BLUEMOMENT

I find the America’s Cup fascinating these days, with the speeds and new tactics. The tech is now well established and used in races raced globally. It’s even reached tge cruising market and well established in windsurfing and dinghies.

With speeds well over three times the wind speed and top speeds in excess of 50 knots, the yachts benefit from a supplied electronics package and automated control system to ease their use. This will be put to the test as the AC40 also gets used for the 2024 Youth and Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona, with 12 international teams committed to both events.

A very expensive hobby with a huge CO2 footprint to participate in.


https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2023 ... -purchase/

quick answer: No

love to have a go, but probably 30+ man hours of maintenance for every one hour of sailing and very few on the planet who can set them up and keep them working properly

foiled a Wazp (briefly and badly) and curved-foil Nacra 17's and Nacra 20. Flying/foiling is amazing. Speed is one thing but the deceleration is brutal when you hit a wave or stuff in a bow. When things go wrong, they do so very very quickly
A limited amount of foil lift (DSS: dynamic Stability System, or similar) sounds good, but full foiling will be niche and small boats only

AC has always been about innovation, not one design. The article misses the point by harking back to the old styles of AC yachts.

Many innovations from AC end up in cruising yachts. Of course, the market demand will decide if selling on these AC40 foiling monos will be a success as a class or not. I doubt it. However, I like the idea that in the future cruising around on foiling monos will be normal, with boats like mine being seen as quaint examples of old technology.

"The article misses the point by harking back to the old styles of AC yachts"
I read the reference to old style yachts as a comment about longevity/obsolescence. Maintaining the electronics and hydraulics of an AC40 is a nightmare now, and could be even more difficult in a few years time, unlike the 12s
what will trickle down form the AC40 or current Americas Cup boats?
autopilot systems (also from ULTIME and IMOCA development)
hydraulics....lighter, smaller, more power efficient and therefore useful in smaller and smaller boats?
what else?

The basic physics of lifting a boat on to foils makes it extremely unlikely that cruising around on foiling monohulls (or multihulls) will ever become the norm. it'll be a fun niche for the dedicated and wealthy and "quaint" will remain the norm

The foiling IMOCAs are also fascinating, as are the speeds they reach. More relevant to everyday sailing are the Class 40 yachts with their scow hull shapes. The high volume scow shape is having an influence on recent cruising boats launched by Dufour, Beneteau & others, with more volume further forward. Becoming more like a Thames Sailing barge with every iteration.....but no fun upwind in a chop.

Well, thats a pretty limiting thought process: how advantages of AC developments to cruising will now stall and not trickle down. History suggests that is not what happens, technological change is constant.

Cruising boats are already lighter and faster for the equivalent size a few decades ago. Lines are stronger and smaller, electronics are smaller, lighter, controlling more powerful systems. It is not so outlandish that at some future point cruising fast, in a foiling boat, will not be so unusual. There are scow bow foiling dinghies, and in fact, foiling is an excellent solution for flat bottomed boats going to windward.

Of course, these are just fantasy ideas. Yet, if I wanted to differentiate my BenJenBav boat ass builder, and the market was club racing or fast weekend cruising, maybe the foiling idea is not so unattainable.

It may be a super yacht, but it is a super cruising yacht, with foils: -

https://www.balticyachts.fi/yachts/baltic-111-custom/

more comfortable than this: https://www.yachtingworld.com/yachts-an ... uit-130684

unlikely ever to become mainstream