KEY POINTS:
When USA87 was launched last March, BMW Oracle Racing skipper Chris Dickson described it as the most innovative America's Cup class yacht ever built. Since then the syndicate's second boat, USA98, has been launched. It is similar to Team New Zealand's yachts and there have been rumours of a chainsaw massacre in Valencia on USA87. The American syndicate has always said its strategy was to design two different boats. But was USA87 a botch-up or a testing platform? Julie Ash asked design co-ordinator Ian Burns about his team's greater plan.
Why did you decide to design two different yachts?
"The last cup and the pre-regattas posed some interesting design challenges. It's always been interesting for the design team to explore manoeuvrability and balance and USA87 explored a lot of these areas. It has always been our plan to encapsulate the lessons from our first boat into our second boat and make sure that all we have learned in 2006 is represented in both boats."
Have many syndicates used the strategy in the past?
"America Cubed 1992, Dennis Conner 1987, Team NZ in 1995, Alinghi in 2003. It's been a common strategy for winning the America's Cup in the past."
Did you design one boat and then the second, or did you let your two notable designers Bruce Farr and Juan Kouyoumdjian have a crack at a yacht each?
"They worked closely together on both boats. The first boat was a chance to answer a lot of questions that can't be answered in experiments, only full size - manoeuvrability, acceleration, and so on. Our second boat includes the good aspects of 87 plus additional research of numerous tank tests and computer simulations."
Is it easy to continue developing two very different yachts?
"Yes, it's the best way to try things and move on. Practising with two different boats is like the real racing - we can try advantages and disadvantages in all areas with our boats and get the crew's heads around how we counteract or leverage any situation. Each yacht appreciates different things - masts, sail shapes, appendages. It does take a deep team that can put two boats on the water simultaneously and come back with different but correct conclusions. This is the challenge."
What was the design concept for USA87?
"USA87 explored a lot of areas, not so much in wind speed, but in handling and match racing. USA98 combines this with the straight-line speed that was more the focus now we know the venue, wind speed and sea state."
Did USA87 live up to your expectations?
"Innovation only comes when you try all the possible alternatives and you are prepared to take some risks. In some areas, 87 exceeded expectations. In other areas, it took a long time to get her to maximum performance. We learned a lot from the boat - but it took longer than we had hoped."
It has been suggested that you have done extensive modifications to USA87, moving it into the same design corner as USA98?
"The ongoing refinement of 87 has always been a major part of our plan to ensure that the 2007 version of 87 is as fast or faster than our opposition."
If the extensive modifications are true, it implies you weren't happy with 87 - or you figured out 98 is fast and you had to modify 87 to keep up?
"87 did a lot of winning in 2006, including Act 10. It's unlikely that, unchanged, she would still be good enough to win this year. USA87's design was locked in by July 2005. We've come a long way since then. It's crazy to think your design from 2005 would be fast enough to win against designs from the end of 2006."
With little separating the top boats last year, weren't you tempted to develop 87?
"One of the great things we have seen this time is the advent of computational tools that can predict the performance of boats with a high level of accuracy and confidence. We looked at our opposition and the strengths of 87 and made sure we had combined what we needed to get through the challenger series and be capable of winning the cup.
"With race modelling, we can run thousands of simulations of different breezes and opponents to figure out exactly what characteristics you need to beat a team. We had to make some educated guesses on what our opposition would turn up with ... but we haven't seen any surprises yet."
USA98 is similar to the Team NZ boats - are you worried that you are behind them now?
"Team NZ was the top boat last year but not by much. We are pretty happy with where we are and where they have stayed. They set a pretty high level last year and we hope to reach it and pass it."
It has been suggested that 98 was constructed differently from 87. A construction technique, created by Paul Bieker, that has never been tried before in a boat this large. Is this true and can you elaborate?
"I have never seen anything quite like the building process that was used on 98. It led to big gains in strength, stiffness and weight. I can't elaborate on the actual process, but when you put designer Paul Bieker together with builders Mark Turner, Tim Smyth and Mark Somerville and give them access to the aerospace resources in Seattle, you can count on reaching a new level."
