AC33 - Trimaran wins the Americas’ Cup!

I’m sure most people were never expecting a trimaran would win (or even race in) an Americas’ Cup match, but yesterday the BMW Oracle Racing trimaran USA won the Americas’ Cup, defeating the catamaran Alinghi V by winning the first 2 races in a 3-race series.

USA crossed the start line 24 seconds ahead of Alinghi V and headed to the port side of the course, while Alinghi V headed to the starboard side. USA tacked to cover and took the initial lead. Alinghi was able to tack back to port ahead of USA after some good starboard pressure, but with a good covering tack USA got  out in front and stayed there.

The view from the rear… Alinghi V trailing USA on the final leg. Picture © Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW Oracle Racing, used with permission.

The victorious USA crew after crossing the finish line. Picture © Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW Oracle Racing, used with permission.

AC33 - USA Trimaran takes the first race

USA, BMW-Oracle Racing's giant 90-foot trimaran has taken the first race in the 33rd Americas Cup by a margin of more than 15 minutes. After a pre-start tussle where Alinghi V picked up a penalty turn for not allowing enough room for USA while on port tack, the trimaran crossed the line more than a minute behind. She made up this deficit and was leading by more than 3 minutes at the weather mark of this upwind-downwind race.

BMW-Oracle Racing's trimaran USA catches up with Alinghi V on the windward leg. Picture © Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW Oracle Racing, used with permission.

She held onto this lead in the downwind run, reaching speeds of up to 25 knots in the gentle breeze. The wing-sail clearly came into its own during this race, allowing James Spithill to sail USA consistently higher and keep the hull and windward float in the air. This allowed him to keep the apparent wind well forward as he played the puffs all through the race, steering the mega-trimaran like a dinghy sailor.

James Spithill helms BMW-Oracle Racing's trimaran USA on the downwind leg. Picture © Gilles Martin-Raget / BMW Oracle Racing, used with permission.

Check out the BMW Oracle Racing blog for more details.

BOR90 v3.0 sailing again

After a second round of modifications taking nearly 5 weeks, BMW Oracle Racing have taken their 90-foot trimaran sailing again off the California coast. The boat returned to the water on Sunday (October 25th) and spent 4 days undergoing dock-side tests of its new systems. The BOR90 went out for its first sailing trials yesterday (Thursday October 29th).

The single largest change made was to remove the four "coffee grinders" powering the winches and replace them with an engine and hydraulics. The boat now sails with a smaller crew, the engine providing the horsepower previously supplied by manual "grinders". The deck layout for the winches has been extensively modified now that there is more room to fit everything.

There were several other changes visible from yesterday's sailing photos. The rudder and dagger-board have been removed from the main hull and longer J-shaped foils (the previous foils were C-shaped) have been fitted to the floats (amas). The bow-sprit appears to have been lengthened and its braces have new struts below and above. Finally, the trampolines no longer extend all the way to the floats, only reaching about one-third of the distance out from the main hull.

Sailing again - sans grinders and main hull foils. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.

The longer bow-sprit and deeper foils are clear in this shot. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.

There is now more room on-deck with the removal of the grinders. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.

The Adrenalin is pumping again

One of the most interesting trimarans ever built has been re-assembled and is sailing again in Auckland, New Zealand. Adrenalin was built to Formula 40 rules by the Gougeon Brothers in the 80's. Bruce Niederer explains her history:

The last commissioned boat the Gougeon Brothers built was Adrenalin. Started in 1984 and launched in 1987, she is a trimaran with articulating amas built to Formula 40 rules for Bill Piper of Ossineke, Michigan, and intended to race on the European circuit. She shocked the sailboat racing community by placing a very close second in her first regatta on the Grand Prix circuit in 1988. She raced for two seasons in Europe against the traditional big cats until, as Jan Gougeon put it, “They couldn’t stand being consistently beaten and changed the rule so the boat became illegal and only cats could race.” Adrenalin was purchased by New Zealander Grant Beck in 2007.

