summit where visitors have sweeping views of the surroundings, and the island is also home to the world's largest pohutukawa forest, a tree that blooms with red flowers over the southern hemisphere summer and is often called the 'New Zealand Christmas Tree'.

Great Barrier Island is covered in historic sites including a whaling station, shipwrecks, and gold and copper mines. Snorkelers, Scuba divers and fishing groups come to the region to explore the crystal clear waters, and hikers will be in their element with the pristine beaches and trails through the forest on offer.

Poor Knights Islands - This area has a reputation as one of the best locations for Scuba divers to visit, offering incredible biodiversity in crystal clear waters, with attractions including a nudibranch wall and caves to suit more experienced divers, whereas beginners also have a selection of impressive sites to practise skills and gain experience.

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86M SAILING YACHT | From EUR€ 450,000/wk

90M CUSTOM SAILING YACHT | From US$ 294,000/wk

SEAHAWK | From EUR€ 250,000/wk

SPIRIT OF THE Cs | From EUR€ 245,000/wk

GLADIATOR | From US$ 245,000/wk

67M PERFORMANCE SAILING YACHT | From EUR€ 245,000/wk

SALVAJE | From EUR€ 230,000/wk

Zenji | From US$ 225,000/wk

ROSEHEARTY | From US$ 225,000/wk

FIDELIS | From EUR€ 225,000/wk

65M CLASSIC SCHOONER | From EUR€ 224,000/wk

Charter Yacht Disclaimer

This document is not contractual. The yacht charters and their particulars displayed in the results above are displayed in good faith and whilst believed to be correct are not guaranteed. CharterWorld Limited does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information and/or images displayed. All information is subject to change without notice and is without warrantee. A professional CharterWorld yacht charter consultant will discuss each charter during your charter selection process. Starting prices are shown in a range of currencies for a one-week charter, unless otherwise marked. Exact pricing and other details will be confirmed on the particular charter contract. Just follow the "reserve this yacht charter" link for your chosen yacht charter or contact us and someone from the CharterWorld team will be in touch shortly.