Alinghi Red Bull Racing BoatOne enters the water in Barcelona

The AC75, or America’s Cup 75 (after its 75-foot length), is a class of racing yacht built only for the competition, in accordance with specific Cup protocols that provide a level playing ground -- hence the comparison to Formula 1. And just as the only thing a Formula 1 vehicle has in common with a normal car is four wheels, the carbon fiber-bodied AC75 is unlike a normal sail boat. Audiences fell in love with them during the 36th America's Cup in 2021, so organizers brought them back again this time and also for the 38th edition.

These sea racing machines are designed to fly rather than float. The secret weapons are the four-meter-high foils on either side that enable the flat-bottomed, keel-less AC75 to skim over the top of the water eliminating drag and thereby increasing speed. At their fastest, they can reach 55 knots, or 105 kilometers per hour, compared to around 20 knots for a cruise ship.

The basic rules governing dimensions, weight, mast, rigging and hydraulics are uniform for all, but designers have a free hand everywhere else. The AC75s for this race will be lighter than last time because the number of crew has been reduced from 11 to 8. Crews can include cyclors, or cyclists powering stationary bikes to generate power needed for the boat’s controls, an innovation that was key to Emirates Team New Zealand’s victory in 2017 but were banned for the last edition of the race. Traditionally, this power was provided by the arms of the grinders on the crew.

The Alinghi team of 30 boat builders led by Principal Designer Marcelino Botin plus seven people at the production facility poured 60,000 hours over 11 months into design and testing BoatOne to make it as close to perfect as possible. It’s still too soon to say how the AC75s five Challengers (INEOS Britannia, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, NYYC American Magic, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Orient Express Racing Team) and the Defender (Emirates Team New Zealand) AC75s will stack up. What was clear from BoatOne’s debut was that with no backstay sails at the rear of the boat allowed for the second-generation AC75s, structure and weight in the transom area can be greatly reduced. The BoatOne’s tall cockpit walls round at back and stop sharply well before the transom, meaning that the crew will be concentrated near the foils.