Speed Versus Reliability

A critical analysis of differing design methodologies in the America’s Cup

 Since its inception in 1851, the America’s cup has long been considered to be at

the forefront of keelboat racing. Huge teams including the crew and skipper are

recruited from the best in the world. In truth however, most of the teams competing in

the Auld Mug (the nickname for the cup) are mostly made up by engineers and

scientists who are working towards improving the design of the boats that will be raced.

This, along with the relatively lenient restrictions placed on the design of the boats has

led to the Auld Mug filling a role in the sailing world of pushing the technological limits of

the sport. Designs are in constant flux and in order to stay competitive they must always

be improving. The advancement of foiling in the sport has encapsulated this and, with

its introduction by Team New Zealand in 2012, it would go on to revolutionise the

America’s Cup as we know it, with boats flying over the water and exceeding the speed

of the wind many times over. These design changes especially recently have been

divided into two groups more or less. Designs that focus around reliability, stability and

maximising time in foiling mode, and designs that sacrifice some of this acceleration

and stability for a greater top speed. Of these two design methodologies, the former

appears to be harder to optimize but possess greater average speed. In order to

illustrate this, I will go over advancements in foiling, hull shapes, and, using the current
results of the competition, provide critical analysis of the efficacy of the different design

methodologies.

In order to discuss the design changes affected by foiling throughout the decade,

we must first discuss how it is that sailboats function, how they and, what foiling is and

how it functions. At its most basic, a boat moves in much the same way that an airplane

does, with the sail functioning like a wing. The sail is curved in such a way that wind

flows across at different speeds on different sides, this causes a pressure differential

which is what causes lift via the force being exerted in order to correct the pressure

differential. This force of lift is what allows a sailboat to move. However, there is another

primary force that acts upon a sailboat at any given time. When the wind blows on the

sail, the force on the centre of the sail causes the boat to move sideways, especially

when moving perpendicular to the wind. This can cause the boat to drift sideways or

even flip onto its side. These forces cause moments, which are dependent on the

magnitude of the force and the distance from where it is applied and the centre of mass

it is acting on. The moment created by the force acting on the sail which is some

distance away from the centre of mass of the boat is called the heeling moment and is

what causes a boat to heel and thus become unstable. This is counteracted by a

righting moment. This righting moment is what is responsible for the stability of the boat.

In foiling boats the boats are fitted with something called a hydrofoil which functions like

a wing that creates lift and writing moment and allows boats to fly over the water's

surface with minimal drag. This greatly increases speed as there is far less drag. It is
important to note that righting moment and speed are directly connected as more writing

moment means that a rig can have more power and thus move faster therefore boat

designs will try to maximise righting moment.

Furthermore it is important to discuss how it is that the boats can exceed the

speed of the wind as conventional logic dictates that that shouldn’t be possible. This is a

result of a concept called apparent wind. Apparent wind is the product of the true wind

and the wind felt as a result of your forward movement. This allows boats to harness

more than just the true wind to create lift and thus move faster than the wind. (How Do

These Boats Sail Faster Than the Wind, 2013)

When designing the current generation of america's cup boats, there are two

main design methodologies to be considered. The first is to design the boat for

maximum top speed. This means minimizing drag while foiling as much as possible

while foiling. This however comes at the tradeoff of decreased stability or reliability. The

boats that belong to this design methodology primarily are the italian ​Luna Rossa ​and

the american ​Patriot. ​The second primary design methodology is to design a boat for

maximum reliability and stability. This means maximising time on foils in a variety of

conditions and the stability on the foils. The boats that use this methodology primarily

are the british ​Britannia II ​and the New Zealander ​Te Rehutai ​(Prada Cup 2019),. The

performance of these boats can then be discussed with regards to design in order to

evaluate the designs and the methodologies behind them.

 An important factor to be addressed with regards to foiling is the fact that the hull

while foiling actually ends up functioning somewhat like a wing and thus exerting its own

lift. From this arises the problem of balancing the aerodynamic lift due to the hull and

the hydrodynamic lift due to the foils. To understand this it is important to know that both

of these kinds of lift induce drag or drag-due-to-lift. This induced drag is proportional to

the square of the lift divided by the product of half the square of the velocity, the square

of the span and the density of the fluid. In terms of a formula this can be written as .

