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Classic America’s Cup: the Heart of America

• By Jim Carrier
• Updated: July 16, 2013

The other day, on a sidewalk outside a thrift store in Madison, Wis., a framed poster propped against the window stopped me in my tracks. It showed a sailboat barreling toward me on a port tack – through a wheat field!

The price was $7.

“I hope you bought it,” laughed Buddy Melges, the venerable sailor, when I called him at his home in Lake Geneva. Melges, it turns out, was at the helm of the boat.

The artwork captured beautifully a remarkable and unique sailing adventure in U.S. history – a home-grown Midwestern attempt to win the America’s Cup .

In a year when billionaires battle for the cup with Star-Wars -ish flying machines on San Francisco Bay, the story of the 1987 “Heart of America Challenge” is a charming if melancholy tale of what sailing competitions used to be.

In 1983, after Australia wrested the cup from the U.S., indignant sailors all over America mounted campaigns to get it back. Gene Kinney of the Chicago Yacht Club asked Melges to lead an effort, one of seven from the U.S.

Harry “Buddy” Melges, famous for producing inland boats at his family plant in Zenda, Wisconsin, relished challenging not only Australia but also the sailing establishment on both American coasts, who, he once said labeled him, “this hack from the Midwest.”

While lawyers somehow convinced a New York court that Lake Michigan was an “arm of the sea” and could serve as a defender’s turf should they win the cup, Melges pulled together shoestrings to gather a team and raise $6 million to build a new 12-meter boat and get to Australia.

“It was a little bit here, little bit there” Melges remembered. At one point the team was clearing $15,000 a week from T-shirts alone. The largest single gift, $1 million, came from the telephone company MCI Communications.

Leo Burnett, the Chicago advertising firm that created “Marlboro country,” and Pillsbury’s “nothing says lovin’ like something from the oven,” campaigns, came aboard. Art directors John Eding and Ted Bell soon came up with the idea of a sailboat in a wheat field, and hired Chicago illustrator David Beck to create it.

Beck spent a day in a chase boat on Lake Michigan taking pictures of the crew training on a borrowed yacht, and found the drama of tacking through blowing wheat. An original idea of a cove stripe pitchfork was changed to a wheat shaft.

At the yacht club unveiling, “it was like rock star applause – I’d never experienced anything like that,” Beck recalled. Everyone loved it, with the exception of Gov. Jim Thompson who wanted the boat sailing in corn stalks, Illinois’ leading farm crop. Beck talked him out of it.

The poster was sold for $100, or $500 signed by Melges, skipper Gary Jobson and Beck. They went like hotcakes. Beck was never paid by Burnett, but sold two additional originals to corporate sponsor Ciba-Geigy, and for years received agriculture commissions.

“I did guys standing in wheat fields and corn fields and a plethora of crops,” he said by phone from Cincinnati where he is now a well-known illustrator.

Jobson, who left the campaign to broadcast the 1987 cup for ESPN, calls it the best America’s Cup poster ever done. The campaign was also one of a kind.

“Eighty-seven was mostly an amateur contest,” he said. The boats were crewed by nationals, it was the last of the 12-meter yachts in the cup, there were still a couple of wood boats competing against aluminum and glass, and the money was chump change compared to today’s races. Melges went to Australia in 1986 with $3 million in cash and a contingent of 40 people.

“We did a lot of work with the crew, the old Midwestern way, from the ground up,” Melges said. “They were a bunch of kids. We went after guys that had structure, who could get on the handles.”

One who had that “structure” was Larry Mialik of Madison, a tight end for the University of Wisconsin who went on to play pro football. Melges had remembered a radio broadcast in which Mialik had caught a touchdown pass against Ohio State. He called him up.

“I grew up not knowing how to spell yacht,” said Mialik. “Buddy said, ‘meet me in Chicago tomorrow in front of the Chicago Tribune.’ And there was the Heart of America and the governor’s wife with the champagne and a bunch of guys in blue blazers. It was life changing.” Mialik, who earned $70 a week to grind for Melges, became a racing pro.

The 26th America’s Cup, broadcast live to the U.S. for the first time, left Heart of America 8th out of 13 challengers to take on Australia’s Kookaburra III. Jobson said the Midwesterners got better with every race. In the end they lacked $200,000 for a new main and jib for the final round-robin Louis Vuitton series.

