Foto copyright Ainhoa Sanchez
Foto copyright Ainhoa Sanchez
Fuente info Alinghi
07.02.2010 (17:15 CET) - Valencia, Spain - Alinghi
Around the course with Alinghi 5
For a crew as experienced as Alinghi’s there have been plenty of moments of trepidation during the six months of training and trialling Alinghi 5. They all stem from a combination of loads and boatspeed.
“I’m pretty sure we won’t get another chance to build a boat like this, with such high loads, such a huge, powerful machine,” says Alinghi design team co-ordinator Grant Simmer. “Its’ one of the highlights of this Cup; that these two boats are so extreme. In all our careers we’ll probably never have another opportunity to build a boat this extreme. That’s a really exciting and cool thing about this Cup.”
Exciting and cool for the designers and engineers, but an alarming experience for the sailors. There are moments when parts of the 90ft cat are experiencing loads five times in excess of the all-up weight of a Version 5 America’s Cup Class sloop. And the speeds are anywhere from two to four times as fast, depending on the angle of sail. For sailors largely versed in monohulls it’s an experience that makes their eyes pop out, especially when the alarm starts going off.
“The alarm is deafening, I hate that thing,” said team skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth, referring to the alarm rigged to the 150 fibre-optic sensors on the boat that goes off maybe five times a day. “The problem is bearing away. Everything quadruples. And that’s where you run the risk of flipping them.”
SEE ALSO: Race course review: the pre-start
Butterworth noted that Alinghi 5 is fully loaded in 7 knots of wind. For reference, a V5 sloop was fully loaded in 11 knots of wind. Upwind Alinghi 5 can sail between 35 and 55 degrees true wind angle, which brings the apparent wind angle under 20 degrees, and the sheeting angle for the headsail can be 5 degrees. Upwind boatspeed is generally between 16 and 20 knots.
One aspect of Alinghi 5 that’s pleasing to team designer Rolf Vrolijk is the ability to get headstay tension, which aids the upwind VMG speeds. The running backstays on Alinghi 5 are much like that of a big monohull, pulling the headstay tight. But the runners also help support the whole structure by distributing the loads to the web-like rigging under the trampoline.
“The main function of our spine system and the rigging is rig tension and sail adjustment,” says Vrolijk. “We have put a lot of emphasis in sail shapes and that’s why, hopefully, we have an advantage. We work with better loads and sail shapes.”
Butterworth says rounding the windward mark is the scariest part of the race, when the true wind angle shifts from 45 degrees to 120 degrees. “There’s more load, more apparent wind, more everything,” he says.
That’s why Alinghi 5 has water ballast tanks aft in the hulls. The ballast helps keep the stern in the water and prevents the boat from pitch-poling. The Alinghi team has first-hand knowledge of that danger, having capsized a multihull twice during training in 2008.
On a reach the cat can easily surpass 30 knots.
“We had one of the sailing team guys out the other day, Will McCarthy, and we were trying to do the reach, which is the most difficult angle for these boats because they accelerate and accelerate,” Butterworth says. “Will’s sitting on the back and we’re doing 36 knots and everyone’s talking about the bow and the sails. And he’s saying, ‘Jesus Christ! Is this right?’”
Another worrisome moment for Butterworth is a penalty turn. Alinghi practised a penalty turn at the end of its practise race on Wednesday and it didn’t go particularly smooth. Once again, the loads shot up. Plus, the boat wasn’t easy to manoeuvre or control, nearly stopping dead in the water as it went through the eye of the wind, and then taking off again as it bore away. As Butterworth notes, it’d be painful to come back from a penalty turn.
All of that aside, the team has come a long way since 20 July, when it first sailed Alinghi 5 on Lake Geneva. When it was first launched Butterworth and other members of the team weren’t quite sure of the scope of the project they were undertaking. Now it’s the stuff of dreams.
“As a Kiwi growing up in New Zealand I never dreamed of sailing the America’s Cup in boats like this,” says Butterworth. “It’s been a fantastic journey for me and, I think, the other guys in the team who’ve come through sailing not only multihulls but also monohulls. To be able to sail on boats like this that are so cutting edge, to limit of design, and the loads and the speeds that we achieve, certainly I wouldn’t give my spot away.”
