Artemis Racing’s New Turbo

Although they’ve since moved their sailing operations to Bermuda, in January Artemis Racing launched a second turbo development boat out of their base in Alameda’s former naval air station.

"Very early in this America’s Cup’s cycle we upgraded our existing foiling AC45, a boat similar to those used in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series, to boost its performance and provide a platform to test appendages," explained the Swedish team’s design coordinator, Adam May. "However, our development path truly began with our sistership turbo program. T1 was launched in February 2015 as a test platform scaled to be similar to the AC62 class. The original AC45 foiler was then retired and converted into T2. There was a pause during its build while the AC class changed, and many features such as a similar deck layout to that of the new AC Class were incorporated into T2.

"T2 is our second fully loaded turbo-charged AC45. The extra beam (for more righting moment), larger wing, cockpits, and full fairing package make it a very different beast to the narrow traditional AC45s with foils."

Artemis completed a successful 10-day camp in Alameda. Iain Percy, team manager, commented, "It was very satisfying to launch T2 before we left for Bermuda. It was particularly pleasing to be foiling around the Bay on day one without any significant teething problems, giving us the chance to maximize the precious time on the water. We took away a number of key learnings and directions for our future America’s Cup Class development program."

T2 will soon be lining up on Bermuda’s Great Sound against its sistership T1. "Two boat testing is an important component of our campaign strategy. It’s going to be quite a sight seeing two Artemis Racing boats flying over the America’s Cup race course," said Percy.