Inside an America's Cup team: Alinghi's sailmakers

We continue our "Inside an America's Cup team" section by visiting once again the base of the Defender of the America's Cup, Alinghi, where Brendan Simon gives us an inside view on the team's sailmakers. Being the "engines" of the racing yacht, sails play a primordial role in the whole campaign and Alinghi spends a considerable amount of resources researching, developing and testing them. In today's article we learn what happens after the sails arrive at the teambase in Valencia.

Note: All highlighted words refer to terms that are further explained. Just pass your mouse over them and a brief explanation and/or photo will pop up.

Alinghi's sails

A typical America's Cup configuration consists of three sails, the mainsail, the genoa and the spinnaker, just like most large racing and cruising yachts. Nevertheless, most similarities end here. If one thinks of car racing, a Ferrari F1 car has 4 wheels and an internal combustion engine like any other car sold around the world but is a world apart in technology.

In sailing's most competitive race sails are also a world apart from what is used in other boats, even in high-level professional racing. Alinghi and most America's Cup teams use the latest 3DL sails from Northsails.

A sail might look flat when lying on the floor but once it's hoisted, it becomes a three-dimensional, curved surface. As a result a big breakthrough was to build a sail that was already three-dimensional before being hoisted and that was the great innovation of 3DL. A curved mold is designed and created in the optimum (three dimensional) shape of the sail that the sailmaker wants to produce. A film of MylarMylar is a polyester film made by the American chemical group Du Pont. Due to its unique combination of physical, chemical, thermal, and optical properties it has a broad array of applications
Click for more info is placed on the mold and a special gantry hovers over the film laying the yarns based on instructions of a computer that has the model of the sail. The fiber head "draws" a pattern in yarn that matches anticipated loads in the sail. Once this is done, a second sheet of Mylar film is placed on top and the whole mold (with the sail) is placed inside carbon element heat "blanket" which causes the materials to bond (curing). The result is a smooth sail which is lighter and has a wider effective wind range (the minimum and maximum wind speed that the sail can withstand and be effective).

A typical mainsail weighs approximately 100kg and its surface is close to 220m2. The genoa is almost half the weight (45kg to 55kg) and 125m2. Finally, downwind spinnakers are twice as big, close to 500m2 but weigh just a fraction, 27kg to 35kg. Unlike mainsails and genoas, spinnakers are made of lightweight polyester.

When sails leave the Nothsails factory in Nevada and are shipped to Valencia, they cannot be used for sailing upon their arrival at the teambase. Teams receive what is called a "blank" sail that needs to be further processed by sailmakers before it's ready to join the battle. A mainsail needs a total of about 5 days to be ready for sailing after it arrives at the Alinghi base. First it is prepared by sailmakers during 2 or 3 days and then is sent to have all the team and sponsor logos stamped on it, a task requiring a further 2 days. On the other hand, a genoa needs around 9 hours and 2-3 people to be prepared for sailing.

An America's Cup team never stops developing their sails and as a result they might use hundreds of them by the end of the competition. Since boat design is also a non-stop development process it might happen that when new sails arrive at the base they cannot keep up the pace with rig development or changes. They are not thrown away but they are tested till newer sails arrive made for the new rigging configuration.

The useful life of a mainsail can be quite long and according to Simons, Alinghi still uses mainsails from the previous America's Cup. On the other hand genoas last considerably less. In general the lifecycle of a sail begins in a race, then is used for in-house two-boat training and ends up as a test tool.

Typical upwind sail configuration of Alinghi in a racing day. Here SUI-75 is maneuvering during the prestart period of the last race of Louis Vuitton Act 11. Valencia, 21 May 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

The sailmaker’s job

Alinghi has a total of 7 people working at the sail loft. The first job of the sailmakers every morning when they arrive at the base is to check the sails, if they hadn't been checked the night before. This consists of examining whether they have been damaged, whether the battens have been broken but it usually consists of just refolding them better so that they have a longer life. The most important morning task is to prepare the sails and have them ready for the sailing team.

