Could this independent mainsheet set-up on the ETNZ AC75 be the eureka moment of the 37th America’s Cup?
Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC75 ‘TAIHORO’ on the Hauraki Gulf turned in another smooth performance Wednesday, with the new mainsheet system working flawlessly.
What differentiates this latest developement – as discussed in the latest Mozzy Sails video below – from that of all the other teams, that we have seen to date, is that it has completely independent main sheets for each sail skin.
All the other systems we’ve seen on the new AC75s have a single Master RAM for the main sheet and then rely on some sort of passive yoke or slipping or strops to distribute the load from that single main sheet to the two skins.
The distribution of the load between those two skins was passive and the teams didn’t really have any control over that.
This latest system from New Zealand has two completely separate main sheet tensions for each skin for the first time really allowing those two skins in the twin skin setup to be trimmed pretty independently.
The other development that Tom Morris discusses is the apparent intergration of the foil action and the mast rotation.
As the foil lifts up, the mast rotates, apparently there is a conjunction of mast rotation with the foil lifting, either crew triggered or automatically.
This is an extended mast so the mast ball sits up inside the extended area, but what is twisting this?
In the image of the Mast foot you can see it’s got cross-brace below it and that hooks onto the mast ball. This brace sits below the deck and connects up the linkages for the mast rotation with a mast rotation control system below the deck.
While we wait to see what the USA and GBR reveal when they rollout their AC75s, ETNZ has (again) definitely set the bar higher.
Recon video and photos credit to Recon Photographer / @America’s Cup
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