On a knife edge

America’s Cup is a team sport. It’s a technical team sport. And so there’s a lot of overlap
Toto Wolff, team principal at Mercedes F1

There is a general misconception that America’s Cup yacht racing is Formula 1 on the water. Yes, the level of technology, speed of manufacture, speed of change and the totally committed ‘teamwork’ ethic are all very similar, but the America’s Cup is continually pushing the envelope and evolving into the best version of itself. F1, on the other hand, is constrained to have similar vehicles with four wheels in contact with the ground the whole time, hopefully. Now, imagine those same cars with three asymmetric wheels being driven by rockets and you come a little closer to the foiling AC75 America’s Cup concept.

Four years ago, right-minded people thought the Kiwis were completely mad to even think about foiling monohulls after the AC72 catamarans had proved so successful. Statically, it looked okay with a cant arm and a foil to leeward, a foiling rudder and continuous pressure on a wing sail, but these things have to tack and jibe, as well as travel in a straight line. What followed was some serious design and software development to make these ideas on paper actually work on water. All the systems on board have to be working to their optimum and be perfectly balanced for these devices to survive the rigours of racing. We have seen in spectacular fashion with American what happens when the rudder just pops