“In the end we were one of the four fastest. We just didn’t have enough points,” said Melges, who is now 83. Dennis Connor, whose syndicate Sail America took three boats to Australia, came home with the cup.

Four years later, the world had changed. Melges won the cup for Bill Koch, with a $62 million budget and staff of 240 people, including eight of his Heart of America crew.

Knowing Buddy’s penchant for colorful quotes, I asked his view of this year’s America’s Cup.

“Before, it was a slow moving program, what sailing was all about: tactics, defending your position, boat handling. It’s a drag race now. Pedal down and go like a raped ape.”

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Heart of America, US-51

Built in 1986 according to the International Third Rule- America’s Cup.

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Where are they now? 6 famous America's Cup yachts

1851 schooner america’s sad demise.

In 1851, the schooner America , sailing for the New York Yacht Club, beat the Royal Yacht Squadron and laid claim to its 100 Guinea Cup. Thus the America’s Cup was born – what is now the oldest trophy in international sport – earning its name from that first winning yacht rather than the country, though the US did go on to hold the trophy for 100 years.

Where is America's Cup yacht  America now?

The famous America's cup yacht America changed hands – and names – a few times after the first historic race, and then wound up in the American Civil War as a Union ship. She stayed in the military as a training ship for the Navy until 1873, when she was sold to a former Civil War General for $5,000 (about $98,000 today). The general raced, maintained and refitted the boat, but after his death in 1893, she was passed down to his son who lacked interest in the schooner and allowed her to fall into disrepair. Despite being eventually donated back to the Navy, lack of maintenance left her seriously decayed. The nail was driven into the coffin when a major snowstorm caused the shed she was stored in to collapse in 1945, and America was scrapped and burned, bringing the history of one of the most famous sailing yachts of all times to a close.

America ’s legacy lives on to do this day, and there are replicas of the schooner you can sail on to relive the glory of this historic vessel. Climb aboard the 32 metre America 2.0 replica (pictured in the inset above) in Key West (November-April) and New York (May-October), or on a 42 metre replica out in San Diego .

1930 Shamrock V is still sailing

J Class yachts are synonymous with the America’s Cup as these slim, graceful beauties once represented the fleet racing for the Cup. The 36.42 metre Shamrock V , commissioned by Sir Thomas Lipton for his fifth and final bid, she was the first J Class yacht to compete for the Cup. The fact that she is the only J Class yacht to be built in wood makes it all the more remarkable that Shamrock V is still floating today.

Where is America's Cup yacht  Shamrock V now?

The Camper & Nicholsons -built J is in pretty perfect condition for a lady of her years. J Class yacht  Shamrock V is currently for sale and looking for a good home. The right owner could sail away on this piece of Cup history just in time as the  J Class yachts make a triumphant return to the America's Cup .

1987 movie star Stars & Stripes still racing

While the film Wind , one of the best boat movies , was inspired by Dennis Conner’s experience competing for the America’s Cup in 1983 on board Liberty , the yacht that was actually used in filming was the 12 Metre type sailing yacht Stars & Stripes 87 . She was called Geronimo in the film, but Stars & Stripes 87 was more than a screen legend. When Conner launched his own campaign, he wanted a culmination of all the Stars & Stripes yachts that came before her, and she was designed to be fast in heavy air. Stars & Stripes 87 wound up being the final 12 metre yacht to win the America’s Cup.

Where is the America's Cup yacht  Stars & Stripes 87 now?

Stars & Stripes 87 can be found in the Caribbean now, able to be sailed with the St Maarten 12 Metre Challenge , giving you a chance to take the helm (if you're lucky) of a real Cup winner.

1988 Stars & Stripes multihulls

Paving the way for the high-performance multihull America's Cup yachts that are redefining the competition is  Stars & Stripes – the catamaran. The first America's Cup multihull yacht, the US team's Stars & Stripes came to be by a cunning interpretation of the Deed of Gift, which only stipulated the challenging yachts be single masted and no more than 90 feet LWL. The result was anything but a true match race, with the much faster, wing-masted multihull Stars & Stripes winning the Cup in 1988.

Where are the America's Cup multihull yachts Stars & Stripes now?

