Sailors and American Magic Fans Prepare for America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta
“No holds barred” is the motto of American Magic’s helmsman Tom Slingsby as he and his handpicked crew of eight prepare for the first test of design, skills, and seamanship off the tricky Barcelona Harbor with the onset of the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta August 22-25. This is the first time the five America’s Cup Challengers and Defender Emirates Team New Zealand will face off racing the newly commissioned AC75 foiling monohulls.
Although the AC75’s have to adhere to strict design standards, visually there is a marked difference between the boats. The American boat, Patriot, for example, looks significantly smaller than her competitors. She is the only boat in which the cyclors perform their function while in a reclined (recumbent) position facing backwards.
Previous Preliminary Regattas have been sailed utilizing the AC40 platform. American Magic won the first regatta staged in Vilanova, Spain in September of last year. Team New Zealand won the second regatta staged in early December in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Slingsby acknowledges that each of the teams know each other “pretty well.” The competitive crews have watched each other in various conditions over the past several weeks, but nobody knows how the boats will perform under actual racing conditions. That is about to change.
This year, the America’s Cup is operating on a shared information platform in which teams of videographers and analysists follow each boat during their practice runs and then share their findings via website open to everyone. The idea was to make all data accessible to all teams instantaneously. The program concluded in late June.
Here is a sample entry from that day’s sailing:
“June 22, 2024: On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic made the most of a light air Saturday forecast in Barcelona to squeeze in a four-and-a-half-hour session of mostly boat testing—including bedding in some new rigging. The team rolled out its latest-generation AC75 Patriot at 0857. The mast was stepped by 0915 after which the shore crew carried out an extended setup of the rig that took until 1058. After swapping to a different rudder yesterday the team returned to the previous iteration (white stock with silver blade and elevator).”
The report went on to detail the American Magic training regimen for all to see. Similar in-depth reports were developed by Recon Team members for all the boats sailing on that day.
Ineos Britannia skipper Sir Ben Ainsley had this to say about the shared reconnaissance project: “We have the reconnaissance that covers all of the teams and that’s quite entertaining when you know how your day has gone and you read the write up, and in many cases it’s a million miles off the reality,” said Ainslie. “So, we expect that that’s the same with the other teams as well. Until we actually line up proper with these other teams, you’re sort of guessing. There’s a long long way to go between now and when we start competition so it is about getting this boat up to the performance to know it’s optimized. That’s the key.”
In a sport where every competitive advantage is important, American Magic has teamed with software developed Altair to develop a pair of predictive models that can enhance date interpretations and save painstaking hours in the simulator or on the racecourse.
Altair will provide the team with software technology, consulting services, and two “work streams” to improve boat and sailor performance. The work streams include a predictive data analytics system to analyze and understand sailing vessel performance and a custom-made “AI bot” to enable the control and monitoring of sailboat simulations.
The first work stream, composed of robust data analytics capabilities, allows the NYYC American Magic team to observe and break down past race performances to see how the team can improve future performances. The technology helps analyze boat velocity given course conditions and boat/sailor maneuvers to determine optimal race strategy and see how to translate past success into future success.
The second work stream, “AI bot,” gives the NYYC American Magic team unprecedented race simulation power to optimize vessel and sailor performance through virtual test runs that mirror real-life racing conditions.
The results of the AI bot’s reinforcement learning approach give a quick, effective, and accurate way to simulate various and multiple race conditions and cut down the need for physical testing and prototyping. In addition, the AI bot generates data from simulations so the team can analyze it to improve times, sailor maneuvers, race strategy, and boat components.
In an exclusive interview with SpinSheet several weeks before the Preliminary Regattas were scheduled to start, American Magic President of Sailing Operations Terry Hutchinson said:
“We think we have a fast boat and a good crew. The test will come at the Preliminary Regatta stage. I doubt if anybody will hold back unless pushing it too hard puts their boats in jeopardy. There is a very short window between the end of the Preliminary Regatta and the beginning of the Round Robin Round (due to start August 29). Noone wants to be left at the gate with a broken boat.”
Team coach Tom Burnham is optimistic about where American Magic sits thus far in the run up to the race:
“I think we're in a good spot… time is always the enemy though in this environment, but we're moving along on our targets as expected but more time would always be better.”
Slingsby agrees: “Bring’ em on. The team and I can’t wait to take the gloves off and see how we stack up.”
Tune into ESPN for live coverage. Highlights and reruns can be viewed on YouTube or the America’s Cup home page.
By Craig Ligibel
