Friday evening’s big reveal of The Red Bull Racing Team’s “Boat One” was a doozy. At the team’s base in Barcelona, a large digital stopwatch counted down. The shed opened, and BoatOne emerged, shrouded in fog. The event was in anticipation of the upcoming 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup sailing race.
As the fog cleared, a troupe of no less than 70 of Catalan’s La Fura Dels Baus high-performance public theatre artists, dressed in black batwing suits, took their places on vertical lines. As the lines raised them upward, they formed a human sail hovering above the hull, creating a dramatic image that fired up the crowd in anticipation of a win in Barcelona this October.
The AC75 yacht was the first of the six America’s Cup teams to put their vessel on display. Built in-house and delivered to the shed at the team base in Barcelona, the AC75 vessel made its splashy debut for special guests, friends, team members, and local Barcelona dignitaries. Next comes the final preparation for the christening, followed by BoatOne’s Port Vell launch.
The Boat And The AC75 Class Rule
Strict one-design elements like mast, rigging, and cant hydraulics are uniform, but design scope pretty much everywhere else is wide open. Version 2 of the AC75 rule calls for larger foils designed to encourage quicker lift and faster flight.
Overall, the boats will be lighter, including lightening the load of the teams themselves by reducing the number of members down to 8 from 11. Cycle power, introduced by Emirates Team New Zealand in 2017, will again allowed.
Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne Power Group “cyclors,” who will generate power for sail trimming, were chosen from a mix of backgrounds: sailing, cycling, rowing, or running. Their “bike, recover, eat, sleep, repeat” schedule builds strength and endurance through long, arduous rides in the mountains like those around Girona, Palma, Alicante, and Austria.
Teams are also only allowed to build one AC75 for this race, keeping cost less of a factor as a way of attracting new entries. The design race was full on as soon as the rules were written. Every team has tweaked their boat until it is as close to perfect as humanly possible. Teams are looking at average 12-knot summer winds in Barcelona, with an expected boat speed response close to 50 knots from the AC75s.
BoatOne made its way out of the shed on Lake Geneva in Switzerland in February of 2024, with builders applying their signatures to the cover of the carefully wrapped craft, officially signing off. Traveling by truck through France to Barcelona, the shore team was ready to add their signatures to the cover, accepting the delivery.
Lead Boat Builder Simon Bovay commented, “This boat is incredible. The evolution between the 2003 winning boat SUI64 and now this flying machine makes you want to build!” Talking about being inside the boat and the complexity of it, Bovay noted, “It is one of the most intricate boats that could have been built.”
BoatOne Stats
The hull length is 20.7 meters with a beam of 5 meters and a dock draft of 5 meters. The mast measures 26.5 meters high with a headsail under 90 square meters, and a double skin mainsail under 145 square meters. Sailed by a crew of eight weighing no more than 700 kg total, the speed record is currently listed at 53.3 knots.
And, Just For Fun …
Team Alinghi was asked what Switzerland is best known for. Chocolate was by far the most popular response, but cheese, mountains, and watches weren’t far behind. Of course, winning the America’s Cup was also very high on the list, with team members citing Swiss precision, technology, passion, hard work ethics, and professionalism. Expressed in the simplest of terms, one team member stated, “We like to win!” Ring that bell, Team Alinghi. Ring that bell.