Two versions of the multihull Stars & Stripes were built, a soft sail (S1) and a wing-masted yacht (H3). Stars & Stripes (S1) was acquired by American entrepreneur Steve Fossett and used to set speed records around the world before being sold in 2017 to Key Lime Sailing Club and Cottages in Key Largo, where she is used for day charters and racing. The actual Cup player, Stars & Stripes (H3) was bought by Mark Reece in Naples, Florida and was used for sailing charter trips, but her current status is unconfirmed.

1994 Stars & Stripes once used as a training yacht by Oracle Team USA

America’s Cup yacht Stars & Stripes (sail number 34) is probably most famous for not winning a Cup. It wasn’t because she didn’t perform under pressure, but because she never got the chance. While the 24 metre yacht, designed by David Peddic and built in 1994 by Goetz Boat Works, won the right to defend the Cup, Dennis Conner chose Young America (US 36) over Stars & Stripes . The new choice was no match for Team New Zealand’s Black Magic , which beat out Team Dennis Conner four times in a row.

Where is America's Cup yachts Stars & Stripes (US 34) now?

Famed America’s Cup Stars & Stripes (US 34) is earning a chance to prove herself on the racecourse yet again. She sails out of Chicago, racing against Abracadabra (US 54). After failing to win the Cup in 2000, this iteration of Abracadabra was bought by Larry Ellison, who used her as a training boat for his Oracle Team USA.

2003 USA 76 still sailing in San Francisco Bay

Sailed by the US challenging team in preparations for the 2003 America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand, USA 76 never made it to the Cup, but she came quite close. Making it to the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup final, USA 76 faced the Swiss Team Alinghi but didn’t come out on top. So the US team arranged for a “rematch” against Alinghi, with two races set in San Francisco Bay. While it didn’t change the results of the Cup, this time USA 76 bested the Swiss competitors twice over.

Where is America’s Cup yacht USA 76 now?

Fittingly, USA 76 resides in San Francisco Bay and is available for sailing. Capture the spirit of the most recent America’s Cup that was raced in the natural amphitheatre of the Bay by climbing aboard USA 76 for a racing adventure under the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Inexperienced Crew Wins With ‘Heart’ : Sailing: Heart of America makes successful return to racing with victory over two other 12-meter yachts in BMW regatta.

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When skipper Vince Simms and members of his crew boarded the 12-meter yacht Heart of America before its challenge race against America II and Stars & Stripes ’86 on San Diego Bay Saturday, they all had one thing in common. None of them had never raced the sailboat before.

They could have been more prepared for the first West Coast race between three 12-meter yachts, the featured event of the fifth BMW regatta. All three were U.S. boats built to contend for the America’s Cup in Fremantle, Australia, in 1987.

But when they passed America II on a tight turn on the last buoy and headed for the finish, Simms and his crew looked as though they had turned back the clock. They went on to beat America II by two minutes and Stars & Stripes by four.

“I was going to run a conservative race,” said Simms, who normally serves as a sheet trimmer on Stars & Stripes ’86. “But I got more confident in my crew as the race went on. So I decided to go to the line, go for the gusto.”

Heart of America got off to a quick start and led as the three sailed west from Harbor Island toward Point Loma, but America II had the best line and moved in front as the boats circled the first buoy west of North Island. Heart of America had to tack to make the turn; America II didn’t.

But that might have worked in Heart of America’s favor. When the two yachts reached the critical second turn in front of the Seaport Village Embarcadero and had to drop their spinnakers, Heart of America out-maneuvered America II, knifed its way inside and took the wind.

At one point, the two boats were parallel as they made the turn, and Simms yelled at America II skipper Philip Freedman to give him the right of way. Simms had gambled on the tack maneuver, waiting until the last possible second to drop his spinnaker. In doing so, Heart of America came from two lengths back to catch America II.

“I yelled as loud as I could, ‘Give me room,’ ” Simms said. “Our hulls were overlapped enough to where we were permitted by racing rights to take the inside.”

While Heart of America had wrested away the lead, America II floundered when shielded from the 12-knot breeze.

“We did three tacks (to get out from behind Heart of America’s main sail) and got down to about four knots,” Freedman said. “They just pulled away.”

Of the three boats that raced Saturday, Heart of America was the only one to race in America’s Cup qualifying rounds. The boat, built by the Chicago Yacht Club, was eliminated only after it lost a crewman overboard and a spinnaker poll snapped during a race. This was its first race since it had sat in storage for three years.

But the crew members who sailed her to victory were relative novices. Among those on board were a college student, an insurance salesman and two women, one a kindergarten teacher.

“I anticipated winning,” Simms said. “My biggest fear was the unknown, my crew. None of them are experienced. I’m delighted.”

Well, Simms did have a ringer, tactician Larry Klein, who is heading a local syndicate to challenge in the 1992 America’s Cup. But Simms said Klein played only a minor role.

“He confirmed everything I knew already,” Simms said, “and told me to just shut up and drive.”

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Special Report: Louis Vuitton America's Cup Series

Sailing Into America’s Cup History in Chicago

By Christopher Clarey

• June 9, 2016

The America’s Cup races have yet to be held on fresh water. Even when Team Alinghi, from landlocked Switzerland, defended the Cup in 2007, it chose to hold the competition in Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea off Valencia.

But the America’s Cup preliminaries will break the freshwater taboo when Chicago stages a Louis Vuitton World Series event on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The racing, which will take place on Lake Michigan off Navy Pier, brings together the six teams entered in next year’s main event in Bermuda. They will compete in AC 45 foiling catamarans, a one-design version of the slightly larger boats that will be deployed for the Cup itself in 2017.

Monohulls, long used in the venerable regatta that began in 1851, are generally faster in salt water, because it is more buoyant and therefore creates less displacement.

“There’s less hull to pull through the water, because the boat is floating a little bit higher,” said Tod Reynolds, the event director for the Chicago World Series event.

But foiling catamarans mostly sail above the surface of the water, with submerged carbon-fiber appendages providing the lift and requisite stability.

“With the foiling you’re not so much worried about the displacement as viscosity, so it’s actually the drag over the foils that matters, and fresh water has less drag than salt water over the foils,” Reynolds said. “So if we get a good wind direction and a good windy day in Chicago, I think there’s a good chance we’ll see speed records set in these boats.”

The competitors themselves are not so clear on the repercussions. Matt Cassidy was based in Chicago for several years before joining the crew of the America’s Cup defender, Oracle Team USA, in 2015. He has raced often on Lake Michigan.

“I honestly don’t think it’s going to be that big of a change between salt and fresh water,” Cassidy said by telephone from Bermuda last week. “I keep telling everyone the biggest thing is you’re not going to have to spray all the salt off the boat at the end of the day and wash everything down. Our takeoff speeds might be a little faster, but I honestly don’t think it’s going to be a huge change for us.”

Two things the teams won’t have to worry about on Lake Michigan are ocean tides and river currents. They raced in a world series event in New York last month in the brackish water of the Hudson River off lower Manhattan. They had trouble with the current and with the wind consistency because of the effects created by the tall buildings along both banks.

Chicago has an imposing skyline, too, but only on one side of the course, and the skyscrapers are farther from the water.

“That actually goes back to the Chicago fire,” Reynolds said, referring to the 1871 fire. “The entire lakefront of Chicago is public land, so it’s all parks. What that means is that the racecourse is about a mile away from the first building, so we will still have time for the breeze to kind of reconnect as it comes through the city. But the reality is we are in a city, so if the breeze does come right through the city, it’s going to be shifty.”

“But though we have never run races in flying multihulls, we’ve run a lot in multihulls in this venue,” he added, “and while it is really shifty, it’s not quite as random because the current adds a massive impact where as soon as you lose breeze a little bit, the boat almost stops. Whereas the flat water and the lack of current on the lake allows you to kind of coast a little bit farther and connect the puffs a bit easier.”

That should come as a relief to Ben Ainslie, the star British sailor who wrote a piece in The Daily Telegraph in Britain after the New York event praising the crowd turnout but stating that the race itself was held in “the last place on earth you would want to put a race course.”

Russell Coutts, the former star skipper who is now chief executive of the America’s Cup Event Authority, said in a telephone interview that he was confident that if the races returned to New York, the authorities would allow them to use a more propitious spot in the harbor.

But he also pointed out in response to Ainslie’s newspaper commentary that the same teams that have been leading the way — Emirates Team New Zealand and Oracle Team USA — were still on top, even in fluky conditions. “Ben was obviously disappointed about his result,” Coutts said. “But look at the results, and look at the results of the season.”

