Cup Spy April 19-20: Brits do a limited reveal of new AC75 in Barcelona
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 21 Apr 2024 10:10 AEST
21 April 2024
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 1 - April 20, 2024 - Barcelona © Alex Carabi / America's Cup
INEOS Britannia give a limited reveal of their new AC75 in a pre-dawn rollout, on Saturday.
AC37 Joint Recon Team report: INEOS Britannia - AC40-2 and AC40-10 - Day 34 - February 16, 2024 - Barcelona
Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, rolled out their new AC75, RB3, at 05:15hrs. The yacht, without its rudder, was rotated around the forecourt on its motorized cradle to face the south wind, ahead of a long day of mast levelling and instrument calibrating.
The plumb bow starts sharp and maintains a steep deadrise towards the forward cradle, flaring out to a flat bottom from foil arm pivots. A noticeable bustle starts off in a bulbous form, about 1m from the bow, continuing to the transom, tapering off towards the stern. A thin skeg runs horizontal down the bustle, enlarging as the hull bottom rises to meet the deck, ending a few meters before the rudder housing.
The sheerline raises from the bow and the flat deck continues to the sidepods. The sidepods start behind the foil cant arms, containing 4 crew pods in line on each side, separated with a trench deck approximately one foot deep. The trench runs flat down the middle to the transom, with a gentle flare to meet the sidepods. The sidepods taper towards to the thin transom, maintaining flat topsides and the sheerline in a straight line down. The topsides meet the flat bottom at a 90 degree angle..
Only the aft half of the deck was visible from outside the base. The mainsheet system lie in its cradle on the deck, connected to hoses. A sheave can be seen connected to the end of the mainsheet actuator, with two mainsail skin clew actuators on either side (not connected to each other). The traveller sits in a cut out below deck. The rudder stock fairing takes a concave outline in body plan view, with openings at the tail edges.
The foils were shrouded below the one design foil cant arms. The leading edge of the foil recedes slightly from the one design section, and continues to the front of the torpedo bulb. The high aspect wings connect aft of the bulb, slightly anhedral, with pronounced wingtips. The starboard wingtips had boxes over them, perhaps with camera bulbs on them as on ARBR Boat One. Towards the end of the day, the shrouding fell slightly, revealing seemingly unfinished paint work.
The rigging was rolled out with Harken cunningham actuators now fitted. The mast was stepped at 06:50hrs, with laser levels on stilts and measuring tapes dropped from the hull, to find the orientation of the boat.
The team worked on setting the rig following a strict procedure. The rig was lowered at 08:30hrs, with works carried out and new strops fitted.
The rig was stepped again at 12:20hrs and work continued above and below deck until the late evening. The team wrapped up just after 20:00hrs and dropped the rig by 20:30hrs, rolling the boat in at 20:45 to conclude the day.
Report from: Justin Busuttil, AC37 Joint Recon Team.