The never-ending quest for better-performing sails
Burns Fallow, head of the sail programme, blogs from the design office
Burtns Fallow
Although there are still nearly two years until the America’s Cup, there is plenty happening in the design department’s “sail world”.
On recent days, we have worked on four different programmes (Volvo, AC45, SL33 and America’s Cup). We are one of the few departments that “touches” all the different activities going on in the team at the moment.
In the Volvo we are working on the first replacement sails to be delivered to Cape Town. The Volvo rule is very restrictive on the number of sails that can be used in the race, but in some instances we are on to our fourth generation of a particular sail type (starting from when we launched the boat in April). We are still learning flat out, and one of the tricks in the Volvo is continuing to improve performance. We are looking forward to seeing the guys come home to Auckland in March.
The AC45 guys headed out to San Diego over the weekend for the third build-up event. We have had to build only one new sail for this event, as the others are still in pretty good condition, and we are expecting pretty light conditions in San Diego – although from what I can remember from 1995, it can be pretty cold in November.
Our SL33s are test boats for the larger AC72. The SL33s have their own sail programme and it is a delight to work with such “sensible” sized sails. I have just completed a couple of designs for these boats today and emailed the design to the 3DL plant in Nevada. These will be on the water in early December.
That of course leaves the AC72 boat, which will not sail until the middle of next year. However one thing I have noticed in this campaign is how integrated and inter-dependant every area of design is. As we learn a bit about one area of design, it may affect work we have already done. Therefore although we will not sail the AC72 for several months yet, we are well advanced in our sail and wing design program.
