America's Cup- Launching the AC45 - not that difficult?

by Richard Gladwell on 23 Jan 2011
Erecting the wingsail and launching the wingsailed AC45, and her larger sister the AC72, were expected to pose some problems for the America's Cup team support team crews.

In monohull terms it is like trying to launch an ACC yacht with her sails up. One false move and the beast is in charge.

In this series of photos and video we show how the Oracle Racing shore, design and build team have worked to overcome these issues.

In the first video, Matthew Mason runs through the pre-launch process (bear in mind that this was just the second day of trialling and they were a little apprehensive about putting the wingsail up in a very swirly 20kt breeze. the launch had already been delayed for several hours because of high winds).

In the second video Paul Bieker explains the issues behind suspending the wingsail from a Skyhook - and how the wingsail can easily take charge.

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