America's Cup: INEOS Britannia's Thomas Tison on the evolution of the cup and the future of sailing
by Thomas Tison 1 Nov 2022 04:17 PDT
Ineos Britannia's new ‘T6' test boat revealed from their winter training base in Palma de Mallorca, Spain © C.Gregory / Ineos Britannia
The story of the America's Cup is a battle against time. Secrecy, technical innovation, winning the Cup is a historical success that can change the destiny of the teams competing.
In the last weeks, the America's Cup teams have put in the water their LEQ12, a 12 meter test boat smaller than the AC75 that will compete for the Auld Mug in Barcelona.
After one year of work, the teams will gather the first data from the field, collecting important feedback on the design of the boat and the sailors will be able to train and gain confidence.
In his thirties, yacht designer Thomas Tison is one of the few in his generation to have influenced the transition from heavy monohulls to today's flying boats.
Mascalzone Latino, Team Origin, Artemis Racing and now INEOS Britannia Team: Thomas Tison is at his fourth America's Cup participation, he is responsible for imagining, simulating and designing how the lightweight, carbon fibre boats are built and turning the team's ideas into reality.
The evolution of the America's Cup: lighter and faster boats
As the goal is to increase foiling time, try to fly as much as possible and avoid touchdowns, the aerodynamic aspect of the boat is becoming more and more crucial.
For this reason, the boats are running very close to the water, have two cockpits and, between them, an air tunnel.
How will the America's Cup boat evolve now that, for the first time in the competition, some F1 teams are involved?
"America's Cup Teams and F1 teams work in a very similar manner. Aerodynamic subjects are important for F1 cars as they attempt to generate down force. On our side we are aiming to reduce the part of the air flow slowing us down. It is different but the methods are the same. It will be interesting to see how this will be translated into the test yachts, how the cockpit design, and the mainsail tunnel will be modified. There is a strong impact on the structure and from my side the aim is to bring aerodynamic designers as much freedom wherever we can while saving weight and designing a reliable platform that meets the team's requirements."
Thomas began developing structure optimization programs using Artificial Intelligence at University 10 years ago.
If at that time Artificial Intelligence was a new term, it is now widely used.
Computational power has increased, methods have evolved, and tasks that once took several days can now be completed in a matter of hours.
This can lead to a convergence of results, as teams use the same optimization programs, that in turn makes human creativity even more important.
"When looking at the boats launched, they may all look similar to the untrained eye, as most teams use the same optimization programs and can arrive at a similar conclusion.
The competitive edge is outside of what computers study, at the interface between different fields of science, where there is uncertainty. This inspires us to think ahead of the curve and search for solutions where some people may stop looking."
America's Cup: a laboratory for strong ideas
America's Cup teams call on Thomas Tison expertise to engineer the way the boats are built.
They rely on his methodical approach and multidisciplinary skills, which he has developed through both the experience in the America's cup and in developing his own projects.
Knowledge of carbon fibre, loads, safety critical, design rules and a natural attitude to push the boundaries.
Thomas confirms: "America's Cup projects provide the engineers with the budget and resources to study very specific areas in depth. We can investigate stress distributions when the loads change rapidly, like under flight conditions or during manoeuvres, and experiment with new materials. The racing yachts are the fastest and most complex in the world and the engineering challenge is very exciting"
In-depth specific knowledge, complemented with a fresh approach.
Thomas highlighted the importance of experimenting and testing strong ideas, also in other classes, as he did when designing a mini 6.50 with a gauge of 7.5m.
"We should not limit testing to the America's Cup boats. Experimenting with new ideas must be a habit for a designer, and so we did when designing the 650 PRO. The Mini has always been an experimental laboratory, pushing people to think outside the box."
A winning team must be flexible enough in order to be able to innovate and adapt quickly, especially in a field where nobody can predict where the next big idea will come from.
For example, the introduction of foils on the AC72 was the result of an idea, at the time extremely innovative, conceived by a small group of people in New Zealand.
Then this small spark spreads, and we now see foiling multihulls and monohulls also outside of the America's Cup context.
The heritage and the elegance of the Cup
"As an engineer my role is to make things happen, and I feel in my natural environment within the America's Cup, where there is a strong emphasis on the quest for performance. The collaboration with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team stimulates all the INEOS team members to push the boundaries even further."
In addition to the engineering challenge, Thomas Tison underlined the importance of the heritage of the America's Cup, admitting that what first attracted him to joining the cup were the beauty of the boats, the yachting spirit, and the elegance of the J class. Many of the pages describing the competition's history were written in the United Kingdom, a country with which Thomas has a special relationship.
"When I arrived to study in the UK I went straight to the Isle of Wight and looked for the pictures of Beken of Cowes. This is clearly a part of how I was raised, so it is more than satisfying to contribute to the success of the Ineos Britannia Team".
The America's cup we see now, is this the future of sailing?
"The America's Cup is constantly evolving to respond to the times and it has already impacted marine transportation, on the water activities with electric foiling boards and dinghy sailing. One is yet to see whether it will impact larger sailing yachts. This is fascinating, this is something I want to engage further with."
The rising popularity of events like the America's Cup and the SailGP is bringing sailing to the attention of an increasing number of people. Cheering for their country or favourite teams, the public learned the basic terms and fundamentals of a discipline that used to be seen as very elitist, and began dreaming of sailing.
Certainly having formed partnerships with well-known F1 teams is giving the discipline additional visibility. But there's more: the desire for the connection with nature and an interest in active sports, and these factors can motivate people to begin sailing.
How will the pinnacle of yacht racing evolve?
"Of course I will always push to design faster and faster boats but we must also resonate with society, bring new progressive ideas, entertain the public, motivate them to discover the sea and enjoy the connection with nature. In 50 years time, I would like to see an America's cup Challenger series with 15 boats, all sailing really fast, perhaps even faster than today. If it were up to me the boats would be 150ft or so, a very tall rig and for sure accounting for the environment. I think this is what America's Cup yachts can become"