Built from wood and epoxy, Adrenalin has articulated amas (floats) which pivot from the front beam). Photo © John Bertenshaw, used with permission.

Adrenaline is now jointly owned by Rodney Keenan and Colin Palmer/Adhesive Technologies Limited, and they have recently re-assembled her in Auckland. Apart from the articulated wave-piercing floats, she also features a rotating wing mast and boomless main.

The aft end of the floats (amas) are supported by a wood/epoxy leaf spring. Downward travel is limited by a control line (the blue one). Photo © John Bertenshaw, used with permission.

Adrenalin is constructed of wood and West System epoxy, as shown by clear sections left in the wings decorating the transom of the centre hull (vaka). Photo © John Bertenshaw, used with permission.

The following short video shows Adrenalin out sailing on Auckland harbour. You can plainly see the windward float (ama) pivoting freely out of the water, as well as the leeward float pivoting relative to the centre hull. You can also see how fast she is in this light breeze.

Majan starts "Tour of Arabia"

The first Arabian 100 (A100) has now been launched by Oman Sail, and officially christened Majan (the ancient name for Oman). After four months of assembly in Oman's southern-most port of Salalah, Majan has been carrying out sea trials off the Omani coast under the watchful eye of skipper Paul Standbridge.

Designed by Nigel Irens, Majan is a development of the proven design Sodeb'O, the single-handed record breaker designed for Thomas Coville. Image © Sail Oman, used with permission.

Majan first kissed the water back on August 23rd. She has since been rigged and fitted out ready for sea trials. Image © Oman Sail, used with permission.

Her first official outing will be a 'Tour of Arabia' starting today from Muscat, which will include stops in UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar before joining the Dubai-Muscat race back to Muscat at the end of November.

Corsair US Nationals see a new French design

Randy Smythe (Olympic silver medalist for the US) is sailing his French-designed Chinese-built Multi23 trimaran at the US Corsair Nationals at the moment. The nationals are hosted this year by Pensacola Yacht Club. Mike Leneman (US importer for the Multi23) makes some comments about the new boat in this article from the Pensacola News Journal.

Photos from this year's event are not online yet, but you can check out the gallery by Peter Macgowan from last year's event for great shots of trimarans racing

Trimaran Deed of Gift race getting closer?

Judging from the previous antics of the protagonists for the 33rd America's Cup contest, this could all go pear-shaped, but today the Alinghi team of Société Nautique de Genève announced that they accept the challenge from Golden Gate Yacht Club, and are prepared to meet GGYC on the water for a Deed of Gift race in 90-foot trimarans. You can see their announcement here. If it ever happens, this will be mega-trimaran cool!

She gets to race! BOR 90 trimaran will race in Deed of Gift match.

(image by Lymeydal)

For around 6 months, the team from BMW Oracle Racing have been conducting sea trials and tuning their new 27 metre (90 foot) “BOR 90” trimaran near San Diego. And following a ruling by the New York State Court of Appeals in favour of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club, it looks like the boat will get to race! (the ruling is surprisingly readable, and sheds light on some interesting aspects of AC history – you can view a copy at the BYM News website).
We have yet to see the new trimaran that Alinghi are also building, but this Deed of Gift match-race between two of the largest and most technical trimarans ever constructed will be a huge boost to the “cool-appeal” of trimarans.
As the two teams prepare to go head-to-head in boats which have never contested an Americas’ Cup event - the only previous multihull to contest an AC race was Dennis Connor’s 18 metre (60 foot) Stars & Stripes wing-sailed catamaran in 1988 - we will see many new names not familiar to regular AC fans. The BMW Oracle Racing activities are being coordinated by French trimaran guru Franck Cammas (holder of 4 speed records on Groupama 3), and the boat has been designed by French multihull experts Van Peteghen Lauriot Prévost.
VPLP have followed a conservative design approach (apart from the incredible size of the boat) - she is essentially an enlarged version of the ORMA 60 class trimarans, featuring carbon-fibre construction, canting mast, curved asymmetric lifting foils in the floats, triple rudders and a Bruce ratio of 1 (beam divided by length).