The AC75 (America's Cup 75) is a racing yacht used in the

2021 America's Cup The 2021 America's Cup in March 2021 was the 36th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. It was contested on the inner Hauraki Gulf off Auckland, New Zealand, between the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Circolo della Vela Sicilia of Italy ...

and 37th America's Cup matches and planned to be used for the 38th America's Cup match. The

monohull right A monohull is a type of boat having only one hull, unlike multihulled boats which can have two or more individual hulls connected to one another. Fundamental concept Among the earliest hulls were simple logs, but these were generally unstab ...

s feature wing-like

sailing hydrofoil A sailing hydrofoil, hydrofoil sailboat, or hydrosail is a sailboat with wing-like hydrofoil, foils mounted under the hull (watercraft), hull. As the craft increases its speed the hydrofoils Lift (force), lift the hull up and out of the water, gr ...

s mounted under the hull, a soft

wingsail A wingsail, twin-skin sail or double skin sail is a variable-Camber (aerodynamics), camber aerodynamic structure that is fitted to a marine vessel in place of conventional sails. Wingsails are analogous to Wing, airplane wings, except that they ...

, and no keel.

The rule

Following the

2017 America's Cup The 2017 America's Cup was the 35th staging of the America's Cup yacht race. The challenger, Emirates Team New Zealand, won by a score of 7 to 1 over the defender, Oracle Team USA. It was held on the Great Sound in Bermuda from June 17 to June 2 ...

, winners

Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron is a New Zealand yacht club, and the club behind New Zealand's America's Cup campaigns, under the guises of New Zealand Challenge and Team New Zealand. It held the America's Cup from 1995 until 2003, beco ...

accepted a notice of challenge from Circolo della Vela Sicilia stipulating a monohull would be used in 2021. Conceptual graphics of a monohull with soft sails and topside canting hydrofoils were released on 21 November 2017, and the first draft of the class rule was published by the defender and the challenger of record on 29 March 2018. The return to monohulls with soft sails after three America's Cups on

multihull A multihull is a boat or ship with more than one Hull (watercraft), hull, whereas a vessel with a single hull is a monohull. The most common multihulls are catamarans (with two hulls), and trimarans (with three hulls). There are other types, wi ...

s with

s is reminiscent of earlier America's Cup classes and seaworthy traditions, but the rule included

hydrofoils A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

to attract high performance crews and large TV audiences. Under the protocol, each competing club could build two yachts, but two-boat testing was excluded except during the ''PRADA Christmas Cup'' on 17–20 December 2020, and for the defenders during the ''PRADA Cup'' 15 January – 22 February 2021. To reduce design and testing costs of the class unique class features, the rule specified foil controlling systems all manufactured by defender

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

and foil arms all manufactured by the Challenger of Record's builder Persico Marine.

List of AC75 yachts

The visible differences between designs have been commented by most of the yachtbuilding community and the specialized press as each of the boats were launched.

Speeds

Potential speed of was claimed based on computer simulations. Notable high speeds actually recorded in racing were: * by Te Rehutai (in ) on 17 December 2020. * by Britannia during day 4 of the Prada Cup 23 January 2021. * by Patriot (American Magic) during day 1 of the Prada Cup Semifinals (in breeze gusting up to ) on 29 January 2021. * by Luna Rossa (Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli) during day 3 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final on 29 September 2024. * by Britannia (INEOS Britannia) during day 5 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final on 1 October 2024.

Controversy

Following the release of the canting hydrofoil design in 2017, Brazilian shipwright Manoel Chaves contacted ETNZ to inform them that he held a patent for the proposed design. Team New Zealand apparently ignored correspondence from Chaves' patent attorneys for over two years before simply dismissing the allegations. ETNZ defended themselves with the statement "every good idea has 1000 fathers".

References

External links