{"id":109101,"date":"2017-08-11T12:57:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T11:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=109101"},"modified":"2017-08-11T18:46:35","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T17:46:35","slug":"design-in-detail-exactly-what-made-emirates-team-new-zealand-so-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/americas-cup\/design-in-detail-exactly-what-made-emirates-team-new-zealand-so-fast-109101","title":{"rendered":"Design in detail \u2013 exactly what made Emirates Team New Zealand so fast in the America’s Cup?"},"content":"When Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) launched their AC50 in Bermuda in mid-April, just six weeks before the America's Cup<\/a> Round Robin, they were the last to arrive and no one knew how quick the boat was going to be.\r\n\r\nThe team had done its early training alone in Auckland, away from too many prying eyes, and had elected to skip two rounds of practice racing with the other teams. When they did join in, Oracle Team USA<\/em> and \u2018sister\u2019 team SoftBank Team Japan<\/em> refused to race them.\r\n\r\nBut the team were sure they had a fast boat. Four days after launching in New Zealand, the crew had pulled off their first foiling tack.\r\n\r\nThe most glaring difference was their use of pedal grinders to produce power rather than traditional pedestal arm grinders. ETNZ<\/em>\u2019s sci-fi style term for their grinders was \u2018cyclors\u2019, cyclist sailors.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_109134\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Emirates Team New Zealand crew (from left): Simon van Velthooven, age 28, cylor. Olympic cycling Bronze Medal. Often raced with forehead resting on beam. Josh Junior, age 27, Finn Olympic sailor. Cyclor and also had input on course and wind. Andy Maloney, age 27, cyclor. Former winner of Youth AC Worlds. More on Blair Tuke, Glenn Ashby and Peter Burling below.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe idea had actually been tried before in the America\u2019s Cup; Pelle Petterson used pedal grinders on the 12-metre Sverige<\/em> in 1977. But ETNZ<\/em>\u2019s set-up now was very different: here it was part of a linked chain of innovations, the most obvious emblem of a radical approach.\r\n\r\nOther teams countered that they had looked at this option but rejected it, but most people were still looking for clues on the outside of ETNZ<\/em>\u2019s boat when many of the most important secrets were hidden away on the inside.\r\n\r\nThe cyclors were fundamental to ETNZ\u2019s stable flight and faster speed, but not quite in the way that people assumed.\r\n\r\nOne obvious benefit was the greater power output from using legs to pedal, but beyond this it left cyclists\u2019 hands free and allowed the team to use a highly sophisticated system of fingertip control systems, and thus to use faster, less stable foils, and then to divide up crew roles so ETNZ<\/em> could be sailed in a different way.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/6bepEiLEkIs\r\n\r\nIt all dovetailed. Firstly, the decision to have pedal grinders allowed ETNZ<\/em> to produce lots of hydraulic power for the wingmast controls, the rudder trim controls, daggerboard rake and cant and board up and down controls. It\u00a0was sufficient to cover multiple manoeuvres in a short time to go on the attack, where other teams may have needed more distance on the straight and level to accumulate enough hydraulic pressure.\r\n\r\nHigh power output for a lower heart rate meant the cyclors could continue to pump enough oil when demands surged, for example on very windy days or ones when there could be three races in a row \u2013 as happened in of the playoffs.\u00a0On a day when ETNZ<\/em> was in total control, Dean Barker admitted that SoftBank Team Japan<\/em>\u2019s crew were \u201cflogging themselves senseless.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe cycling configuration allowed control systems to be distributed among the crew. So instead of the helmsman controlling several functions including daggerboard angles, ETNZ<\/em>\u2019s Peter Burling had rudder differential to worry about (the controls on the wheel), but otherwise could concentrate on steering the boat and working out tactics with input by wing trimmer and tactician Glenn Ashby.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_109135\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" One of the best views of the interior set-up of Emirates Team New Zealand<\/em> was to be had when the boat pitchpoled at the start of a race with Land Rover BAR<\/em>. Looking into the cockpit of the boat, you can see Burling\u2019s back-up controls for wing and the aero bars and control box Blair Tuke was using for daggerboard rake and cant.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAs for the control systems themselves, this was the key to ETNZ<\/em>\u2019s \u2018adventurous\u2019, \u2018aggressive\u2019 design, because it allowed the team to use foils that couldn\u2019t have worked otherwise. AC50 class rule states control surfaces can only be altered manually or by \u2018electrical or electronic systems\u2026 initiated by direct manual input.\u2019\r\n\r\nETNZ<\/em>\u2019s input may have been manual but the settings were controlled as near to an autopilot as the rule could be pushed. A programmable logic controller triggered electromechanical switches which controlled valves in the hydraulic system, a system that was \u201ccomplicated, but well set up,\u201d Glenn Ashby has said.\r\n\r\nThey weren\u2019t alone in using such a system, but theirs was more sophisticated and better.\r\n\r\nDean Barker on SoftBank Team Japan<\/em>, Jimmy Spithill on Oracle Team USA<\/em> and Nathan Outteridge on Artemis Racing<\/em> used a twist grip on the wheel to operate rake and cant controls, critical to stable flight. On Land Rover BAR<\/em>, Ben Ainslie had controls at the wheel and an LED light array indicating target position.\r\n\r\nBut on ETNZ<\/em>, daggerboard rake and cant was primarily in the hands of Burling\u2019s Olympic crew Blair Tuke. Third from the back, he cycled with his forearms in carbon rests similar to triathlon aero bars.\u00a0The system indicated the optimal setting and his input was, we have been told: \u201clike following the bouncing ball\u201d.