Not to dredge up the whole debate on whether or not AC has gone too far with foiling monohulls, but one key point that is made over and over again in that debate is that technological innovations from those sorts of endeavors eventually trickle down to me and you. Sort of like how F1 is to your daily driver car.
However, as I look at AC
boats, I have to wonder what, exactly, is going to
"trickle down?" Foils? Probably not beyond a few niche high-end racer/cruisers. Dual-skin mainsails? Not hardly.
But, when look at what the IMOCA folks are up to, you see them trying to solve problems that anyone that
sails in the open ocean faces. Sure their
boats look pretty exotic but what's top of mind for them? How to avoid hitting stuff. Now that's some technology I could see eventually trickling down to anyone and everyone that ventures
offshore.
It's stuff like this that just further solidifies in my mind how AC is becoming less and less relevant with each iteration.
https://www.imoca.org/en/news/news/c...h_lPHpARtg2XPU