D i ∝L 2 /( 12 ρV 2 b 2 ) . (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2019)

Without allowing ourselves in math, we know that the wind will generally be

moving faster relative to the water due to the presence of apparent wind and moreover,

is less dense than water by a factor of close to 850. From this we can see that the drag

due to aerodynamic lift is about 500 times greater than the drag due to hydrodynamic

and from this we can tell that it is important to make sure that the aerodynamic lift must

be as close to zero as possible. This also tells us that the hull should be as close to the

surface of the water as possible for maximum efficiency.

 Foil design

The first thing that we have to consider when talking about design changes is of

course, the foils. Foils present an interesting design question as they rely on a

transformed sense of writing moment. When the boat rolls over, one side becomes

more submerged than the then the other which increases surface area of the foil and

thus lift which results in a writing moment which allows a boat to maintain stability

(Barczak, 2019), meaning that foils that can generate more lift are likely more stable.

This correlation between surface area and lift has other notable uses. Essentially, the

increased lift as a result of increased surface area makes it easier for boats to lift out of

the water and begin foiling. Therein lies the trade off. It is important that there is minimal

drag on the foils as less drag means increased speed and increased speed translates

into greater lift and thus righting moment, however drag is caused by increased surface

area which also allows for greater lift, especially in lighter wind when it is more difficult

to get the speed necessary to generate lift (Chisnell, 2021). Essentially the trade off is

drag versus stability. This furthers the divide between designs built around maximum

top speed and designs built for reliability and acceleration.

This has given rise to a number of different designs by the different teams. An

interesting development is morphing foils like the ones used by Ineos Team UK for the

Britannia II.​ These possess flaps which allow adjustment for optimal drag and lift. By

adjusting these flaps for higher lift, they can allow for a more rapid transition into foiling
mode and greater stability. Conversely they can be adjusted for lower drag allowing

them to be reliably effective in a variety of conditions (Ferguson, 2020). While we do not

have access to proper simulations or real data of the individual teams, we can speculate

that due to the fact that they are not in universal use, there are likely downsides. This

would likely be a loss in efficiency due to the less hydrodynamic surface created due to

the necessary mechanisms that allow for the foils to be adjusted in meaningful ways.

This would mean that they would allow for greatly increased reliability at the cost of

absolute top speed.

Several teams have opted to use bulbs which reduces the interference drag

caused by the foils at their joints. This is largely rooted in actual requirements imposed

by the competition itself on the weight of the foils. All of the foils have to lie within a

certain weight requirement. This means that for a foil to be designed with a lower wing

span, a weighted bulb has to be used in order to compensate for the lowered weight.

The advantage of this is that the lowered wing span reduces drag in the water allowing

for greater top speeds to be attained (Chisnell, 2021), associating this design with the

methodology of maximising top speed.

The tradeoff however, comes as a result of the limited span of the foils. By

limiting the width of the foils, the amount of lift generated in the water is significantly

reduced. This makes it much more difficult for a boat to enter into a foiling mode in

lighter conditions. This has an overall effect of limiting the consistency of the team in
varying conditions (Chisnell, 2021). This is best demonstrated by the fact that the

Britanna II, ​uses this style of foils and has been noted to have a much harder time

getting into and staying in foiling mode (Sheahan, 2021). Given that the ​Britannia II ​is

currently faring the worst out of all the contenders (Prada Cup, n.d.), this would indicate

that this drawback can considerably limit a design.

As stated earlier, it is important when designing these foils that the distance from

the water be minimized as this allows for greater righting moment and thus greater

speed. It also reduces the vortices that form around the hull which would reduce speed.

It is also important to have the foils as close to the surface of the water as possible - so

as to reduce drag caused by the foils - without ventilating, which would cause the boat

to lose righting moment and thus become unstable and could cease to foil and thus lose

speed (Scuttlebutt Sailing 2019).

It is important to address this because larger foils generate a larger amount of lift.

Due to the foils being as close to the surface of the water as possible, at high speeds

we can speculate that larger foils will be more likely to ventilate, effectively further

reducing the top speed further. However, we can only speculate due to lacking access

to any simulations.

When evaluating the efficacy of the different design methodologies, it is difficult

to make any claims in terms of the foils specifically due to a lack of data pertaining to
the individual boats and their foils specifically. However, there are still several pertinent

observations to be made by comparing the design of the foils with the overall boat.

Specifically we can see that while the italian ​Luna Rossa i​ s designed for top speed, it

does not possess a bulb and instead has a longer set of foils. Similarly, the british

Britannia II​ is designed for maximising reliability and stability, however it uses shorter

foils that incorporate a bulb (Scuttlebutt, Sailing, 2020). This is important because of the

four boats competing, these two have performed the worst, with the ​Luna Rossa​ having

lost as many races as it has won and the ​Britannia II​ being yet to win a single race

(Prada Cup, n.d.).

