America’s Cup 2024: What are the AC75 boats and how do they work?

Eight-man crews, F1crossover, foils, sails and rudder – everything you need to know

The world’s oldest international sports trophy, best yachtsmen and cutting-edge design and technology come together in Barcelona for the 37th edition of the America’s Cup.
Five boats – from Italy, the United States, Britain, Switzerland and France – will spend the coming weeks racing in the Mediterranean waves to decide who will earn the honour of trying to dethrone the mighty Emirates Team New Zealand for the Auld Mug.
As the two-time defender, the Kiwis chose Barcelona’s choppy waters as the venue and helped establish the rules and boat design for this edition. They also get a guaranteed spot in the final, to be held in October.
The results of three years of work and massive investment will now be put to the test.
“It is starting to get serious in a hurry. We are now racing for keeps,” Ben Ainslie, skipper of British team Ineos Britannia, said.
Here is everything we know about the boats – AC75s – that will be racing…
“Because Barcelona is quite a lightwind venue, you don’t actually want to design foils for going at 60 knots. Acceleration and manoeuvrability are more important. So in terms of top speeds I don’t think we will see anything radically different from the top speeds we saw in the last Cup in New Zealand. Somewhere around 50 knots. But these boats would smash the boats from last time if they actually raced. I guess it’s like Formula One cars. The new boats are much faster over a lap, but they gain that time through cornering speed and acceleration rather than on the straights.”– Giles Scott (Head of Sailing, Ineos Britannia)