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Text File | 1992-09-10 | 6KB | 127 lines

                                                                                SPORT, Page 66

Sun, Surf and Software


Long before the starting gun, the megabuck quest for the
America's Cup begins on drawing boards, on computer screens and
in experimental water tanks

By SOPHFRONIA SCOTT/GREGORY -- Reported by James Willwerth/
San Diego


    The scene looks as timeless as one from the Odyssey:
billowing sails, hulls slicing through salt spray, sunburned
crewmen pulling at ropes and squinting into wind. But if the
image is classic, the men competing in the America's Cup final
this week know victory will owe more to expensive high-tech
wizardry than to the art of ancient mariners. "National
technology is at the heart of the competition," says John
Marshall, boatbuilder and head of the Partnership for America's
Cup Technology. "It's been a technology contest since 1851."
That year a newly designed schooner called America launched the
quadrennial challenge by trouncing an entire fleet of 16 British
racing yachts in a course around the Isle of Wight.

    But when the International America's Cup Class Technical
Committee approved a completely new set of specifications for
contending vessels in 1989, technology became more important
than ever as teams scrambled to build a qualifying boat that
would respect the rules and still win races. New technology
doesn't come cheap. The two boats competing in the finals --
America 3 from the U.S. and Il Moro di Venezia from Italy --
have together devoured $160 million in development costs. The
millionaires funding these efforts, American energy entrepreneur
William Koch and Italian businessman Raul Gardini, are hoping
their largesse will pay off in the best-of-seven finals that
began last weekend.

    Under the new guidelines, boats must be 30% lighter and
have 40% more sail area and hulls 20% longer than the former
12-m (13.1-yd.) boats. The boats may mix sail size, hull size
and weight in any way they choose so long as, according to a
complicated mathematical formula, the numbers add up to 42,000
m (45,900 yds.). From an infinite number of combinations, the
boat designers try to find the best mix -- with the help of
computers, water tanks and wind tunnels. Their efforts focus on
three key areas:

    SAILS

    Special computer programs can identify stress points in
the sail. "We can actually fly a sail in the computer in a
scenario comparable to the winds off San Diego," says Tom
Whidden, a longtime Stars & Stripes crew member who runs North
Sail, one of the world's largest sailmaking firms. Space-age
materials developed in the 1980s have replaced canvas because
they are much lighter and allow the sail to stretch less with
the wind. The latest sails include laminated polymers and woven
fibers that offer greater strength and can maintain sail shape
better in all directions, making the sail more able to adjust
to wind changes. America 3's technical director, Heiner Meldner,
a physicist who once designed nuclear weapons, says his sails
are a composite of fibers, including carbon and liquid-crystal
polymers. The Italians use a woven carbon-and-Kevlar fiber
glued to a Mylar backing.

    HULLS

    Much of the research on hull design is done with model
boats in water tanks. Computers can monitor the various ways in
which the boat interacts with the water and help designers build
prototypes based on the results. The Italians ran scores of
tests in a 400-m (437-yd.) tank to fashion the Venezia's hull.
America 3's designers did their research at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Stanford University to come up with
a longer, narrow-bowed hull, meant to slice through the choppy
seas expected at San Diego.

    APPENDAGES

    Keels, fins and rudders require more complicated tests.
With the help of companies such as Boeing and Digital,
designers perform wind-tunnel experiments using special computer
codes that help show lift and drag forces on the keel. Shapes
of keels now vary widely, from the basic lead-filled bulb at the
end of a fin to the hydrodynamic "winged" keel, a Y-shaped
structure that has less underwater drag and more lift. The
latest design: a tandem keel that combines the rudder and keel
fin and eliminates the need for a separate rudder. Developed in
shipyards with great secrecy, new keels are covered by
underwater shields and guarded from the incursions of enemy
frogmen.

    Once all these features come together in the form of a
full-size boat, the designer's job is just beginning. Prototypes
are built, tested, stripped down and used to build better
prototypes. Even the finished model is never left alone. Both
the Venezia and the America 3 were overhauled yet again before
the finals began. The U.S. boat's keel, fin and rudder were
removed and adjusted for the calmer weather that has been
prevailing around San Diego. "We recognized that we were a bit
susceptible in those conditions," says Phil Kaiko, one of the
boat's designers. "We've decided to slant ourselves in that
direction."

    Even after the boats are rebuilt and on the water,
technology remains the key to victory. Once the race is under
way, the sailors will use global position systems to help track
their course, and sensors to measure velocity. Onboard computers
will supply a steady stream of data on boat performance, wind
and sea conditions and other information to aid the crew in
trimming, tacking and changing sail directions.

    Some saltwater romantics complain that all the emphasis on
technology has diminished the role of good old-fashioned
seamanship. To which America 3's skipper Koch replies, "Sailing
skill is fine, but you can't do something with a boat that won't
do it." In the world of America's Cup racing, it seems, you get
what you pay for.