Surprisingly unpredictable - Part 2

Rolf Vrolijk and Dirk Kramers, Alinghi's principal designer and chief engineer, question the future of the America's Cup Class

Rolf Vrolijk: Since Laurie Davidson and Doug Peterson first showed the way with their long and narrow family of NZL 32 and 38 it would be easy to think that we have all been working in the same tight corner of the design box, but there have continued to be important developments. You can go from generation to generation and say, well, this team figured the beam out better and another worked out the sails and masts configurations better. There have been developments such as the 'millennium' rig of Team New Zealand in 2000, plus all sorts of smaller things that have had an influence on the next generation of boats. Nevertheless, from 1995 onwards, and in spite of some radical experiments it has been the 'package' that has dominated results rather than any one individual performance breakthrough.

The longer the rule — any rule — exists, the more people want to find the loopholes and the more the rulemakers will close them off. It is a cycle and the only way to break the cycle is to change the rule.

This was one of the major reasons why in this latest cycle the decision was taken to cut out all the parametric design options because you wouldn't get a better competition if you kept them in. Leaving in the larger options adds a lot to the costs, especially for the newer 'younger' teams, making it quite complicated for them to know where to position their boats within the rule. The result of this decision is that you are now seeing very small performance differences in Valencia... at least on paper.

Sure, you see on-the-water differences, but that is nothing to do with the actual design of the boats or the appendages and sails — that has more to do with the whole package. This is what creates the big differences...

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