There are no rules that limit the number of sails an America's Cup yacht can carry during official races but this number is conditioned by the total weight limit. Obviously, a balance is sought between weight and possible needs of the team. As a result, usually a yacht would carry 1 mainsail, 3-4 genoas and 3-4 spinnakers, or around 500kg of sails. During official racing a tender boat carries around 50 sails but this also is a function of who Alinghi races against. According to Simons, if Alinghi races against a team at the bottom of the leaderboard then it's not necessary to carry all these sails. Newer sails can be left ashore and Alinghi's yacht can rely on older and tested sails.

After sails are prepared, they are loaded on the racing yacht and the tender boats, according to the program set up in the morning briefing. When not in official racing, the type of sails will depend on weather conditions and the team's schedule, whether it's training, testing or a combination of both. Finally, sailmakers prepare all material needed for the race or training session and help the rigging team.

After the yachts return ashore sailmakers have a lot of work to do. As we said earlier, they check and inspect all the sails. In continuation, spinnakers go to the "hairdresser". Because of their material, they have the tendency to retain sea water and must be washed and dried. They hang from the sail loft's ceiling, a system of sprinklers washes them with fresh water and then heaters and fans dry them. A system at the roof recycles the air so that moisture goes out and fresh air comes in. There is no need for mainsails and genoas to be mechanically dried in an ordinary training day because they dry considerably fast. Nevertheless, in an official racing day all sails with no exception are mechanically dried.

If no problems have been encountered, sails are then neatly folded and packed inside the sail loft, ready for the following morning. Nevertheless, since we are not in a perfect world accidents do happen and sails can be torn, although this is not frequent. When the mainsail and genoa are torn, a special adhesive called Ultra Bond is used in order to repair the damages. It is impossible to sew these sails as the needle would perforate through the Mylar film and damage it. On the other hand, spinnakers are repaired with a traditional sewing machine and a double-sided tape. In both cases, this sometimes translates into long nights and lots of coffee before they are ready for another day at the base.

Differences between Valencia and Auckland

Since Simons is a New Zealander and held the same position in Alinghi in the 31st America's Cup in Auckland, we asked him to compare the two editions from a sailmaker's point of view, in all aspects, whether they concerned technological evolution or the venue.

According to him, the biggest improvements took place in the shape of the sails. The change in rule that allowed the use of battens in genoas was in his view a step that resulted in bigger sails. In Auckland battens were allowed only in the mainsail but prohibited in genoas. Alinghi, in their effort to make genoas rounder at the top, found a way around by putting the battens "outside" of the sail through the use of batwings at the spreaders. Obviously other advances took place in the last 4 years in sail technology but for Alinghi's sailmaker the biggest change was in rules.

After three years of regattas here in Valencia it is common knowledge now that winds are lighter than Auckland. Sail designers and sailmakers have now to face winds in the range from 8 to 12 knots while in Auckland they were predominantly from 15 to 20. Neverhteless, this is not a drawback, on the contrary it makes it easier to refine the sails and focus on a much tighter range. This in turn permits the development of more sails per code (category of sails according to wind strength) while keeping the total equal or even increasing it. For example in the 31st America's Cup, Alinghi used a total of approximately 250 sails for the whole campaign while this time, according to Simons, this number could reach 300. Not only does the total number of sails increase by around 20%, Alinghi can finetune their sails even further by focusing on a narrower range of alternatives.

Alinghi's sails during Louis Vuitton Act 10. The battens in the genoa are clearly visible at the top of the sail. Valencia, 13 May 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Emirates Team New Zealand's sails during Louis Vuitton Act 11. Valencia, 21 May 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Typical downwind sail configuration of one of the newest America's Cup yachts, ITA-90 of Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team. Valencia, 02 October 2006. Photo copyright Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team

We will have to wait till April 2007 to see al these sails together. Here the whole America's Cup fleet, except China Team, are at the start line of the last race of Louis Vuitton Act 11. Valencia, 21 May 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing