Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Swiss challenger for the 37th America’s Cup, marked another milestone in its campaign in early April with the theatrical nighttime reveal of its first AC75, dubbed BoatOne. True to the team’s style, the unveiling was an affair worthy of the high-stakes days to come when the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series gets underway in August.
According to America’s Cup media sources inside the Alinghi compound, from behind the boat hangar’s large rollaway door, the boat was slowly extracted to reveal the sculpted lines of the first second-generation AC75. Its detail characteristics were enshrouded in the faux smoke and darkness, but one America’s Cup scribe described the hull as “a dead straight, ultra-slender bow profile leading the way back to a long, tapered bustle trailing all the way aft along the centerline and ending right in the stern.”
BoatOne’s bustle appears to be more pronounced than that of the team’s “BoatZero,” Emirates Team New Zealand’s winning AC75 from the previous Cup, which the Swiss team purchased and had been training extensively with. The new boat’s overall look is far enough removed from the Kiwi design to stoke armchair designers. BoatOne’s foil flaps and foil arm elbows were concealed, as are the myriad of mechatronic systems that will ultimately determine how fast and maneuverable the boat will be in the Mediterranean waters of Barcelona. The design team, which is led by Marcelino Botin, principal designer in charge of hydro and aerodynamics, will no doubt have plenty of innovation to hide in that department.
The boat’s noticeable aerodynamic elements are the result of the team’s association with the Red Bull Formula 1 designers and engineers as well. Once the boat is on foil, reducing aerodynamic drag is a critical part of the package. With no backstays allowed for the second-generation AC75s, structure and weight in the transom area can be greatly reduced, and in the case of Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne, the tall cockpit walls round at back and stop sharply well before the transom, producing what amounts to a long overhang that accommodates the boat’s communications and rudder systems.
According to a team following the April 5 reveal, BoatOne will now undergo final systems installations and checks and will be sailing before the end of the month, with the “driving team”of Arnaud Psarofaghis, Maxime Bachelin, Nicolas Charbonnier, Lucien Cujean, Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz coming to grips with their new whip. Providing the power will be athletes Arthur Cevey, Barnabé Delarze, Augustin Maillefer, Théry Schir, Nico Stahlberg, Nils Theuninck and Florian Trüb.
