Youngren, who lives in Portland, has served as an Aerodynamic Optimisation/CFD consultant for Team New Zealand for the last year and a half as they make advances in the design of their new AC 72 catamaran. The team is preparing for the prestigious America's Cup races to be held on September 2-22, 2013 in San Francisco.
Youngren was recruited by Team New Zealand because of his background in aircraft and wing design and previous work in 2003 and 2007 for the Alinghi Team.
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This picture of the Team New Zealand's new AC 72 showing the boat foiling with both hulls out of the water caused a stir within the competitive sailing community.
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"The next Cup will be held under new rules, sailing 72 ft wing-mast catamarans," said Youngren. “These boats are completely new, exciting and are total wild cards. In many ways the boats are more like aircraft than sailboats. They use 40m rigid carbon-fiber wings whose design is closer to an aircraft wing. I also work on the underwater appendages that you often don't see like the rudders, elevators and dagger foils." These parts play a unique role in this boat. The NZ boat can lift out of the water downwind, flying on its foils at more than twice the speed of the wind.
Emirates Team NZ AC72 sailing on the Hauraki, Gulf, Auckland NZ. Photo: Chris Cameron/ETNZ
Team New Zealand christened the new catamaran "New Zealand" in late July. In initial testing the boat has been clocked at better than 40 knots downwind and 20 knots upwind, said Youngren.
"We even had to upgrade our chase boats for the AC72’s, now we use boats with 1200 hp that can do 55 knots in order to keep up with the new catamaran," said Youngren.
Youngren, who keeps his 19' Boston Whaler on a slip at Yarmouth Boat Yard, said he made seven trips to New Zealand during the design work on the AC72’s. His current design responsibilities are largely handled through Skype conferences from his home in Portland.
Hal Youngren serves as a design consultant for Team New Zealand in their quest for the prestigious America's Cup.
"It is a very scientific process to get this boat tested, tuned and up to speed. We use a very detailed Velocity Prediction Program (VPP), which is a computer model how the boat performs. After each test or practice day there is a debriefing where all of the most recent data is displayed, analyzed and digested to improve the design and sailing techniques."
To see news reports and video of Team New Zealand's AC 72 click here.
"It is a very scientific process to get this boat tested, tuned and up to speed. We use a very detailed Velocity Prediction Program (VPP), which is a computer model how the boat performs. After each test or practice day there is a debriefing where all of the most recent data is displayed, analyzed and digested to improve the design and sailing techniques."
To see news reports and video of Team New Zealand's AC 72 click here.
