Why Crowdsourcing Industrial Espionage Is Economical For America’s Cup

19.09.2023 - 20:25 / forbes.com

During training events for the America’s Cup sailing race in decades past, fast and light boats would zip close to race boats. Onboard photographers then clicked images and shot videos, providing competitors with insights into new designs and operational tactics.

At the 2021 America’s Cup in New Zealand, the seas churned so full of these craft—think paparazzi chasing royalty—that the risks of potential collisions turned glaring.

‘After the last America’s Cup, it was getting a little crazy,’ explained Magnus Wheatley, who now runs the Recon program for the 37th America’s Cup. ‘There were an awful lot of chase boats, and very close incidents. Obviously, if you are told to take a picture bow on, you’re going to drive your RIB [rigid inflatable boat] bow onto a boat coming at you at 45 knots. It can get very dangerous, and was just getting unmanageable.’

This scenario resulted in an organization paradigm shift by race organizers. The America’s Cup Recon program now assigns each individual racing team with a boat and photographer to gather on-water images and data about their own sail craft. However, the total of gathered information is now shared amongst all competitors. What was industrial espionage has transformed into crowdsourced collaboration.

The risk of collision obliterated collusion.

This approach not only reduces risks of offshore accidents, but also reduces costs for race teams.

‘It was introduced as a cost cutting measure, to avoid every team following every other team,’ explained Benjamin Muyl, Chief Designer for the French Team Orient Express. ‘For us this is also a good source of information.’

This idea for the Recon program originated during the last America’s Cup race. Wheatley explained.

‘Dan Bernasconi, Technical Director at Emirates Team New Zealand, came up with the idea. He’s a British yacht designer who used to work with Formula 1. He thought—let’s open technology up a bit.’

Much interest relates to the shape and performance of foils—hydrodynamic appendages that translate horizontal movement through water into vertical lift that pushes most of a boat above water—allowing it to move far faster through air. The term ‘canting a foil’ relates to how these underwater appendages are rotated and turned.

Crews of chase boats typically look at the design of boats they follow. ‘That’s key,’ Wheatley continued. ‘They’re also looking at sail shape and modes of the boat—how you cant foils, how you change the arm of the foils, because you can ride low, high, bow down, stern down, windward heel, leeward heel. They’re marrying that to wind conditions and saying, ‘Okay, it’s 18 knots of breeze, and Emirates Team New Zealand is riding like this.’ They’re reporting that information back in real time