Inside an America's Cup team: The boatbuilders

Our new installment of the "Inside an America's Cup team" takes us to Shosholoza, the first ever South African challenger. Boatbuilder Jonathan Lees will explain the important role of this part of the team's shore crew. One can think of boatbuilders as the "mechanics" of an America's Cup team. Their main tasks are to keep the boat sailing and carry out all necessary repairs as well as optimization work.

The boatbuilder's job during the day

Boat builders are the first to arrive at the base before anybody else, at around 7:30 in the morning. Their first task is to finish all urgent jobs that started the night before. Then at around 10:30 boatbuilders assist in the launch of the boat, although there is a dedicated boat-launching team that forms part of the shore crew. Once in the water, they also assist in loading it and at around 12pm the boat sails off to a day of training or racing.

Depending on whether it's an official racing day or an ordinary training day, the schedule of the boatbuilders will vary. In an ordinary training day, boatbuilders will return to their shed and start working towards their objectives. Ocasionally, when there is a new piece of equipment tested, one boatbuilder will be aboard the yacht and go down inside her hull for checks but this is not very frequent.

Once the racing yacht is in the water sailing, boatbuilders will focus on the various projects they have and there is always a considerable number of them, such as building a new piece, making spare parts or repairing things that broke. Almost all parts of the boat can be repaired in-house by Shosholoza's crew, including spinnaker poles and booms, although it is not frequent to have such large repairs. An America's Cup team will normally have 3 to 6 spinnaker poles and 3 of them will be broken. Once they are repaired their resistance increases significantly because boatbuilders will reinforce the area prone to damages. Booms also do break but it is much rarer and Shosholoza hasn't suffered such an incident in Valencia because of the lighter wind conditions. On the contrary, in the fall of 2005 Shosholoza suffered a broken boom aboard RSA-83 during Louis Vuitton Act 6 in Malmö, Sweden.

Still, small damages could cause serious problems and are never left unrepaired. No matter how small or insignificant a damage might appear, the very small tolerance of these high-tech racing yachts might result in ugly surprises. Any delaminationDelamination is a mode of failure of laminated composite materials. Repeated cyclic stresses, impact etc. can cause layers to separate, with significant loss of mechanical toughness. Delamination is an insidious kind of failure as it develops inside of the material, without being obvious on the surface. must be immediately spotted and repaired.

In all repairs, the main objective of the boatbuilding team is to keep the boat sailing. No sailing day can be wasted. That means that if the full repair of the damage can be done overnight then it is carried out. If on the other hand they assess the repair would take longer they apply a temporary repair and wait for an opportuntiy to do the job properly, for example on weekends that the team doesn't sail or when the mast is taken out. Finally, another important task according to Lees is stock control. When the boat is out sailing the boatbuilding team has to make sure there are enough consumables, enough raw materials and that all equipment and machines work properly in order to be able to face an important repair job after the boat returns, if needed.

During a racing day boatbuilders don't usually work when the boat is racing but relax and get prepared for the very important tasks that await them when the yacht returns to the base. The probabilities for a long and hard-working night are far greater during racing as no team has the luxury to do only quick temporary repairs. If necessary, boatbuilders won't sleep at all in order to have the boat ready for racing the next morning.

Shosholoza's RSA-83 before the start of the last race of Louis Vuitton Act 12. Valencia, 02 July 2006. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

The boatbuilder's important tasks after the boat returns

Whether it's after an official race or an ordinary training session, the America's Cup yacht will return to the teambase at around 6pm in summer, one hour earlier in winter. After the yacht docks in, they help the shore crew bring it out and then go through an exhaustive check of the whole yacht.

The boat captain presents a list of all the things that happened to the boat during sailing and the changes or additions he thinks should be made. If there is anything broken, he had already informed the shore crew by radio on their way to the base in order to be ready and not waste any precious time. The boatbuilders and the shore crew will then discuss the list they were given and decide about priorities, time schedule and job allocation.

