INEOS Team UK have named their second AC75 race boat for the 36th America’s Cup, ‘Britannia’ in Auckland.
The team’s official boat for the America’s Cup was christened by Her Excellency Ms Laura Clarke, British High Commissioner for New Zealand.
Team Principal and Skipper Sir Ben Ainslie and his assembled team will bid to change the course of history and become the first team ever to bring the Cup back home.
There is no doubt that the new hull design is radical.
Gone is the flat-bottomed scow style hull of their first AC75, to which they had attached a simple skeg as a later addition during sailing trials.
In its place is a sharp, skiff style bow extended to form a wide skeg/beam/bustle stretching back almost to the stern, with what appears to be a chine or knuckle to the bustle around the foil arm area.
The exagerated skeg/beam/bustle seems to be designed to ensure quick lift off onto the foils, with the deep skeg closing the gap between the hull and the water surface to increase the ‘end-plate’ effect of the sails, when combined with the deck sweeping mainsail.
The foils she was launched with were cranked and with small wingtips.
Speaking on the design, development and build of Britannia, INEOS Team UK Chief Designer Nick Holroyd said:
“Since developing the first boat the race area and the condition limits have been clarified, and we have had time to sail and test the dynamics and loads.”
“That has made the focus of the design team much clearer and enabled us to design and engineer finer tolerances. On top of that, having a crew that has now sailed an AC75 in RB1 makes us much more dialled in with the end users, the sailors, and enables us to be more specific to their set of requirements.”
Just a reminder of what the first Ineos AC75 hull RB1 looked like after the simple skeg was added.
Can anyone – ETNZ or Luna Rossa – come out with a more outrageous redesign at this stage of the game?
INEOS Team UK will sail Britannia in Auckland Harbour for the coming months before the team’s first regatta and first opportunity to race against the other teams . . . the America’s Cup World Series Auckland from 17 to 20 December.