This could have been Chicago’s Olympic year. It bid for the 2016 Summer Games that were instead awarded to Rio de Janeiro. Knowing what the International Olympic Committee members know now about Rio’s and Brazil’s political and socioeconomic difficulties, the members might have voted differently.

But Reynolds said he and others in Chicago still hoped that the city would some day lure the America’s Cup itself. Chicago has a significant sailing culture, and the Chicago Yacht Club even backed skipper Buddy Melges and the Heart of America challenge for the America’s Cup in 1987 in Fremantle, Australia. As part of that challenge, lawyers somehow successfully argued to the New York Supreme Court that Lake Michigan was “an arm of the sea” because of its link to the St. Lawrence Seaway and thus satisfied the requirements in the deed of gift to potentially host the America’s Cup.

The city also made a serious bid to host the 2017 edition of the Cup. It went instead to Bermuda, which offered a more attractive financial package and space for team bases in the two years leading into the Cup.

“Our goal is that this world-series event would be a steppingstone to the finals should the stars align, and obviously a lot of stars have to align,” Reynolds said. “I mean, how perfect would it be to have the teams be able to use the existing infrastructure in Bermuda, be based there, train there just as they are doing now, and then have the finals in a city where it’s easy for fans to get to, sponsors are able to activate, and you have our signature skyline in the background.”

Yachting World

• Digital Edition

America’s Cup boats: How they work and why they’re unique

• Toby Heppell
• February 5, 2021

The America's Cup boats to be used on the 2021 edition of the event are unlike anything we have seen before. They might be officially sailing craft but they behave in some remarkable ways.

The AC75s, the America’s Cup boats currently racing in the Prada Cup and that will be used for next month’s Cup match showdown, are arguably the most radical boat the America’s Cup has ever seen. 

The America’s Cup is, fundamentally, a design competition, and successive America’s Cups have featured the most extreme yachts yet – for their time – ever since the first race in 1851 .  

However, the foiling boats we have seen in the last three editions of America’s Cup racing (the AC72 and AC50 catamarans, and now the AC75 monohulls ) do represent a new direction for the highest level of sailing. 

There are plenty who argue that this technology is so far beyond the bounds of what most people consider sailing as to be an entirely different sport. Equally, there are those who believe this is simply a continuation of the development that the America’s Cup has always pushed to the fore, from Bermudan rigs, to composite materials, winged keels, and everything in between.

Good arguments can be made either way and foiling in the world’s oldest sporting trophy will always be a subjective and controversial topic. But one thing is certain: the current America’s Cup boats, the AC75s, are unlike anything seen before and are showcasing to the world just what is possible under sail power alone.   

American Magic hit an impressive 53.3 knots on their final weekend of racing. Photo: COR 36/Studio Borlenghi

1 Unimaginable speed

In their final race before being knocked out of the competition , American Magic’s Patriot registered a top speed of 53.3 knots during a bear away. 

Topping the 50-knot barrier used to be the preserve of extreme speed record craft and kiteboarders. A World Speed Sailing Record was set in 2009 of 51.36 knots by Alain Thebault in his early foiling trimaran, Hydroptere , and was bested in 2010 by kite boarder, Alexandre Caizergues who managed 54.10 knots.

O nly one craft has ever topped 60-knots, the asymmetric Vestas Sail Rocket , which was designed for straight line speed only and could no more get around an America’s Cup course than cross an ocean. Such records are set by sailing an average speed over the course of 500m, usually over a perfectly straight, flat course in optimum conditions.

America’s Cup class yachts, designed to sail windward/leeward courses around marks, are now hitting speeds that just over a decade ago were the preserve of specialist record attempts, while mid-race.

Perhaps even more impressive, in the right conditions when racing we have seen some boats managing 40 knots of boatspeed upwind in around 17 knots of wind. That is simply unheard of in performance terms and almost unimaginable just three or so years ago. 

Photo: COR 36/Studio Borlenghi

2 A storm onboard America’s Cup boats

Related to the speeds the boats are sailing through the water, particularly upwind, is the wind speeds the sailors will feel on deck. 

