{"id":139741,"date":"2022-07-27T11:27:05","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T10:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=139741"},"modified":"2022-07-27T13:21:45","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T12:21:45","slug":"inside-sailgp-what-next-for-sailings-greatest-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/events-2\/inside-sailgp-what-next-for-sailings-greatest-show-139741","title":{"rendered":"Inside SailGP: what next for sailing\u2019s greatest show?"},"content":"\u201cI think 99% of people believe that we received these boats from Bermuda, repainted them and sent them on their way again. I don\u2019t think we\u2019re ever going to be able to explain quite what we\u2019ve done, but the amount of work that has happened here in New Zealand has been simply phenomenal,\u201d explains Brad Marsh, technical team operations manager for SailGP<\/a>. \u201cThe only thing that resembles the previous boats is the length and width; they have been modified in every respect.\u201d\r\n\r\nMarsh is talking about the F50, the boat developed for the SailGP circuit. The basic plan was simple enough: to take the AC50s that raced in the America\u2019s Cup<\/a> in Bermuda in 2017 and use them to jump-start a one-design fleet for the new professional circuit. The AC50 would transform into a strict one-design F50 with standardised components.\r\n\r\nThe fundamentals of the boat didn\u2019t change: it is still a 50ft foiling<\/a> catamaran with a hard wingsail. The F50 foils using rudders with elevators, and two L-shaped daggerboards. The crew control the angle of attack of both to achieve flat, fast and stable flight.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_122849\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1200\"]\"SailGP-f50-raceboat-Sydney-credit-Sam-Greenfield-Australia-SailGP-Team\" Australia won the inaugural Sail GP race in Sydney. Photo: Sam Greenfield \/ Australia SailGP Team[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBut almost everything was built new, from the daggerboards and rudder through the control systems and hydraulics to the headsails, as well as two new hull platforms. \u201cWe have been going since November 2017, when they started laminating the daggerboards,\u201d recalls Marsh, who has been overseeing the work at Core Builders Composites at Warkworth, north of Auckland.\r\n\r\n\u201cIn April 2018 we received our first containers with the boats from Bermuda. In October 2018 we sailed the first boat, and in February 2019 we sail our first regatta. I think it\u2019s been about 135,000 man hours.\u201d It\u2019s an immense amount of work, a lot of which is not immediately visible \u2013 like the adaptations that mean the boats can now disassemble for shipping.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s the closest thing that sailing has to Formula 1 now. We are a travelling circus going to international venues. We\u2019ve had to take boats that weren\u2019t intended to be dismantled at all, and turn them into something that could go on this travelling roadshow. Every component has to be stored in a container and assembled and disassembled quickly so we can get as much time on the water as possible.\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...<\/em>\r\n\r\n
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\r\n\r\n\u201cWe know when we go to an event the intention is to have two days of practice and two days of racing, so there\u2019s no point in having two weeks of assembly for four days of sailing. So we\u2019ve had to be very clever about how the systems and boat work so that it can be assembled quickly, sailed reliably, packed up quickly and transported safely around the world in containers.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have 66 40ft containers that have all been custom built. The wing goes in one container, the hull or platform breaks down and goes into two containers, plus the boards and rudders. It\u2019s about having a system and set-up so you don\u2019t lose all the pieces and you\u2019re not running around looking for bits.\u201d\r\n

Battery power<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThere have been philosophical changes as well as practical ones \u2013 one of which is very visible. There is just one grinding pedestal, compared to the two on which the America\u2019s Cup crews laboured so much blood, sweat and tears. The foil rake, rudder pitch, cant, wing twist and jib sheet is now driven by lithium ion batteries, leaving just the wing sheet adjustment needing the manpower of two grinders.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_122840\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1200\"]\"sailgp-f50-raceboat-battery-credit-mark-chisnell\" The lithium ion batteries which have replaced the manual grinder-produced power are housed in a central pod. Photo: Mark Chisnell[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cThe boats have moved away from the physical, grinding aspect, to focus more on the technical side of the sailing challenge,\u201d said Marsh. \u201cUsing the batteries means we don\u2019t need a sixth sailor as grinder, but we have changed the roles around.\r\n\r\n\u201cSo we have one person, the flight controller, whose job is specifically to fly the boat. In the past that was done by the helmsman: now we\u2019ve split that role off so it can be focussed on.\u201d\r\n\r\nDuring the last America\u2019s Cup, the crews were restricted by the power available from the grinders. \u201cThey had to limit their tacks and gybes, but it also meant they had to limit how much they moved the daggerboards and rudders. Now we have unlimited battery power, the teams are able to move all the components as much as they like.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_122844\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1200\"]\"sailgp-f50-raceboat-hydraulics-credit-mark-chisnell\" Adding batteries resulted in a redesign and rebuild of the entire hydraulic system. The system now demands over five times as much oil as when the hydraulics were grinder-powered. Photo: Mark Chisnell[\/caption]\r\n\r\n\u201cThe introduction of the flight controller means that one person is there with his or her joystick and they are constantly moving the daggerboard in an effort to keep the boat level and in constant flight.