100 footers for 2009-10

Grant Simmer talks to thedailysail about his vision for the next America's Cup Class boat

Alinghi General Manager Grant Simmer has returned to Newport, Rhode Island for the UBS Trophy, 21 years after winning the America's Cup off the New York Yacht Club when he was navigator on board Alan Bond's Australia II.

Simmer's involvement with the America's Cup has spanned the intervening years and seen the change from 12metre yachts to the present America's Cup Class designs.

"On a 12m, the target speed upwind would have been 8 or 8.1 knots if you were really going 8.2," he says. "Now we go about 10.4 upwind and downwind we are just miles faster, because we are longer with masses more sail area. Downwind these are much more of a handful and much more exciting to sail whereas 12m just laboured along downwind digging a big hole in the water, because they were heavy and short. In Perth the 12ms were exciting, because they were physical boats to sail and they were submarining along, but it was time for a change."

Prior to writing the Protocol for the 32nd America's Cup there has been wide discussion in the Alinghi camp about an outright change of boat for 2007. "As the defender we had that option, but we chose collectively to maintain value in this fleet of boats," says Simmer. But once the Cup in Valencia is done and dusted, then it is will be time for a more fundamental change in vessel, he believes.

"I think the new Cup for 2009/2010 we need a new class, because the America’s Cup Class, the technology we are allowed is behind say the technology used in the maxZ86s. We did consider it for this time but collectively we made a decision to make use of the existing fleet and supe it up as best we could. It has been well publicised that Russell, since he’s won the Cup three times in these boats, he wanted to have a whole new thing."

Simmer believes that the new boat will have some sort of canting keel arrangement but powering this might be different. With most present arrangement it is necessary to have the engine on in order to drive a hydraulic pump that operates the keel.

"One of the attractions of sailing and the America’s Cup is that environmentally it is a clean sport. That is something that attracts sponsors, so we see a diesel engine revving at the top of its life every time we tack, and there’s black smoke coming out of the back of the boat - that is not really the image we want for the America’s Cup. Now there are some alternatives with engines and engine technology is improving pretty fast and I think that by the next Cup there will be alternative power sources we could have on the boats." By this Simmer is referring to new type of battery power or fuel cell technology.

Aside from the canting keel Simmer reckons the new boat should have a lighter displacement and be around 100ft long or at the limit of the technology crews can manage the boats with.

"The other thing about the America’s Cup is that the boat has to look big. People have to look at it and go ‘wow, that looks fantastic’. We’ve seen it here the last couple of days. It is interesting to hear people on spectators boats. But another three years passes and I think it will be time for a change.

What about cost? "The reality is that the cost of the boats in the budget is not huge, the cost is in the development and the people for our budgets. It means that we retire a fleet of boats." At present 82 ACC boats exist. By the end of 2007 this figures is expected to exceed 100.

"The other thing about this next Cup is that the rule is designed to bring the boats closer together. Introducing a new boat means that you have many more variations in the first cycle. If you look at the America’s Cup boats in 1992, the first time we’d raced under this rule, they were wildly different in performance, then as the rule matures the boats get closer and closer together and you get closer and closer racing."

"So it is a comprise of close racing and maintaining the image of the America’s Cup being in the front of yachting technology. I personally think we need to be thinking about a new class of boat, and I would like during this cycle to get agreement of all the competitors, that if they win this is the type of boat we’ve all mutually agreed that we’d like to move toward.

While Simmer's present role within Alinghi is General Manager he is still design co-ordinator as well. "I am able to continue that role mainly because we have a strong design team. We have some quite senior guys in the design team with Rolf Vrolijk and Dirk Kramers, so all I have to do is to co-ordinate the activities and make sure that people are focussed on things that are going to make our boat go faster and watch out for pet projects, and all the time keep on applying the resources where they are going to make the most gains."

So what changes are we likely to see with the 2007 generation boats? "I don’t think you’ll see radical differences. We think it will be by doing everything better: better sails, better masts, better mast-sail combinations, small gains in the appendages. Last time we saw bigger improvements in the hull form than we expected. We didn’t think there’d be big gains in the hull form, but we thought we made a significant jump there. The next time I think it will be less so."

Differences between the boats are also likely to be less significant simply because the latest iteration of the ACC rule forces the design of the boats into an even tighter box. "The reality was last time that all the boats had about the same length, the same weight, the same sail area, so now with the new rule it is telling a new competitor – okay I’ve got to be in this little space and really they can only play with hull shape, appendages shape and mast and sails. There’s still plenty to be done."