America's Cup World Series San Francisco

The America's Cup World Series are match races and fleet regattas used as heats for the

2013 America's Cup The 34th America's Cup was a series of yacht races held in San Francisco Bay on September 2013. The series was contested between the defender Oracle Team USA representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club, and the challenger Emirates Team New Zealand ...

and 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 ...

The Yachts

AC45 and AC45F

The World Series uses AC45 catamarans, a one-design

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

catamaran designed specifically for the event by

Oracle Racing Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Clu ...

. The AC45 was conceived as a smaller version of the larger AC72 class rule which was used for the

. In 2015, the class was modified to AC45F which incorporated hydrofoiling capability for improved performance, with boats achieving peak speeds of 37kt. The AC45 has the following specifications: *design:

Mike Drummond Mike Drummond is a New Zealand sailor and yacht designer who is a member of the America's Cup Hall of Fame. Drummond was born in Christchurch and joined New Zealand Challenge before the 1987 America's Cup and he then helped to design, and sail ...

*builder: Core Builders Composites (NZ) & TP Cookson (NZ) *build: honeycomb core, carbonfiber sandwich *length: *beam: *weight: *maximum draught : *air draught : without extension, with extension *wing: wing element with three slotted flaps *extension: high, area *jib area: , provided by sail loft of team's choice (2011–2013 series), provided by North Sails (2015–2016 series) *gennaker area: , provided by sail loft of team's choice (2011–2013 series), provided by North Sails (2015–2016 series) *crew: 5 + 1 guest *daggerboards: two conventional leeboards (2011–2013 series) with raking L-type elevators (2015–2016 series) *rudders: two balanced spade rudders (2011–2013 series) with T-type horizontal stabilizers (2015–2016 series)

Testing platform

The AC45 are authorized to be taken out of measurement to serve as a testing platform for the America's Cup. Oracle Racing released photographs of an AC45 hydrofoiling with L-type appendages on June 18, 2012, a premonition of Team New Zealand's larger foiling AC72 ''Aotearoa'' test boat first spotted in Auckland on August 29, 2012. In February 2015 Oracle Racing and Artemis Racing tested two AC45s modified by Core Builders; They featured L-type hydrofoils, horizontal rudder stabilizers, lengthened crossbeams (herego wide beam), a shortened jib-only bowsprit extending into a centerline pod under the wing, flaring topsides, closed transoms, opened hulls with deep cockpits for binnacles and wheels, replacing the tiller. The authorization does not permit to lengthen the hulls. All other teams carried out similar experiments with the platform.

2011–13 World Series

Nine events were held between 2011 and 2012 in the lead up to the

. America%27s_Cup,_Plymouth_15.jpg,

Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup i ...

's AC45 in September 2011 Oracle_AC45_hulls_(bottom_view).jpg, ''Oracle Racing 4'' hulls exhibit in the California Academy of Sciences Oracle_AC45_wing.jpg, ''Oracle Racing 4'' wing exhibit in the California Academy of Sciences In August 2013, the competition jury received a report from

Oracle Team USA Oracle Team USA is an American yacht racing syndicate initially formed to compete for the 2003 America's Cup. They competed again in the 2007 event before winning the 33rd America's Cup regatta in 2010 – representing the Golden Gate Yacht Club ...

that their boat and others they had loaned had unauthorized modifications. Since they were using one of these modified boats, the BAR team withdrew from the competition on 7 August 2013. Oracle Team USA withdrew the day after. Penalties imposed included expelling three team members, a $250,000 fine, and a one-point penalty for each of the first two races of the Match in which they would otherwise score a point.Jury Notice JN117
, 3 September 2013,

2015–16 World Series

The series was revived as heats of nine two-day events in eight venues in the run up to the

. The races used a single boat design, known as AC45f, which was based on AC45 with added hydrofoil daggerboards and rudders. AC45f racing catamaran using hydrofoils, Land Rover BAR, July 24, 2016.jpg, Land Rover BAR's AC45f sailing on hydrofoils with one daggerboard raised above the water. AC45_World_Series_-_Team_New_Zealand,_Team_Japan.jpg, Hydrofoiling AC45Fs in 2015 The overall winner of the competition was

Land Rover BAR INEOS Britannia is a British sailing team that is the challenger of record for the 37th America's Cup. The team was established in 2012 with the ambition of winning the America's Cup for Great Britain and to 'bring the cup home' to the Un ...

, with

being the runner up. The winner of the series earned two points and the runner-up received a single point in the new America's Cup Qualifiers. The boats are similar to the

AC50 The AC50 (defined in the America's Cup rules as AC Class yacht, or ACC) was a wingsail catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "ca ...

used in the

Cancelled 2018 and 2020 World Series

Prior to the

, several of the competing syndicatesOracle Team USA, Land Rover BAR Team UK, Team France, Softbank Team Japan, Metro Artemis Team Sweden signed an agreement to hold World Series prior to the next two America's Cups, then scheduled for 2019 and 2021. These two World Series would be used as selection series to determine which teams would compete at the 2019 and 2021 Louis Vuitton Cups Challenger Selection Series. These two seasons would have used the

-class yachts, instead of the AC45 or AC45F classes. However, the winner of the 35th America's Cup,

Emirates Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup i ...

was not a signatory to the agreement for the 36th and 37th America's Cup, making these plans obsolete.

Footnotes

References

{{2013 America's Cup Sailing series America's Cup World Series