\u201d The extra workload on the hydraulic system meant that it needed a complete redesign and rebuild.\r\n\r\nSailGP took delivery of four of the six boats that competed in Bermuda, and the F50\u2019s development team \u2013 led by technical director Mike Drummond \u2013 was able to go over all of them and select the best ideas from each for the new fleet. The details of the different control systems and hydraulics used on each AC50 had been tightly guarded secrets during the Cup.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was extremely interesting for us. We had the opportunity to take four different boats from the America\u2019s Cup and bring them back into one shed, pull everything out and see what the different teams did. Then we had to go through and standardise these things, so that each boat is identical,\u201d said Marsh.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_122842\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1200\"]\"sailgp-f50-raceboat-disassembled-credit-mark-chisnell\" The boats have been redesigned for quick assembly and disassembly at each venue. Photo: Mark Chisnell[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe one thing that didn\u2019t change significantly was the wingsails, at least not yet. \u201cThe wings are still about 85% as they were in Bermuda. By the time we had rebuilt all the boats, built 28 daggerboards and 28 rudders, stripped, reconfigured, rebuilt and repainted the boats, we didn\u2019t have time to do the wings as well.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe have now started a project to build eight new wings for the 2020 season. They are going to be a modular wing, which will allow us to assess the conditions and set up for each regatta. They could be set to be 4m taller than the current wing, the same size, or 4m shorter than the current wing,\u201d explained Marsh.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe idea is to be able to have the boats foil in very light winds, and still sail in very heavy winds. This opens up different venues to us.\u201d The boats will constantly develop to keep them at the bleeding edge of what\u2019s possible, while remaining one-design.\r\n\r\nNothing like this has ever been done before \u2013 the nearest is probably the developments the VO65 went through between the last two Volvo Ocean Races<\/a>. Those boats generated some of the most exciting offshore racing ever seen.\r\n\r\nIt will be interesting to see if the same philosophy can deliver that result for high-speed, short-course inshore racing long-term. The America\u2019s Cup community will be watching with interest.","excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Box office stuff\u2019 is how Ben Ainslie described the opening day of last month’s SailGP event, in Chicago, USA. And truly, it was: the sun shone, the wind blew, the crowds waved their Stars \u2019n\u2019 Stripes flags as the foiling F50s whizzed around in front of an iconic city skyline. Sailing, Hollywood-style. This is a new vernacular for sailing. Ainslie and his peers may be the biggest names in the sport, but they are not showmen. Sailors are not athletes used to hyping the crowd or capturing a stadium with tension \u2013 they\u2019ve spent most of their careers competing on the horizon. SailGP set out to change all that. When it was launched in 2018 it proclaimed its modest ambition of redefining the entire sport. The event would pit the world\u2019s greatest sailors (they unquestionably are) against each other in gladiatorial, high stakes competition designed to appeal to those who\u2019d never watched a yacht race in their life. The first season introduced a five-event, six-team series designed around a broadcast-friendly format. Then, just as SailGP was starting its second year, Covid happened. Global sport hit the buffers, and the entire season was jettisoned. It restarted in April 2021. SailGP is now in its third season, and this year sees the event take a step up \u2013 more teams, more venues, more changes, more championing of its causes. But founders Russell Coutts and Larry Ellison have ambitious plans for the series, and to continue to grow SailGP needs more people to follow it, to invest in it and, above all, to love it. Money talks SailGP is famously bank-rolled by some of the deepest pockets in the world. Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, and ranked by Bloomberg as the 11th richest person on the planet (Forbes placed him 5th in 2011), underwrote the costs of the circuit and original six teams (Australia, France, Great Britain, Japan, United States and the since-defunct China entry). But the deal was always that in order to remain in the series, teams had to become financially independent. A key part of this was to make the skippers also the CEO. For most teams, this means the helmsman is also the boss \u2013 a tough dual figurehead role. \u201cRussell has made no mistake that the buck stops with us,\u201d Team Australia skipper Tom Slingsby tells me in Chicago. \u201cWe can employ a commercial director to try to help us find partnerships, but it\u2019s on us at the end of the day, if we don\u2019t fulfil our off-the-water needs, we\u2019re the ones who pay.\u201d \u201cThe racing is a lot of pressure, but when we get off the water, it doesn\u2019t stop. In between events 90% of my job is trying to find sponsorship, and so I spend all my days just calling people, following leads, taking meetings, seeing if we can get some partnerships.\u201d Article continues below… The challenges were brought into sharp focus at the first event of this season, in Bermuda, when series runners-up Team Japan …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":139749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1540],"tags":[683,1523,173,919,991,2133,2382,1633],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139741"}],"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\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139741"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139772,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139741\/revisions\/139772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139741"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=139741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}