America's Cup: Alinghi 5's "point of no return"

Bow team members scurry among the trampoline and centreline beam as they work the "bow" on Alinghi 5. Image copyright George Johns / Alinghi.

by Alinghi media

For Alinghi's bow team, running the pointy end of a Version 5.0 America's Cup Class sloop was second nature. The conditions were challenging – an always wet, narrow deck constantly heeling at 20 degrees (by design) – but the sailors’ vast experience gave them the confidence to do the job with their eyes closed.

On Alinghi 5, the Swiss team’s 90-foot catamaran, the task of running the pointy end takes on a whole new dimension. There’s no “bow” to speak of, at least not in the monohull sense. On Alinghi 5 a giant sprit juts forward on centreline from the main cross beam, serving as both an integral piece of structure and the “bow”. But it’s hardly a place for balance. The sailors spend more time running around the trampoline to make their way fore and aft.

The Alinghi bow squad consists of nine sailors, veterans of the highest order: Rodney Ardern (NZL), Curtis Blewett (CAN), Jan Dekker (RSA), Yves Detrey (SUI), Dean Phipps (NZL), Franck Proffit (FRA), Francesco Rapetti (ITA), Nicolas Texier (FRA) and Piet van Nieuwenhuijzen (NED).

The latter, a tall Dutchman of both inshore and offshore pedigree, has been Alinghi’s lead bow man for many years. Blewett, Ardern and Dekker are round-the-world race veterans and excel at the front of any boat. Dekker, in particular, has an extensive multihull experience and lists a victory aboard the 100-footer Club Med as a career achievement, in addition to a record attempt on Groupama 3!

The biggest difference that Dekker notes between sailing the old Version 5 monohulls and a fast multihull is the price you pay for making a mistake.

“You’ve got to get the basics right because little mistakes in this type of boat are very costly, just because of the speed difference between sailing properly and getting it slightly wrong,” Dekker says. “On a multihull you can be looking at a 10-knot difference in speed, whereas on a monohull the difference is only 1 knot.”

“We’ve all had lots to learn,” says Blewett, who’s been with Alinghi since its inception. “There’s not much structure out there. It was kept minimalist by design to reduce windage. We rarely have to go to the end of the sprit because everything’s mounted on roller-furlers.”

One thing you likely won’t see on the start line is a bowman calling time and distance to the line. There are many reasons for that, one of which is that there’s no deck to stand on. Additionally, the boat is so fast that once an angle is picked there’s no slowing down or speeding up, as in a monohull. When the crew is on its final approach to the line the time and distance will likely be called by the navigator who will read the information off a computer.

With the roller-furler systems led aft and off the bow most of the bow work will be done from the confines of the trampoline, which is a blessing in disguise. Because if a crew man were to be stuck on the bow sprit with Alinghi 5 blasting along at full speed, he might as well be at the point of no return.

Alinghi