When sailing, the forward motion affects the wind we experience onboard, known as apparent wind. The oft’ trotted out explanation of how apparent wind works is to imagine driving your car at 50mph. Roll down the window and stick your hand out of it and there will be 50mph of wind hitting your hand from the direction your car is travelling.

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So when an AC75 is sailing upwind in 18 knots of breeze at a boatspeed of 40 knots, the crew on deck will be experiencing 40 knots of wind over the decks plus a percentage of the true wind speed – depending on their angle to the wind. 

The AC75 crews might be sailing in only 18 knots of breeze – what would feel like a decent summer breeze on any other boat – but they experience winds of around 50 knots.

To put that into context, that is a storm force 10 on the Beaufort scale!

Once up on the foil, everything to windward of the leeward foil generates righting moment. Photo: COR 36/Studio Borlenghi

3 Righting moment changes  

The single most radical development of the AC75 is to take a 75ft ‘keelboat’, but put no keel on it whatsoever. 

When the America’s Cup Defender and the Challenger of Record, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli respectively, announced the 36th America’s Cup would be sailed in 75ft monohulls, conventional wisdom had it that the boats would look something like a TP52 or a Maxi72 – both impressively high performance keelboats.  

By doing away with the keel entirely, the design is now like nothing we have ever seen, particularly when it comes to how dynamic the power transition is between foiling and not foiling. 

The boats are designed to foil on the leeward foil, with the windward one raised to help increase righting moment: to help balance the boat. This means that when the AC75 is not foiling they are extremely tippy – much more so than most other boats of the same size.

Essentially, when the wind catches the sails, the boat wants to fall over as there is too much sail area for the amount of weight underneath the boat – something a lead keel usually counters on a yacht or keelboat. 

Once the boat is up and on the foils, however, that all changes, as everything to windward of the single foil in the water balances the sails. That means, the hull, the crew weight, the sail and rig weight, and the windward foil, all work to counter the sails. 

What all this means is that the boats go from being extremely tippy, to hugely powerful in just the few seconds it takes to get up on the foil. “The [AC75s] are really very tippy pre-foiling and then they go through the transition where they will need to build significant power. Then immediately [once they lift off] you have more stability than, well, take your pick, but certainly more righting moment than something like a Volvo 70 with a big canting keel.

“That change all happens in a very short space of time,” explained Burns Fallow of North Sails, who was one of the team who developed the soft wing concept back when the concept was revealed. 

With lift created to windward by the foils, it is possible that the boats can sail diagonally to windward. Photo: COR 36/Studio Borlenghi

4 America’s Cup boats may not be heading where they point

With the AC75 sailing on its foil, drag is dramatically reduced, vast amounts of power can be generated and so speeds rapidly increase. But the foils can serve another purpose too. 

In order to be able to lift each foil out of the water, the foil arms must be able to be raised and lowered. Hence the foil wings, which sit at the bottom of the foil arms (and are usually a T or Y shape), do not always sit perpendicular to the water surface and the AC75s often sail with them canted over to something nearer 45º to the surface.

The further out the leeward foil arm is canted – essentially more raised – the closer the AC75 flies to surface and, crucially, the more righting moment is generated as the hull and rest of the boat gets further from the lifting surface of the foil.  

There is another positive to this: as the lifting foil is angled, it produces lift to windward, which can force the boat more towards the wind than the angle it is sailing. 

Due to this negative leeway (as it is known when a foil creates lift to windward) the boat can be pointing at a compass heading of say 180º but in fact will be sailing at eg 177º as the foil pushes the boat sideways and to weather, essentially sailing to windward somewhat diagonally. 

5 The foils are heavy. Very heavy.

As the foils work to provide stability to the boat (when it is stationary both foils are dropped all the way down to stop it tipping over) and to provide massive amounts of righting moment, they are incredibly heavy.

A pair of foil wings and flaps (excluding the one-design foil arm which attaches them to the boat and lifts them up and down) weigh 1842kg. To put that into perspective, the entire boat itself with all equipment (but without the crew) weighs between 6508kg and 6538kg. So the foil wings at the base of the foil arms are nearly ⅓ of the total weight of the boat. 

It is partly due to this that you will see some teams with bulbs on their foils. If you decide to go for a skinny foil wing (which would be low drag and so faster) then there will not be enough volume to cram sufficient material in to make the foil weigh enough. So some teams have decided to add a bulb in order to make it weigh enough but to also keep a less draggy, slimmer foil shape. 

