America's Cup- Boat shrink mooted to reduce campaign costs

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com NZL on 26 Mar 2015 America's Cup organisers have issued a media release following a competitors conference believed to have been held last Monday.

The thrust of the release is to focus on the recurring theme of reducing costs by using a smaller boat for the event.

It would seem that five of the six teams currently entered are in favour of a smaller boat - of a size that has not been disclosed, previous talk was of using an AC54.

The team against the move would seem to be the Challenger of Record, Luna Rossa, who are the most advanced in terms of having set up a base in Cagliari, Italy and having engaged a near full team of more then 80 people.

The difficulty with the push to reduce costs by reducing the AC boat size, ignores the fact that up to four AC45's can be sailed by a team - two of the one designs - to be converted to foilers and two as surrogate boats - using AC5 hulls but with a platform and rig that is scaled off the AC62, which is the current boat for the 35th America's Cup.

Reducing the number of AC45's be to be sailed by a team to just two - a one design and a surrogate, would have significant cost reduction in cost - in sailing hardware, tenders and sailing crew - as a squad of just 8-10 sailors would be required, instead of two squads currently of probably 16-20 sailors.

Reducing salaries would also have a significant effect - with 60% of an America's Cup campaign cost being the cost of sailors, designers and shore staff.

With the Defender paying $25,000 a month plus $4,000 accommodation allowance for a grinder in the sailing crew (close to $350,000 per year) there would seem to be more scope in that area for cost reduction than in shrinking the boat.

No announcement has been made on the venue or dates of the Qualifiers - which were required under the Protocol to have been made on February 15, 2015. A spokesman foe America's Cup Events Authority later claimed that the date had been met by ACEA, and the teams had been advised, however no public announcement had been made - and has not over a month later.

The release from America's Cup organisers reads:

The competitors and organizers of the 2017 America’s Cup are planning to implement a series of rule changes to dramatically reduce team operational costs, primarily by racing in a smaller boat.

“After reviewing prototypes of the new AC45 sports boats being tested on the water over the past several months, it is clear that if we raced smaller boats in 2017, we could dramatically reduce costs without sacrificing any of the spectacle or the design, engineering and athletic challenge fundamental to the America’s Cup,” said Commercial Commissioner Harvey Schiller.

“We have a responsibility to think of what is best for the long term health of the America’s Cup as well as improving the value equation for team principals and partners. Racing a smaller boat in 2017 and beyond is a big step in the right direction.

“The existing operational costs of teams is much too high with a boat like the AC62. We discussed making this change early last year at a Competitors meeting in London but at that stage only ORACLE TEAM USA and Emirates Team New Zealand were in favor of using a smaller boat.

“But now that the teams have seen these new boats in action there is a clear majority of competitors who support the idea. I’d like to be able to say we have unanimous support from all the teams but that is not the case.”

Boat speed in the new boat is expected to be similar to what was achieved in the last America’s Cup through increased time foiling and advances in design and engineering.

“This will be a big change, but it is a necessary one if we are to create a sustainable America's Cup for the future,” said Sir Ben Ainslie, the skipper and team principal of Ben Ainslie Racing. “These boats will create a significant cost saving whilst still providing a real challenge for sailors and designers alike.”

“For Team France this will be a game-changer,” said skipper Franck Cammas. “We will be able to have a very competitive team for about half the budget. With the smaller boat we can imagine that a budget between €15-20 million would be enough to win the America’s Cup.”

To lock in the cost saving measures over the long-term several competitors, including Artemis Racing, have committed to using the new smaller class in the next edition of the America’s Cup should they prevail in this one.

“These changes may help some current teams be more competitive, but this is clearly also about building the future of the America’s Cup,” said Iain Percy, the team manager of Artemis Racing.

“By making a commitment now to using the smaller boat next time, it will be that much easier for new teams to join as they’ll have access to existing boats and technology. So this has required us to look a little bit beyond the scope of ‘what’s in it for us?’.”

The rule changes are being drafted and teams will be asked to vote on these changes before the end of March.