\r\n\r\nGlenn Ashby had a similar system for operating wing sheet, twist and camber, which could be operated from either side of the boat. There were no winches or ropes, unlike on other boats, and the wing could be pulled as well as pushed.\u00a0The adjustments he was making were frequent and tiny, memorably described by Land Rover BAR<\/em>\u2019s Freddie Carr as: \u201clike a hummingbird wing\u201d.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_109136\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"263\"]\"\" Left: Blair Tuke\u2019s arms were in aero bars so he could trace out optimal rake settings. Right: Glenn Ashby\u2019s so-called \u2018Xbox\u2019 control head for trimming wing and jib.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAshby\u2019s control box also let him make all the adjustments for jib sheet, jib track and cunningham. All of these controls had back-ups so there were crossovers while crew were moving across the boat.\r\n\r\nPete Burling had a box near the wheel for trimming the wing, and Ashby had floor buttons for raising and lowering the boards.\r\n\r\nSo ETNZ<\/em> clearly had finer controls and better man-machine interfaces. That made it possible to fly with faster foils, shapes that had less drag at lower speeds but as a result were less inherently stable.\r\n\r\n\u201cLike the Eurofighter, the most agile plane ever made \u2013 turn the computers off and you can\u2019t fly it,\u201d explains a rival team member.\r\n\r\nETNZ<\/em>\u2019s foils performed better over a wider wind range, and their package appeared better and faster in \u2018high mode\u2019, allowing ETNZ<\/em> to point higher than Oracle<\/em> upwind, and foil deeper downwind.\r\n\r\nThe distinct kink in their foils maximised draught and length within the arc allowed by the rule: \u20183.500m in any direction, measured along a straight line.\u2019 They had less wetted surface area, too, something they achieved with a different build method, milled steel sheathed in carbon, which was heavier but allowed them to create a finer, slenderer shape.\r\n\r\nAnd beyond the huge number of technical factors was the unflappable, cool-headed Peter Burling. Calculating how to play the shifts by himself played directly to his experience and talents.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_109137\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Photo ACEA\/Ricardo Pinto[\/caption]\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_109133\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Photo: Pirelli\/Studio Borlenghi\/kospictures.com[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cTheir sailing technique, the way they are manoeuvring, how fast they manage to tack and how it is executed is different as well as the foils and systems. All this [contributes] to their speed,\u201d observes Bruno Dubois, Groupama Team France<\/em>\u2019s sailing manager.\r\n\r\nStill, there are mysteries, such as those lightning speed tacks. \u201cHow do they do it?\u201d Dubois shakes his head. \u201cNo idea.\u201d","excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) launched their AC50 in Bermuda in mid-April, just six weeks before the America’s Cup Round Robin, they were the last to arrive and no one knew how quick the boat was going to be. The team had done its early training alone in Auckland, away from too many prying eyes, and had elected to skip two rounds of practice racing with the other teams. When they did join in, Oracle Team USA and \u2018sister\u2019 team SoftBank Team Japan refused to race them. But the team were sure they had a fast boat. Four days after launching in New Zealand, the crew had pulled off their first foiling tack. The most glaring difference was their use of pedal grinders to produce power rather than traditional pedestal arm grinders. ETNZ\u2019s sci-fi style term for their grinders was \u2018cyclors\u2019, cyclist sailors. The idea had actually been tried before in the America\u2019s Cup; Pelle Petterson used pedal grinders on the 12-metre Sverige in 1977. But ETNZ\u2019s set-up now was very different: here it was part of a linked chain of innovations, the most obvious emblem of a radical approach. Other teams countered that they had looked at this option but rejected it, but most people were still looking for clues on the outside of ETNZ\u2019s boat when many of the most important secrets were hidden away on the inside. The cyclors were fundamental to ETNZ\u2019s stable flight and faster speed, but not quite in the way that people assumed. One obvious benefit was the greater power output from using legs to pedal, but beyond this it left cyclists\u2019 hands free and allowed the team to use a highly sophisticated system of fingertip control systems, and thus to use faster, less stable foils, and then to divide up crew roles so ETNZ could be sailed in a different way. It all dovetailed. Firstly, the decision to have pedal grinders allowed ETNZ to produce lots of hydraulic power for the wingmast controls, the rudder trim controls, daggerboard rake and cant and board up and down controls. It\u00a0was sufficient to cover multiple manoeuvres in a short time to go on the attack, where other teams may have needed more distance on the straight and level to accumulate enough hydraulic pressure. High power output for a lower heart rate meant the cyclors could continue to pump enough oil when demands surged, for example on very windy days or ones when there could be three races in a row \u2013 as happened in of the playoffs.\u00a0On a day when ETNZ was in total control, Dean Barker admitted that SoftBank Team Japan\u2019s crew were \u201cflogging themselves senseless.\u201d The cycling configuration allowed control systems to be distributed among the crew. So instead of the helmsman controlling several functions including daggerboard angles, ETNZ\u2019s Peter Burling had rudder differential to worry about (the controls on the wheel), but otherwise could concentrate on steering the boat and working out tactics with input by wing trimmer and tactician Glenn …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":448,"featured_media":109138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1160,687],"tags":[173],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109101"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109618,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109101\/revisions\/109618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109101"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=109101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}