International America's Cup Class
The International Americas Cup Class ( IACC ) is a boat class for regatta yachts that was developed for the America's Cup (AC), but is no longer sailed in regattas. The IACC class is a construction class that left the yacht designers room for individual solutions within a fixed formula. Due to the construction formula and construction regulations, the boats of a generation were almost identical in construction and could therefore sail against each other without compensation. This 1: 1 situation is an important prerequisite for the media-effective match race , in which two boats compete against each other and the viewer can quickly see which yacht is leading.
The IACC class was established at the America's Cup in 1992 and replaced the 12mR class that had been in use since 1958 . Before that, the J-class was used . The rule disputes in the America's Cup of 1988 certainly accelerated the development of the IAAC class. The New Zealanders tried to win the cup in a so-called unequal duel (mis match) with a 36 m long yacht, but were defeated by the tricky US sailors under the leadership of Dennis Conner , who competed in a catamaran and won.
The end of the IACC class was marked by the 33rd America's Cup in February 2010, which was held with multihull yachts . The victorious US team BMW Oracle Racing was able to largely determine the racing rules based on the Deed of Gift and announced that it would host future races with multihull yachts.
IACC sail numbers
The IACC sail numbers were issued consecutively by the America's Cup Measument Committee (ACM). The surveying committee assigned a new sail number as soon as a certain progress was made on the construction of the new hull. The sail numbers consist of two parts, the three-letter prefix indicating the nation of the team or the syndicate and a consecutive hull number. The national designation changed when the boat was sold to a syndicate from another nation, the hull number remained the same. So far only two sail numbers have been issued to one boat: RUS-62 was built on the basis of the heavily modified hull parts of RUS-24 and was newly registered as RUS-62.
IACC class rule
Version 5.0 of the International America's Cup Class Rule was released on December 15, 2003. The copyright is jointly held by the defender team Alinghi and the Challenger of Record BMW Oracle Racing .
The IACC yachts had to be constructed within a given framework of length, weight (max. 24 tons), width (max. 4.5 m), draft (max. 4.1 m), sail area, etc. and are therefore similar. The length, the sail area and the displacement had to comply with a formula that led to boat lengths between 20 and 28 m. An IACC yacht had 17 crew members and one guest, thus a maximum of 18 people, on board. If the guest, who was often invited by the sponsor , was omitted, the team had to carry 100 kg additional weight on board.
| Typical dimensions of an IACC yacht | |
|---|---|
| Length over all | 26 meters |
| width | 4.5 meters |
| Draft | 4.10 meters |
| Mast height | 33 meters |
| Sail area on the wind | 325 square meters |
| of which mainsail | 215 square meters |
| spinnaker | 160% of the sail area on the wind |
| Sail area before the wind | 750 square meters |
| total weight | Max. 24 tons |
| Keel ballast | 19 tons |
| Crew size | 17 people + 1 guest |
Successful IACC yachts and their crews
- For a full list of IACC yachts, see the main article: List of IACC yachts
America's Cup
- America's Cup winner 2007: Alinghi , SUI-100 (defender), Switzerland
- America's Cup winner 2003: Alinghi , SUI-64 (challenger), Switzerland
- America's Cup winner 2000: Black Magic, NZL-60 (defender), New Zealand
- America's Cup winner 1995: Black Magic, NZL-32 (challenger), New Zealand
- America's Cup winner 1992: America³ , USA-23 (defender), United States
Umpire Signaling System (USS)
With the 31st America's Cup in 2007, the umpire signaling system (referee signaling system) was introduced. The system allowed the referees to communicate information to the crews about overlapping boats and about entering the three-boat length circle around the turning marks. For this purpose, a display was installed on board each of the two yachts (defender and challenger), using three LED lights to show the situation as the referees see it.
- Green light: zone entry, this means that the leading yacht has entered the three-length circle around the turning mark.
- Yellow light: Overlap, this means that the bow of the overtaking yacht overlaps the stern of the leading yacht and there is no restriction for the leeward yacht to sail directly to the next turning mark. In Lee Yacht lying may be higher upwind sail the direct path to the next turning mark makes necessary as it (yacht can luff). The yacht lying leeward can force the yacht sailing to windward to turn or luff into the wind.
- White light: Means that the depth of the overlap has increased so that, in accordance with rule 17.1 of the racing rules, the yacht now has to steer a clean course to the next turning mark on the leeward side and is therefore not allowed to luff up and force the yacht overtaking to turn or you can take a higher one Can force course to the next turning mark as necessary.
The regatta rules define which maneuvers are permitted when a yacht is approaching a turning mark and when a boat behind tries to overtake a leading boat. The aim of the USS is to limit cases of doubt and avoid protests because the competitors have different assessments of a situation, in particular about their position to one another and the distance to a turning mark and, based on their assessment, carry out tactical maneuvers that are prohibited by the racing rules.
The system was developed by Pilotfish Networks AB.
The IACC formula
IACC formula:
![{\ displaystyle {\ frac {L + 1.25 \ times {\ sqrt {S}} - 9.8 \ times {\ sqrt [{3}] {DSP}}} {0.686}} \ leq 24,000 \, meters}](https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/48f47894a157354678d278fd916644d0b900c85d)
- DSP: displacement in cubic meters
- L: length in meters
- S: sail area in square meters
Future of the IACC class
Immediately after completing the 32nd America's Cup in 2007, Brad Butterworth officially announced on behalf of the Alinghi team and the America's Cup management that the next America's Cup would be sailing with a new class of boat. They had the feeling that the IACC class was exhausted and wanted a new boat design that would bring larger boats with a larger crew and thereby make it possible to sail more athletically in winds above 30 knots.
The existing IACC class yachts were to continue to be used for qualifying races for the America's Cup.
New AC90 class
The newly presented boat rules no longer set the dimensions with a so-called rating formula in which the individual values depend on one another, but with a box rule in which the specified maximum values must be observed independently of one another.
The new boats should be up to 90 feet (27.43 m) long and be sailed by a crew of 20 people (previously 17). The sail area was increased (mast height 37.9 m, mainsail: 300 m 2 , headsail: 171 m 2 , unlimited spinnaker). Despite their overall larger dimensions, the ships should have an increased width of max. Displacement of 5.3 m (previously 3.5 m) less water (only 23 instead of 24 t); this should enable the boats to accelerate considerably faster. However, the AC-90 class was never used, instead the America's Cup is held on multihulls today.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Original text: Deed of Gift from Wikisource.Retrieved December 29, 2010
- ↑ yacht-online, November 12, 2010 , accessed December 22, 2010.
- ↑ America's Cup Class Rule Version 5.0 (PDF; 0 kB) on the America's Cup web site (English)
- ^ Gregor Henger: The new America's Cup Class - an attractive yacht. Considerably increased acceleration with less water displacement to be expected . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 16, 2007