America's Cup Diary

America's Cup Diary...

Russell Coutts may be the most successful America's Cup helmsman of all time, but he ripped up the history book and starting again for the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco. New racing rules, wing masts, high-speed, foiling catamarans. It was a bold experiment that resulted in one of the most thrilling finales of all time, between Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA, who won the trophy by a whisker. Now the focus is on for Bermuda 2017...

James Spithill at the helm of BMW Oracle
© Gilles Martin-Raget/ BMW Oracle Racing: James Spithill riding high

In This Category

The Soft Wing concept for the AC75

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North Sails designers Burns Fallow and Michael Richelsen have been working closely with America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand and Challenger of Record Luna Rossa to develop the soft wing concept and AC75 Class Rule. “We started this project in September and we did not have a lot of time to figure out if this big idea was to be feasible or not, and there were some big questions to be answered..."

New America's Cup rule is out there!

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The new America's Cup rule is published. Time for the teams to start getting their heads around how to design, engineer and build one of these beasts. Time, as ever, will be the enemy. Money will be quite important too....

The Foiling Tack is a Cup Gamechanger

SoftBank Team Japan AC foiling tack SoftBank Team Japan have bragging rights as the first team to pull off the foiling tack. As Dean Barker and Chris Draper point out, this really is a 'gamechanger' for the 2017 America's Cup, and opens up the tactical opportunities with the possibility of the foiling AC cats tacking on the windshifts...

Nathan Outteridge Interview Part 2

In Part 2 of our exclusive interview with Nathan Outteridge, the Artemis Racing skipper reveals where he things the big gains are likely to be made in the 2017 America's Cup.... "I think the big design battles are going to be in foil design, picking the area required for the foils based on when you want to take off and when you want top speed...." More from Nathan inside...

Artemis Racing say 'Never Say Die'

artemis-racing-say-never-say-die One of the enduring themes of all our conversations with top sailors is their ‘Never Say Die’ (NSD) attitude. No matter how bad things get, you just do whatever it takes to get the job done. Because you never know how things might work out. The America’s Cup World Series racing in Bermuda saw Artemis Racing deliver a perfect example of NSD.

America's Cup - July 2014

Australia’s shock withdrawal from the Cup is just the latest example of what makes following the America’s Cup so frustrating. I’m struggling to buy into Russell Coutts’s vision for a more commercial event, but one thing we can at least celebrate is the proliferation of hydrofoiling sailcraft that are now appearing in the wake of last year’s amazing final.