America’s Cup: here’s what the future AC 75 might look like

The first preliminary races of the America’s Cup, scheduled for Sept. 14-17 in Vilanova, Catalonia, are getting closer, and we will soon tell you how we will follow them. As we wait to see the teams on the water in the AC 40s, the one-design boats in which the preliminaries and the Youth and Women America’s Cup are run, we begin to imagine how the real boats we will see in the 2024 America’s Cup, the AC 75s, will change.

America’s Cup, toward the new AC 75: 50 knots will not be a wall

We still know little about the work the designers have done, and are doing, to make the second generation AC 75. Each team will only be able to make one boat, so it is forbidden to make mistakes because a slow boat is unlikely to be correctable in the process, somewhat like in the world of Formula 1. One thing is certain, if 50 knots were rarely exceeded in the last generation, this time they will often be a reality.

Increasingly thin foil

The smaller the foils, the more AC 75s will have high top speeds. Let us therefore expect leaner appendages than those seen in Auckland in 2021. The designers’ goal will be to make them as small as possible without penalizing the boat’s flight stability.

America’s Cup. Smaller and smaller bow sails

As speeds increase, it is likely to think that the sails of the new generation of AC75s will have increasingly leaner profiles, and reduced surface area especially for the headsails. The jibs will be small triangles, only the J1 (the light wind sail), will use much of the luff length, the others will be rather short so as not to interfere with top speeds by creating drag. Same reason we will never see Code Zero even in training.

The mock bowsprit

As seen in the last edition, the conditions for using Code Zeros hardly ever arise, and once AC 75s are flying too large gliders become counterproductive. The bowsprit on future AC 75s will be of minimal size, designed only to accommodate wind sensors and not to withstand significant loads.

Goodbye flying shrouds

Luna Rossa had been the first to eliminate the steering wheels during the last Cup, then forced to put them back on because not allowed under the old regulations. Future AC 75s will not have them, to decrease drag as much as possible.

Increasingly excavated volumes

Given the performance results Team New Zealand had on Te Rehutai, it cannot be ruled out that on future AC 75s the low volumes of the hull will be hollowed out even more, to increase that “cushion” of air between hull and water that increases the “Lift,” the vertical thrust that keeps the boat up. The hollowed-out volumes thus cooperate with the foils to increase vertical buoyancy: the more the hull shape creates sustenance, the less need there will be for large foils in the water, which increase hydrodynamic drag and decrease top speeds.

Inconspicuous crew

To decrease the drag created by the crew bodies, the sailing team will be almost totally invisible, only part of the helmets will protrude from the edge of the AC 75, and expect more elaborate aerodynamic shapes in this area than those seen on the first generation AC 75.

Mauro Giuffrè

THE COMPLETE GUIDE ON THE AMERICA CUP 2023-2024, WITH INFOGRAPHICS ON FUTURE AC 75S, IN THE OCTOBER PRINT ISSUE OF THE SAILING JOURNAL