Boat Operations Manager Jeff Causey discusses how the protocol has changed for AC37 and the secound generation AC75
“The most exciting thing about the Protocol this time around is being in the same class of yacht as the previous Cup. It's the first time we've seen a second generation America's Cup class yacht in 16 years or so, with a change for each of the last four cycles. Changing the rules every time presents challenges and some excitement -- but you start from scratch each time,” the speaker is Jeff Causey, INEOS Britannia’s Boat Operations Manager, and his involvement with the America’s Cup started with Oracle Team USA in 2010 – the beginning of that period of constant change.
“Prior to that, America's Cups were iterations of the same design challenge year after year after year, then we went through this period of radical change where we just cleared the table and started over every time. This time, I think it’s good to return to that boat and be able to take the experience, and what’s been learnt last time and keep building on that. So it’s certainly a bold protocol from the standpoint of continuing to advance this type of sailing and these type of yachts and foiling monohulls. I remember when the boat was introduced, the first time I saw a sketch of the concept I barely believed that it would be possible.”
“This time there are three versions of the boat; the first is the AC40, which has been designed and built by Team New Zealand, and is procured from them. All of the teams will buy at least one of those boats, everyone is going to have an AC40 class yacht. It’s a one design boat that we'll do a bit of racing in at the Preliminary Regattas at the end of this year, starting a couple of months from now.
“We’ll hand the AC40 over to the Youth and Women's America's Cup teams when we launch the AC75 next year. That's the second variation, the big boat, which is the primary race boat for all of the racing that really matters to us. These are the second generation AC75s, which will all be in the water sometime next spring or early summer.
“And then the third class of boat is what's called the LEQ12, short for “Length Equivalent 12m”. So that's a test platform that's essentially a scaled design of the AC75. It’s cheaper than an AC75 and can be more easily and more quickly modified to test concepts on the water. This time you can’t test foils full-scale, or build a second AC75, so you really have to use the LEQ12 for testing.
“Some of the teams are using the AC40 as their LEQ12, as their test boat, as well as using it for the one design racing in the Preliminary Regattas. We've opted for a different route where we've taken the parameters of being less than 12 meters and done our own thing. So we've designed our own hull shape and our own platform and control systems and rig and sails package so that we can have the maximum flexibility in what we want to change and test and carry over onto the AC75.
“This boat is called T6, and it’s our test boat, and it’s much more complicated than the AC40 because we're using it to experiment with a much wider spectrum of things that could have relevance to the race boat. The amount of technical knowledge, experience and equipment that the shore team needs to have to deal with these boats and keep them running every day is a big challenge. And it scales up through the AC40 and the LEQ12 into the AC75.
“The AC40 is designed to be simple, it’s a one design, it doesn’t need complexity and we know it works. That makes it more inexpensive and more robust and more reliable in some ways. So the AC40 and T6 are very, very different yachts to manage operationally. They look somewhat similar because they're about the same size. They have about the same size rig. We sail them with about the same number of people. But if you open the lid and look inside, they are dramatically different boats. They both do a job for us though and they do it well, it’s all helping us towards a fast AC75, and that’s what it’s really all about.”
Bold Protocol is a series exclusively on INEOSBritannia.com that digs deep into the Protocol that defines the competition for the 37th America's Cup.