AC72....Crazy Cool and Cool Crazy

[Ocean Girl]

The AC72 Is A Different Sort Of Beast | Sailfeed

Here is some bullets points about this class of sailboats.

* If you had an engine to power the hydraulics rather than grinders, you could sail the AC72s with 4 people rather than the crew of 11 they now sail with.

* There is really only one trimmer on board and he controls the wing. The helmsman controls the cant and rake of the board with buttons on a control pad in front of him but only has 3 seconds of stored power before he has to “throw bananas” into the grinding pit i.e. ask for more hydraulic power.

* They have seen 47 knots as the top speed so far but expect to see the 50 knot barrier broken in the Cup match.

* The boats go directly downwind 1.8 times faster than the wind. So if you let a balloon go as you went around the top mark you would easily beat it to the bottom mark.

* There is only 4 degrees difference to the apparent wind from going on the wind to running as deep as you can.

* If you lost the hydraulics while the boats were foiling they would be completely uncontrollable and would most likely capsize.

* It is faster to find the strongest adverse current going downwind because the stronger apparent that is then generated translates into more speed than if you were sailing in slack water. (Warning – this takes a bit to get your head around)

* When sailing downwind you look for the puffs in front of you not behind you.

* It is actually quite dry on the boats, unless you make a mistake and come off the foils, as you are flying a couple of metres above the water. Waves have almost no impact on the boat when foiling.

* In strong wind you carry negative camber at the top of the wing to “reef” or de-power the wing.

* All crew carry personal tackle so they can effectively rappel down the netting if the boat capsizes.

* Gennakers are only used below about 8 knots; the jibs only provide about 3% of the lift up wind.

* The foil on the rudder generates about 800 kg of lift with the rest coming from the center board foil to lift the 7 ton yachts clear of the water.

* The centre board foil’s tip comes out of the water so it effectively works like a governor on an engine i.e. as the board generates too much vertical lift it comes out of the water, the area is thus reduced so it goes back down etc until it finds equilibrium.

[goboatingnow]

cant see all those valient owners transferring to foiling cruisers in 2020!!

cant you see it now

"Greyed bluewater" , no traditional fin keel and spade rudder, Beneteau were best before 2018 and all this modern foiling nonsense
"Speed Freak" " old timer, move with teh times, speed is safe, having the boat in the water is so 2010s"

Dave

[barnakiel]

In fact, I am adding a foil and converting to wing as soon as I manage to feed our new halyard into our old mast.

I am in love with the new boats, but many say future generations will have to get downgraded to something simpler, cheaper. ;-(

b.

[goboatingnow]

I am in love with the new boats, but many say future generations will have to get downgraded to something simpler, cheaper. ;-(

or unfortunately not get into boats at all. We may have seen the "golden age"

dave

[builder dan]

Go team New Zealand

[Abaco]

Boats themselves are exciting. The match racing has been horrible. The entire LV cup has just been follow the leader. We'll see who designed the faster boat when the cup starts but I don't expect the quality of the racing to improve that much.

[colemj]

You will probably enjoy the AC45 youth fleet racing starting Sept. 1. Exciting boats in a fleet race with youth nationals on each.

Mark