For the purpose of comparing and analysing methodologies, this is significant

because it tells us that there might not be a significant difference between the differing

designs. Instead we can draw the conclusion that it is more important that either of the

design methodologies be executed as effectively as possible for optimal performance.

That being said, upon comparing the ​Luna Rossa ​and the ​Britannia II, ​we can see that

while they are both faring poorly, the ​Britannia II i​ s faring significantly worse. This

indicates that the foils that correspond to the design methodology of having a greater

top speed likely has greater drawbacks than its counterpart.

Hull shape
 Over the past couple years, hull shapes have begun to play an increasingly

important role in the development of the Americas Cup boats. For many years since its

inception, the boats have only needed to adapt to be as hydrodynamic as possible;

however, with the introduction of foiling, this has changed significantly. When designing

boats for minimum drag, they have to be able to travel through the water with minimum

resistance for maximum speed; however as foiling allows boats to circumvent the drag

caused by water by flying over its surface, it adds a new factor to the mix. Now, boats

must account for drag caused by both the water, and the air, which has led to

interesting trade off (Prada Cup 2019).

When designing hull shapes for these foiling boats, there are two main things

that need to be taken into account: the ease at which a boat can get out of the water

and onto its foils, and the speed of the boat after it has begun foiling. In recent years,

this has given rise to radically different designs.

The drag exerted on the boat is highest at the point where the water and air

meet. The means that there is significantly more drag in displacement mode than in

foiling mode. As a result it is critical that a foiling boat gets on it’s foils as quickly as

possible. In order to facilitate this, a skiff-like design was developed, meaning that it had

a flat bottom and a pointed, blade-like prow that can “cut” through the water. This

minimizes drag caused by the water allowing boats to get out of the water as fast as

possible due to foils generating greater lift at higher speeds (Prada Cup 2019).
 This design however has a downside. Any drag in air or in water increases as

speed increases resulting in a cap on the top speed of a boat, therefore the boat with

the least aerodynamic drag would have the highest top speed while on its foils.

Unfortunately, despite being very hydrodynamic, the skiff design is not very

aerodynamic. This hull design lends itself to the design methodology of maximising

stability and time on foils.

However, in order to increase the top speed a different design has also been

developed. This skow-like design results in a wide hull with sloped sides and a rounded

prow reminiscent of an airplane (Prada Cup 2019). This minimizes air drag allowing for

a higher top speed, corresponding to the design methodology of maximising top speed.

However, once again we can see that this type of hull has several downsides.

The first and most obvious is that it is slower to accelerate. This is due to the fact that it

is optimized for aerodynamics and not hydrodynamics meaning that it is slower while in

displacement mode. This means that the foils generate less lift making it harder to

transition to foiling mode and reach top speed (Prada Cup 2019). This is especially

important at the start of a sailing race where having a fast start can be the deciding

factor between winning and losing due to disturbed air caused by other boats. The

second downside is that should the boat have to slow down to the point of coming off its

foils for whatever reason, it will take more time to get back up during which it is
significantly less fast and stable (Prada Cup 2019). This could happen for a large

number of reasons and thus makes this design more risky. This is further evidenced by

the fact that, of all the boats, the only one to have capsized in a race is the American

​ his makes this a significant downside as capsizing in a race

Patriot (Reporter, 2021). T

almost guarantees losing. In summary this results in the two prevailing designs being a

safer skiff like design with faster acceleration and a lower top speed and a riskier but

faster design with lower acceleration.

As the first boats of the AC75s were developed, most of them lacked any

protrusions along their hull with the exception of the British boat which sported a skeg to

the forward 70% to the bottom of their hull. Since then with the development of new

boats by the different teams, every team has also added a skeg to their designs. A skeg

would normally be a sternward extension of the keel of a boat however in this case due

to the lack of a keel it takes the form of a fin-like protrusion along the bottom of the hull

also called a keel ridge (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020).

While all of the different boats possess a skeg, due to the differing design

methodologies, these skegs take a variety of shapes and sizes on the different boats.

This can be seen with the ​Britannia II​ sporting a thick, full length and square cut skeg,

the italian ​Luna Rossa​ sporting a thin full length fin, the American ​Patriot​ having a

smaller one that does not extend over the rear 30% and the new Zealander ​Te Rehutai

having a skeg of similar thickness to the Britannia II but being more rounded and not
extending over the rear 20% (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020). As we can see, boats following

a design methodology centered around getting on foils as fast as possible tend towards

possessing larger skegs while those centered around achieving a higher top speed

possess smaller skegs.