Fuente info Alinghi
07.02.2010 (17:15 CET) - Valencia, Spain - Alinghi
Around the course with Alinghi 5
For a crew as experienced as Alinghi’s there have been plenty of moments of trepidation during the six months of training and trialling Alinghi 5. They all stem from a combination of loads and boatspeed.
“I’m pretty sure we won’t get another chance to build a boat like this, with such high loads, such a huge, powerful machine,” says Alinghi design team co-ordinator Grant Simmer. “Its’ one of the highlights of this Cup; that these two boats are so extreme. In all our careers we’ll probably never have another opportunity to build a boat this extreme. That’s a really exciting and cool thing about this Cup.”
Exciting and cool for the designers and engineers, but an alarming experience for the sailors. There are moments when parts of the 90ft cat are experiencing loads five times in excess of the all-up weight of a Version 5 America’s Cup Class sloop. And the speeds are anywhere from two to four times as fast, depending on the angle of sail. For sailors largely versed in monohulls it’s an experience that makes their eyes pop out, especially when the alarm starts going off.
“The alarm is deafening, I hate that thing,” said team skipper and tactician Brad Butterworth, referring to the alarm rigged to the 150 fibre-optic sensors on the boat that goes off maybe five times a day. “The problem is bearing away. Everything quadruples. And that’s where you run the risk of flipping them.”
SEE ALSO: Race course review: the pre-start
Butterworth noted that Alinghi 5 is fully loaded in 7 knots of wind. For reference, a V5 sloop was fully loaded in 11 knots of wind. Upwind Alinghi 5 can sail between 35 and 55 degrees true wind angle, which brings the apparent wind angle under 20 degrees, and the sheeting angle for the headsail can be 5 degrees. Upwind boatspeed is generally between 16 and 20 knots.
One aspect of Alinghi 5 that’s pleasing to team designer Rolf Vrolijk is the ability to get headstay tension, which aids the upwind VMG speeds. The running backstays on Alinghi 5 are much like that of a big monohull, pulling the headstay tight. But the runners also help support the whole structure by distributing the loads to the web-like rigging under the trampoline.
“The main function of our spine system and the rigging is rig tension and sail adjustment,” says Vrolijk. “We have put a lot of emphasis in sail shapes and that’s why, hopefully, we have an advantage. We work with better loads and sail shapes.”
Butterworth says rounding the windward mark is the scariest part of the race, when the true wind angle shifts from 45 degrees to 120 degrees. “There’s more load, more apparent wind, more everything,” he says.
That’s why Alinghi 5 has water ballast tanks aft in the hulls. The ballast helps keep the stern in the water and prevents the boat from pitch-poling. The Alinghi team has first-hand knowledge of that danger, having capsized a multihull twice during training in 2008.
On a reach the cat can easily surpass 30 knots.
“We had one of the sailing team guys out the other day, Will McCarthy, and we were trying to do the reach, which is the most difficult angle for these boats because they accelerate and accelerate,” Butterworth says. “Will’s sitting on the back and we’re doing 36 knots and everyone’s talking about the bow and the sails. And he’s saying, ‘Jesus Christ! Is this right?’”
Another worrisome moment for Butterworth is a penalty turn. Alinghi practised a penalty turn at the end of its practise race on Wednesday and it didn’t go particularly smooth. Once again, the loads shot up. Plus, the boat wasn’t easy to manoeuvre or control, nearly stopping dead in the water as it went through the eye of the wind, and then taking off again as it bore away. As Butterworth notes, it’d be painful to come back from a penalty turn.
All of that aside, the team has come a long way since 20 July, when it first sailed Alinghi 5 on Lake Geneva. When it was first launched Butterworth and other members of the team weren’t quite sure of the scope of the project they were undertaking. Now it’s the stuff of dreams.
“As a Kiwi growing up in New Zealand I never dreamed of sailing the America’s Cup in boats like this,” says Butterworth. “It’s been a fantastic journey for me and, I think, the other guys in the team who’ve come through sailing not only multihulls but also monohulls. To be able to sail on boats like this that are so cutting edge, to limit of design, and the loads and the speeds that we achieve, certainly I wouldn’t give my spot away.”
