PRO - An ACC keel bulb weighs in at 25 tons, by elongating NZL-82 keel bulb to 20 feet with a 'flattened' base, the Kiwi's have a lower center of gravity for upwind sailing.

CON In rough sea conditions the Alinghi crew could be seen grouped in the cockpit - vertically above the short SUI-64 bulb [on left], to minimize boat 'hobby horsing'.

NZL-82 with its 20 ft long keel had at least 5ft of keel bulb more than Alinghi forward, each foot of which weighed around one ton - with 5 tonnes of fixed weight forward, there was no point in grouping the TNZ crew at the center of the boat.

Comments from an Alinghi spokesman at unveiling February 13 of NZL-82 and SUI-64: "We were surprised with some of the appendages that on NZL-82, it wasn't what we were expecting to see. Firstly the hull's themselves are very different, NZL-82 is a much wider boat than SUI-64 and it has the much publicized appendage on the aft part of the hull which they call the hula. Alinghi is tailored for match racing, for maneuverability, for tacking, NZL-82 has a very long bulb, much longer than we expected. The advantage of that is to give them more righting moment upwind and less cross-sectional drag, less frontal area but a lot more wetted surface. It is also bad for maneuvrability".

However on the race course, Race Two at the last weather mark rounding, both boats had thrown in 33 tacks and Team New Zealand had gained 8 seconds in the tacking duel on that windward leg and at the weather mark led by 26 seconds. NZL-82's Maneuvrability in a tacking duel was better than Alinghi's, but if there was any one race, it was this race that should have shown the hula to have been a design breakthrough.

Choosing to perform a bear away set may have cost them the race as Alinghi opted for a gybe set. Team New Zealand were quick to respond and gybed over onto starboard but as the pair sailed downwind, Alinghi to weather, managed get the puffs first, sailing deeper at the same speed and soaking down to Team New Zealand despite NZL-82's hula. What followed next was one of the closest finishes of the series, as Coutts' team fought to break through. Initially, Barker managed to hold Alinghi off, carrying the Swiss team out to and beyond the port gybe lay line. But after the gybe, Alinghi managed to drive over the top of NZL-82 to win Race 2, by seven seconds.

Predicting the Unpredictable What will the wind speed be during the race? Nobody wants excessive, heavy sails weighing their boat down for no reason but neither do they want to be caught short. This question requires an answer before the boat leaves the dock and again just before the race, so that unwanted sails can be off loaded to a tender.

From where will the wind blow during the race, how will it shift? Should the boat favour the left side of the course for the first beat, or the right, and what side for the legs that follow?

Hauraki Gulf is compared to sailing on a lake - there are no headlands but land surrounds the race course on three sides. South-west flow produces the greatest variation, wind coming across the Tasman Sea, over the narrow neck of land to the north of Auckland and into the Hauraki Gulf. In this direction land affects wind flow every time.

In seabreeeze conditions, strange things can happen. Because the North Island is so narrow to the west of Hauraki Gulf, seabreezes tend to come from the east and west, converging over Auckland as a thin line of showers. Typically, west coast seabreezes are stronger, but may not reach the race course until 4-6pm, as they tend to get trapped around Auckland Harbour.

While the ACC boats themselves [only!] cost US$1-$2 million each, forecasting the wind pressure that is the engine that powers them on the Hauraki Gulf, takes an estimated 20% of Budget - estimated to be US$24 million for Alinghi.

The Alinghi Weather team was headed by Jon Bilger, the team of 8 in 8 weather boats took to the water after a morning briefing to the sailing team. The 8 weather boats head out to the Hauraki Gulf, station themselves at various points on the course and relay information to the SUI-64 up to five minutes before the start. At the preparatory signal, the flow of information stops and decisions relating to wind and weather become the sole responsibility of the afterguard.

The Alinghi weather team used: SODAR [Sound Detection and Ranging Radar] can measure the speed and distance of particles in the wind that carries them, as can LIDAR [Light Detection & Ranging Radar] and Doppler Wind Lidar [DWL], both use a Laser beam [in place of radio waves] to measure speed.

Team New Zealand, it is estimated spent US$8 million on their weather team, increasing the number of weather boats from six to eight for the Cup series. It is not known if they had SODAR, LIDAR or DWL.

Photo Credits
Team New Zealand Keel:  Max Ranchi [www.maxranchi.com]
Alinghi Keel:           Team Alinghi
Hauraki Gulf Chart:     Louis Vuitton Cup
Alinghi downwind:       Max Ranchi [www.maxranchi.com]
Team New Zealand Hula:  Max Ranchi [www.maxranchi.com]