While it is impossible to say for certain what mechanisms function to allow these

keel ridges to improve the speed and efficiency of these boats due to a lack of access

to proper simulations and no comments on it from the teams themselves, we can

speculate that there are several possible mechanisms at work.

The first is a reduction of wetted surface area at pre-transition boat speeds when

only a portion of the boat's weight must be supported by buoyancy. Essentially, as the

boat speeds up and the foils begin to generate lift, the boat no longer requires the same

degree of buoyancy and begins to lift out of the water, by reducing the wetted surface

area at the point where the water and air meet during this transition phase, this would

increase the speed and efficiency of the transition due to the decreased drag allowed by

the skeg. A second benefit would be in aiding in producing hydrodynamic lift through

planning, a process in which the hull produces hydrodynamic lift at high speeds, in order

to aid in the speed and efficiency of the transition (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020). We can

then arrive at the conclusion that this is the reasoning behind the size of the skegs of

the boats designed for getting on foils as quickly as possible. Larger skegs likely

generate larger hydrodynamic lift resulting in a faster and easier transition mode.
 However, while in displacement mode, these keel ridges would produce side

force and induced drag due to leeway which counteracts the reduction of drag that they

cause while in transition mode (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020). It is impossible to tell what the

net effect on the speed of the boat that this results in without a proper simulation,

however we can speculate that due to it’s near universal use by the different teams that

it is generally helpful.

As mentioned earlier, for a boat on foils to have maximum efficiency, it is

required that the hull have zero vertical lift and be as close to the surface of the water as

possible. The keel ridges could help this through the reduction of effective width in

between the surface of the water and the bottom of the hull. These ridges would form a

partial obstruction for crosswinds passing through the gap underneath the boat. This

would cause a greater cross-wind passing over the top of the hull. This would be felt by

the boat in the form of a greater apparent wind speed resulting in more power finding its

way into the sail. This would allow for a greater top speed (Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020).

However there are also downsides to this. The increased air-”wetted” surface

would result in increased drag while foiling that could potentially reduce speed

(Scuttlebutt Sailing, 2020). Note that this is different than the cases in transition and

displacement mode due to the buoyancy of the skeg while in water. It is once again

impossible to tell without an accurate simulation if there is a net positive or net negative
outcome to the increased drag. This downside is made very apparent by the ​Britannia II

which has been noted to be the slowest of the group by a significant margin (Sheahan,

2021).

In order to evaluate the efficacy of the differing design methodologies with

regards to the main hull we can examine the performance of the boats in the recent

competition. Of the boats racing in the cup, the ​Te Rehutai ​has done by far the best,

having won all but one of their races. It was noted to have the highest average speed of

the four (Sheahan, 2021). This would support the conclusion that in terms of overall

speed, the design methodology that focuses on getting into foiling mode as fast as

possible is superior. However, of the four boats, the slowest by far was the ​Britannia II

which followed similar design principles to the ​Te Rehutai (Sheahan, 2021). ​Not only

was it the slowest but it also struggled to stay on it’s foils (Sheahan, 2021), showing that

it did not even succeed in what would be indicated by it’s design. In contrast to this, the

american and italian boats, which both followed a design that aims to maximise top

speed, are much closer in standings. This leads us to the conclusion that while

designing for greater time on foils has greater potential speed, it appears to be much

harder to optimize than designing for maximum top speed, leading to a greater range of

results.
 Conclusion

In conclusion, we can see that of the two design methodologies, the methodology

that corresponds to greater ability to enter into foiling mode has greater potential for

speed at the cost of being more difficult optimise. This can be seen in the foils

themselves, with designs that correspond to this methodology doing on average better

than its counterpart and succeeding in their design. It can also be seen in the changes

in hull shapes especially with regards to the use of a skeg to generate hydrodynamic lift.

This leads to a higher average speed, likely due to being able to stay in foiling mode for

a greater duration. Furthermore, hulls that conform to the design methodology of

maximising speed appear to be less stable further reducing the efficiency of the design.

That being said we can see from the greater variance in results of the boats that

correspond to designs that maximize time on foils. This leads us to the conclusion that

this design methodology is more difficult to optimize. All of these factors demonstrate

that this design methodology has greater potential for higher average speed at the cost

of being more difficult to optimize, while it’s counterpart appears to produce more

consistent results at the cost of having a lower average speed output.

Word count: 4000

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