If This Is What Happens To An AC45…

Many of you will have seen this video of Oracle's AC 45 spectacularly cartwheeling across the "natural amphitheater".

 

If they are having these kind of challenges with the AC45s, what's it going to be like when the AC72s are racing on San Francisco Bay?

From what I hear, there are a number of significant challenges with the AC72. I saw the celebrated yacht designer, Juan Kouyoumdjian make a presentation a few months back. Candidly I found it very hard hard to follow, as his presentation seemed more geared towards people with advanced degrees in naval architecture. He said a few things about the AC72s that really got my attention (or at least I understood).

He was asked about the design challenges of building an AC72. He smiled wryly and said that he was still trying to figure it out how to design an AC72. He was only half-joking. He was clearly wrestling with some significant issues.

The logistics alone of handling the wing sail are mind-boggling. The huge wing sail will need to be stepped and unstepped before every race. It's easy to imagine a day when the winds are light early in the morning but up in the high teens after the race. The beast of a sail will be a nightmare to unstep. It will be bloody dangerous.