6 Sails can invert at the head

As with everything on the AC75, the mainsail is a relatively new concept. It consists of two mainsails which are attached to both corners of a D-shaped mast tube. This has the effect of creating a profile similar to a wing. 

It is well established that solid wing sails are more efficient at generating power than a soft sail and for this reason solid wings were used in both the America’s Cup in 2013 and 2017. But there are drawbacks with a wing: they cannot be lowered if something goes wrong and require a significant amount of manpower and a crane to put it on or take it off a boat. 

One reason a wing makes for such a powerful sail is that the shape can be manipulated from top to bottom fairly easily with the right controls. With the AC75 the designers wanted a sail that could have some of this manipulation, produce similar power but could also be dropped while out on the water. The twin skin, ‘soft wing’ is what they came up with for this class of America’s Cup boat.

In addition to the usual sail controls, within the rules, the teams are allowed to develop systems for controlling the top 2m of the mainsail and the bottom 1.5m. 

What this means is that the teams are able to manipulate their mainsail in a number of different ways to develop power and control where that power is produced in the sail. But it also means that they have the ability to invert the head of the sail. 

Doing this effectively means ‘tacking’ the top of the sail while the rest of the sail is in its usual shape. The advantage here is that instead of trying to tip the boat to leeward, the very top of the sail will be trying to push the boat upright and so creating even more righting moment. The disadvantage is that it would come at the cost of increased aerodynamic drag. 

We know that a number of America’s Cup teams are able to do this, though whether it is effective is another question and it is very hard to spot this technique being used while the boats are racing at lightning speeds.

Photo: Emirates Team New Zealand

7 An America’s Cup boat generates lots of data

A new America’s Cup boat is a vastly complex bit of kit. Each team has incredibly powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software packages and simulators in order to try to understand the various gains and losses. 

To make these simulators and computer projections as accurate as possible each team has been getting as much data as they can over their three year development cycle.

In the case of this America’s Cup it does seem the development process is genuinely getting closer to Formula 1 (albeit with smaller budgets than a modern F1 team has behind them).

INEOS Team UK have been able to work alongside the all powerful Mercedes F1 team (both of who are backed by INEOS) and have been open about how much this has helped their development process. They even have some Mercedes staff out with the team in Auckland assessing their data.  

“It’s really similar to F1,” explains Mercedes Applied Science Principal Engineer Thomas Batch who has 11 F1 titles to his name and is with INEOS in Auckland. “Certainly in this campaign the technology is close to what we have in F1. 

“In terms of raw sensors on the boat you are probably talking in the 100s but then we take that and we make that into mass channels and additional analysis with computational versions of those channels that we then analyse and get into in more detail. So you are looking at 1000s of plots that we can delve into [per race or training session].

“That level of data analysis and then feedback with the sailors is very similar to working with an [F1] driver.” 

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Heart of America (yacht)

Heart of America is a 12-metre class yacht that competed in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Cup . [1] The boat was helmed by Buddy Melges and represented the Chicago Yacht Club . [5] The boat finished 8 of 13 in Louis Vuitton Cup, which decides the challenger to the Cup holder. [5]

Controversies

The Chicago-based yacht design firm of Graham & Schlageter contributed to the boat's design. [6] [7]

The crew included these members, as well as others.

• Buddy Melges - Skipper
• David Dellenbaugh - Tactician [8]
• Larry Mialik - Grinder
• Richie Stearns - main trimmer and sail co-coordinator
• Andreas Josenhans - Trimmer
• Jim Gretzky [9]
• Wally Henry [9]
• Fred Stritt
• John Stanley

John Spence

The CEOs of the Heart of America Cup effort included Alan Johnston [2] and William Bentsen . [10]

Corporate sponsorship of the drive started with MCI providing $1M US dollars to the campaign. [10]

The challenge by a Great Lakes yacht club resulted in the Australian Royal Perth Yacht club challenging whether Lake Michigan was an "arm of the sea" as required by the Deed of Gift of the America's Cup . [2] The court decided that Lake Michigan did constitute an "arm of the sea" and that the Club could challenge for the America's Cup. [11]

Related Research Articles

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The Louis Vuitton Cup was the name of the Challenger Selection Series sailing competition from 1983, named after its sponsor, Louis Vuitton. The winner of the competition became the challenger to compete with the defender of the America's Cup. The competition for the 2017 America's Cup changed format and name to the Louis Vuitton Challenger’s Trophy . The following series, in 2021, was named the Prada Cup after its new sponsor. In 2024 the challenger selection series will again be named after Louis Vuitton. Five out of the nine winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup competitions subsequently won the America's Cup itself.

