JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #84 - October 2013 - 3

50th year
President and CEO/Publisher:
Frédérique Mutel
mutel@jeccomposites.com

"The revolution has just started"

Media director & Editor-in-chief:
Frédéric Reux
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 11
reux@jeccomposites.com

Deputy-editor & Graphic designer:
Antoine Morel
morel@jeccomposites.com

Technical & Business developer:
Kim -Oanh Truong
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 74
kim@jeccomposites.com
Thierry Saint-Martin
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 73
saintmartin@jeccomposites.com

Marketing/Communication,
Circulation & partnership:
presse@jeccomposites.com
Sandrine Dumarquez
dumarquez@jeccomposites.com

Subscriptions:
www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/
Fax: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 19
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 08
dumarquez@jeccomposites.com

Printing: SPEI - Pulnoy (54), France
Legal registration:
ISSN 1639-965X
Dépôt légal : 3eme trimestre 2013

Photos & illustrations:
All right reserved, unless mentionned.
JEC Composites Magazine is published by JEC.

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The reproduction, even partial, of articles
and illustrations is forbidden, unless prior
permission is obtained from JEC Composites
Magazine. The management of JEC Composites Magazine reserves the right to refuse
advertising.

Total Qualified
Circulation:
33,656 copies
BPA June statement 2013
(print circulation of 20,928 & electronic circulation of 12,728)

Frédéric Reux

Editor-in-chief
reux@jeccomposites.com

Created in 1851, the America's Cup is the
world's oldest sport trophy and, thanks to
profound changes to its rules and to the
class rules, has also become one of the most
popular events in the world, according to
the statistics released by its organizers.
The final race of the 34th America's Cup,
which took place in the prestige setting of
San Francisco Bay in September, is completely different from past regattas. The design
freedom given to the architects and teams
to create their boats has transformed the
event. The all-composite boats are spectacular, bearing wingmasts 40 metres high and
racing at speeds that exceed 80 km/h. The
fastest speed recorded during the race was
for Emirates Team New Zealand, at 47.57
knots (88 km/h or 55 mph) in 21.8 knots
of wind (2.2 times the wind speed) on 24
September 2013. These extravagances in
size and speed certainly add to the spectacle.
Oracle Team USA also deserves a hand for
its performance and brilliant win in this
year's Cup.
The AC72 Class Rule governing construction for the boats in the 34th America's Cup
was also designed with audiences in mind.
The spectacular AC72 catamaran ensured
that the 34th America's Cup featured the
world's best sailors on the fastest boats. The
AC72 Class Rule moves America's Cup
racing to catamarans with a speed potential
of three times the wind speed, putting the
venerable competition back at the forefront
of technology.
Throughout the AC72's gestation, the
fundamental requirements have remained
unchanged: to ensure fast, exciting racing,
to challenge sailors and designers, to capture

fans' imagination, to be versatile across the
wind range to minimize race delays and
capable of competitive racing in light and
strong winds, and to incorporate a broad
range of cost-reduction features. These rules
are very clear.
The rules also stipulate a maximum of two
cameramen and seven remotely controlled
mounted cameras on board. To increase
the television appeal, there are 18 onboard
microphones, or one per sailor. This should
make for a good spectacle and media
coverage.
The spectacle owes much to composite
materials, as we all know. They are the only
materials that enable this kind of technological feat, and such events definitely boost our
industry's image. On the evidence of French
naval architect Vincent Lauriot-Prévot in an
interview with the website lefigaro.fr on 16
September, "the revolution has just started".
According to him, this 34th America's Cup
constituted a sort of "rough draft". Improvements are expected - notably concerning
appendages, an area where the AC72 Class
Rule did everything it could to keep the
boats from flying. In future, however, and
the architectural teams are certainly already
at work on it, the boats will surf above the
water and the speeds are going to soar! The
speed potential of elevators and foils is high.
Innovative solutions will inevitably follow,
to judge by the Little America's Cup (C
Class world championship), which constituted a real laboratory, and by Multiplast's
work on Franck Cammas' boat, which won
last September's event. You can read the
article on that subject in our report. Happy
reading!

No84 October 2013 /

Technical editor: Franck Glowacz
Tel: +33 (0)1 58 36 15 04
glowacz@jeccomposites.com

jec composites magazine 3

http://www.jeccomposites.com/magazine-subscription/ http://www.lefigaro.fr http://www.jeccomposites.com http://www.jeccomposites.com

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #84 - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #84 - October 2013