In this video (in English), Land Rover BAR, English team engaged on america's Cup explains how she manages to keep their hydrofoil catamaran, the AC45, stable"in flight". Skipper and team captain Ben Ainslie explains that the solution to"flying" stably on the water is to maintain a constant speed. Demonstration on their T3 training boat.
The team must therefore be coordinated to deal with variable wind and wave conditions. But the skipper is nevertheless responsible for all the small adjustments to apply the race strategy.
Composition of the Land Rover BAR team
This video presents the role of each crew member, with a specific mission for each. Paul Campbell-Jones, at the wing trimmer, explains his role, which consists of adjusting the wing to catch as much wind as possible without capsizing the boat.
The other four Land Rover BAR team members are grinders. That is, they make foil and sail adjustments on coffee grinders. This position requires being in excellent physical condition, as the team demonstrated in a winch challenge with NBA star Bobby Portis (to be discovered in the 2nd video).
The helmsman steers the boat with the mission of moving it forward as quickly as possible.
Finally, we discover the role of rudders and foils. Ben Ainslie explains that rudders equipped with trims both help the boat to lift and are a steering tool. Finally, hydrofoils provide the propulsion power to lift the hull out of the water so that the AC45 can reach over 40 knots.