Harry C. " Buddy " Melges Jr. was an American competitive sailor. He earned national and international championships in several classes in conventional sailing and ice-boating and is widely regarded as one of the top racing sailors of all time.

Reichel/Pugh is a yacht design company based in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1983, the studio is led by John Reichel and Jim Pugh.

+39 Challenge was a yacht racing team established in 2004 that competed for the Louis Vuitton Cup 2007, the challenger series held prior to the America's Cup. The teams was based at the Yacht club "Circolo Vela Gargnano" in Gargnano, Italy, and was owned by Lorenzo Rizzardi, the president of the club. Originally named the "Clan Des Team", +39 was the first team to join BMW Oracle Racing on the challenger list for the 2007 America's Cup.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli , originally named Prada Challenge , then Luna Rossa Challenge , is an Italian sailboat racing syndicate first created to compete for the 2000 America's Cup. It won the Louis Vuitton Cup on its first attempt in 2000, but then lost the America's Cup match against the defending champion team, Team New Zealand.

The 1992 Citizen Cup was the defender selection series regatta for the 1992 America's Cup, held in the United States. Two defense syndicates competed over four round robins in order earn a berth in the Citizen Cup finals; the winner earned the right to defend the America's Cup against the winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup.

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The 6th Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2003. The winner, Alinghi, went on to challenge for and win the 2003 America's Cup.

The 5th Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2000. The winner, Prada Challenge, went on to challenge for the 2000 America's Cup. It was the first time in the competition's history that there would not be an American challenger or defender.

The 4th Louis Vuitton Cup was held in San Diego, United States in 1995. The winner, Team New Zealand, went on to challenge for and win the 1995 America's Cup.

The 3rd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in San Diego, United States in 1992. The winner, Il Moro di Venezia, went on to challenge for the 1992 America's Cup.

The 2nd Louis Vuitton Cup was held in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1987. The winner, Stars & Stripes, went on to challenge for and win the 1987 America's Cup.

The Chicago Yacht Club is located in Chicago, Illinois. "CYC" is well known as being the Organizing Authority for the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac held each July. CYC also organizes dozens of other sailboat races and regattas throughout the boating season, which is usually considered May 1 to October 31 in the Chicago area. CYC has two club houses or stations, one at Monroe Harbor and one at Belmont Harbor.

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Graham & Schlageter was an American naval architecture design firm based in Chicago, Illinois. The company specialized in the design of fiberglass sailboats.

• 1 2 3 4 5 "Heart of America US51" . Americas-cup-history.at . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• 1 2 "12mR Yacht Trivia" . 12mr.de . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• ↑ "12 Meter Racing Yachts | 12 Meter Charters - Part 2" . 12 Meter Charters. 2014-06-03 . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• 1 2 Carrier, Jim (2013-07-16). "Classic America's Cup: the Heart of America" . Cruising World . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• ↑ McArthur, Bruce (2021). "Graham & Schlageter 1975 - 1989" . sailboatdata.com . Archived from the original on 28 November 2021 . Retrieved 7 December 2021 .
• ↑ Sea Time Tech, LLC (2021). "Graham & Schlageter" . sailboat.guide . Archived from the original on 2 December 2021 . Retrieved 7 December 2021 .
• ↑ William Recktenwald (1986-10-26). "Heart Of America Tune-up Buoys Melges" . Articles.chicagotribune.com . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• 1 2 "Wally Henry" . Challenge and Adventure. 2009-09-24 . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• 1 2 Jody Homer (1985-07-03). "`Challenge` Effort Boosted" . Articles.chicagotribune.com . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .
• ↑ Sam Smith (1985-02-12). "He`s Still On Course For America`s Cup" . Articles.chicagotribune.com . Retrieved 2017-07-17 .