America's Cup - Artemis Racing launches second AC45 development boat

by Sail-World.com on 5 Feb 2016 Artemis Racing has made a flying start to 2016, relocating the team’s sailing operations to Bermuda, and perhaps even more significantly, launching its second turbo development boat of this America’s Cup campaign.

The new boat, nicknamed ‘T2’, was launched in Alameda, California, in early January. Design Coordinator, Adam May, provides an insight into the team’s development pathway for the 35th America’s Cup:

“Very early in this America’s Cup's cycle we upgraded our existing foiling AC45, a boat similar to those used in the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series, to boost its performance and provide a platform to test appendages.”

“However, our development path truly began with our sister ship turbo program. ‘T1’ was launched in February 2015 as a test platform scaled to be similar to the AC62 class. The original AC45 foiler was then retired and converted into T2. There was a pause during its build while the AC class changed, and many features such as a similar deck layout to that of the new AC Class were incorporated into T2.”

“T2 is our second fully loaded turbo charged AC45. The extra beam (for more righting moment), larger wing, cockpits, and full fairing package; make it a very different beast to the narrow traditional AC45s with foils.”

The team completed a successful 10-day camp in Alameda, ahead of the imminent relocation of Artemis Racing’s sailing operations to Bermuda.

Iain Percy, Team Manager, commented “It was very satisfying to launch T2 before we left for Bermuda. The design and build of this boat was our key focus for 2015, and I’m very proud of the result of the team’s ingenuity and endeavour. It was particularly pleasing to be foiling around the Bay on day one without any significant teething problems, giving us the chance to maximize the precious time on the water. We took away a number of key learnings and directions for our future America’s Cup Class development program”.

T2 will soon be lining up on the Great Sound against its sister ship T1 in what will be an important stepping stone towards the team’s goal of winning the 35th America’s Cup.

“Two boat testing is an important component of our campaign strategy. It’s going to be quite a sight seeing two Artemis Racing boats flying over the America’s Cup race course”, said Iain Percy.

Under the Protocol for the 35th America's Cup, the teams are allowed to build an unlimited number of surrogate boats for testing, but the 45ft versions must use the underwater canoe body from the one design AC45. Three teams now have two AC45S (Surrogate) boats - Oracle Team USA, LandRover BAR (GBR) and Artemis Racing (SWE). Each Challenger is allowed only one boat for the America's Cup - an AC50 class, however the Defender is allowed two AC50's. The Defender is also allowed to sail in the opening rounds of the Challenger Qualifier Series. AC50's can be launched no earlier that January 1, 2017.