Independently of the aforementioned list, Lees will perform a full-boat check that takes about one hour. This consists of visual check, where his expert eyes will look for any suspicious signs, and a delamination tapping test. When asked about the devices used in the delamination test, Lees jokingly showed his "secret" tool, a 10cm-long screw with which he taps the whole yacht! According to him, it is very reliable and his expert ears can easily interpret the different sounds when he taps the yacht's different parts. Solid composite has bright sound, while delaminated parts sound dull. It is also a very helpful tool, especially down below in the dark parts of the hull. He puts special emphasis on all the high-load areas of the boats, such as joints, and starts repairs immediately if the slightest sign of delamination is encountered.

If no major repairs are needed, the boatbuilders and the shore crew will put the boat "to bed". She will be sealed as much as possible and then the dehumidifiers will start working all night long, taking humidity out and pumping dry air in. There is also a heater incorporated so that incoming air is heated, speeding up the evaporation process. This process is necessary since fibers are porous and if the boat is left soaking wet, water will infiltrate the fibers.

If minor damages have been encountered, one person would be enough to carry out the repair work. If damages are more significant both boatbuilders would stay at the base and sometimes aided by a third person. The worst day for Shosholoza's boatbuilders so far took place in Louis Vuitton Act 6 in Malmö, Sweden when they had to rebuild a boom. They started working right after the end of the races till 9am the next morning when the boom was finally fitted on the yacht.

Feedback to designers

One should not think that boatbuilders are simple manual workers that just fix things. According to Lees, boatbuilders spend considerable time with designers discussing how things can be optimized, changed or improved. Usually, this takes place in three-way meetings between sailors, designers and boatbuilders where everybody give their feedback. A designer could for example propose a new idea or a sailor might present a change on the boat and boatbuilders would then give their feedback. Something could be impractical to build, too heavy or even the gain would be too fractional. They are involved with most decisions concerning boat optimization since at the end of the day they are the ones that will implement them.

In a similar fashion, boatbuilders can present their own ideas about imrovements and designers and sailors would give their opinion. Since they are in charge of all construction, they provide two very important pieces of information, time schedule and cost estimates. A designer might have an excellent idea on paper but it could take weeks or months to implement and cost an amount that exceeds the allocated budget. Designers work with computers and 3D images and sometimes something that appears to be perfectly fitting in a corner inside the hull might be impossible to actually put there or could necessitate long and costly modifications. As a result, designers always seek the expert opinion of boatbuilders before carrying on with any design change.

Shosholoza's RSA-83, the first America's Cup yacht to be built under Version 5 of the America's Cup Class rule. Here she is put in Valencia's water for the first time. Valencia, 19 May 2005. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

Differences between Auckland and Valencia for a boatbuilder

Lees was also a boatbuilder for GBR Challenge, the UK Challenger in the 31st America's Cup. Given his previous experienced, we asked hit to compare the venues of the 31st and 32nd editions from a boatbuilder's point of view. Even if the reasons might sound trivial, New Zealand and Auckland in particular presented a great advantage for a boatbuilder, according to Lees. The city is the epicenter of a very strong boat construction industry and tradition. As a result, most, if not all, consumables and equipment could be easily bought from the local supplier and it was very easy to purchase all the products the team required. One should not forget that Cookson Boats is located in Auckland and it is a great advantage being based close to the boatyard that built leading America's Cup and TP52 yachts. On the other hand, in Valencia the boatbuilding industry is still in an infant state and quite often it is necessary to plan well in advance. Materials are not always available on the spot and have to be ordered, often from a foreign country, resulting in long delays. The boatbuilder has to be much more organized and see much further ahead into the future in order to avoid a disastrous situation when materials for an urgent job care not be readily available.

The advantage Valencia presents over Auckland for a boatbuilder is exactly the same that makes millions of tourists flock to the region. Warm, sunny, dry and very predictable weather. In Auckland one would never know when it was going to rain and this caused delays in boat repairs. When the team carried out a bow repair it could encounter problems when it started raining overnight, which it frequently did. Since the bow of the yacht stays out of the shed, rainy weather was a logistical headache for boatbuilders. On the other hand, it rarely rains in Valencia during summer and the team can work on any repairs without delays. Sometimes relative humidity in Valencia can be higher that Auckland but this is totally controlable by the shore crew.