Is the America’s Cup Real Sailing? Tech & the New Sailing World

Is now the time to contemplate the workings of the America’s Cup? And how the SailGP circuit is re-shaping the grand prix racing landscape, including the introduction of ‘player’ transfer fees.

At what point does a sailing boat cease to be a sailing boat and become something else? I’m off to the Yacht Racing Forum in Amsterdam this week, and I’m not sure how brave I’m feeling. It’s an excellent talking shop for discussing where the sport is going, although I’m not sure if there’s anything on the agenda to discuss the blurred lines of what constitutes a sailing boat. New technology comes along, seems to resolves a problem, and so it goes on. That’s progress, but is it what sailing should be about? 

Even in grass roots dinghy racing, such as in my own class the Musto Skiff, we have arguments about whether or not GPS should be permitted in watches and on-board compass units. ‘Pinging’ the start line is so common now in keelboat racing, it’s hardly a discussion. All around us, there are examples of technological ‘mission creep’.

Is the America’s Cup real sailing?

Do I dare ask if an AC75 – beautiful example of the sharpest edge of cutting edge technology though it may be – is truly a sailing boat? If the electric battery goes down, the boat is non-functional. if the battery runs flat – or sets on fire – the AC75 and smaller cousin the AC40 are incapable of sailing because they relies on more than the power of the wind to make them go through the water.

Is there any point in asking the question at this stage? The AC75 and AC40 steeds have well and truly bolted, so who cares about shutting the stable door at this point! In any case, it’s hard enough as it is, without putting up more hurdles in your own way, to make an interesting event out of the America’s Cup. Most America’s Cups are boring, and this recent edition definitely was not that. It was sensationally fascinating for us sailing nerds.

In any case, who’s going to tell the billionaires what they can do with their money? Me, and whose army? I think the Cup is going in a very interesting direction at the moment and Grant Dalton – now 20 years in charge of Emirates Team New Zealand – has put together an excellent package that ticks a lot of boxes. So let him get on with it.

One of Dalton’s biggest challenges – his ongoing dilemma – is how to increase the number of challenger teams. For the last Cup he imposed very tight nationality restrictions. Without a big billionaire sugar daddy behind the Kiwis, Dalton can’t afford to pay Pete Burling, Nathan Outteridge, Blair Tuke et al. top dollar. So imposing tight nationality limits keeps these megastars off the open market and safely in the ETNZ tent for another cycle.

But if the strict nationality rules persist, how many challenger teams can put together a sailing crew capable of beating the Kiwis? Even the ones that CAN afford it will be having second thoughts. Alinghi Red Bull Racing were rumoured to have splashed the biggest budget in Barcelona and managed to beat the French, but that was it. The Swiss just don’t have enough high-level sailors to take on the multiple Olympic gold medallists in the other teams. It’s hard to see Alinghi owner Ernesto Bertarelli – or co-funder Red Bull – putting down hundreds of millions again just to be an ‘also ran’.

New World of Sailing: SailGP

Dalton’s dilemma is all thrown into sharp relief by the transfer market frenzy that has been running amok in advance of SailGP Season 5. Giles Scott departs the helm of Emirates Great Britain SailGP team to take up the reins of the Canadian F50. Andy Maloney, now a three-time winner of the America’s Cup and a key member of New Zealand’s SailGP team, joins the new Brazilian team (skippered by first ever female SailGP helm, Martine Grael) for an eye-watering transfer fee if the rumours are to be believed.

It does seem the past five years of Russell Coutts building his SailGP snowball big enough and heavy enough to gather its own momentum is finally starting to roll down the hill. When SailGP started with six teams in 2019, franchises were initially valued at a nominal US $5 million each. Now teams are starting to change hands for up to a US $60 million, and sailors’ salaries and transfer fees are skyrocketing.

So despite the massive success of the recent Cup, SailGP continues to reshape the landscape of grand prix competition. But back to the question I posed at the top of the article, whether or not a boat that relies on battery power can really be defined as a sailing boat. Another aspect to this was the use of the cyclors, immensely powerful athletes, but all for the purpose of generating hydraulic pressure? Watching these incredible cyclors grinding away, huffing and puffing and sweating profusely on the on-board cameras… this was a sub-plot of the Cup that didn’t really add up to much.

What about this instead. What if the AC75 was fitted with a drop-down propeller and the job of the cyclors was to employ their sweaty efforts in spinning the propeller and helping launch the boat out of the water in marginal foiling conditions? Now that is a story we could all understand and get behind, not least because it would further reduce the window of non-sailing conditions, the Achilles heel of all televised sailing coverage. But then you’ll tell me that a boat with a propeller could never be described as a sailing boat…

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