Boats seem to fly during the America’s Cup, is this still a sailing competition?

• Sander Maassen van den Brink

  editor NOS Sport

The sailboats fly like airplanes at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour above the Spanish waters during the America’s Cup. It is especially important not to touch the water to lose as little time as possible.

In fact, these futuristic vessels no longer resemble the boats in which you learn to sail. Can this age-old competition still be called a sailing competition?

“Yes,” say Simeon Tienpont and Peter van Niekerk. Both Dutchmen participated in the America’s Cup in the past. Tienpont won twice. In 2013 he sailed with foils (the hydrofoil that lifts the boat above the water) for the first time. Van Niekerk was on board the last boat that did not foil.

“It’s still about the sails and the wind and you still have to deal with wind speed differences that you have to deal with. So yes, it has to do with sailing,” says Van Niekerk. “It just goes a little faster,” Tienpont adds.

“Because an average sailing boat sails at 6 to 7 knots (11 to 12 kilometers per hour, ed.). If you ride a wave at 15 knots, you have a nice story to tell,” laughs Tienpont. The boats in the America’s Cup reach speeds of 50 knots, about 92 kilometers per hour.

“I saw it on Saturday in Barcelona. Those speeds are unprecedented,” says Van Niekerk.

The former top sailor was amazed. When the now 52-year-old Van Niekerk won the America’s Cup in 2007 with the last boat without foil, times were very different.

“We then had a sailing crew of 40 people and a team of 100 people in total. Now there are only 8 sailors on the boat and 150 people in total. Formula 1 teams are now involved in the boats because of their knowledge of certain technology,” says the two-time Olympic Games participant.

“I now sail in the J class. These are sailing yachts of 25 meters long, which cannot be compared with the America’s Cup. I still sail on the water and I come from the generation when we used the winch (device with which the sails can be hoisted, ed.) had to tighten with the arms.”

“In the America’s Cup it’s all about the legs. Those boats are full of new technology. Half of them consist of computers and tablets. To sail such a boat you need a lot of crew.”

Today’s America’s Cup is often compared to Formula 1, because of the new technology that is constantly being developed. That comparison is justified, says Tienpont.

“The boats have become a kind of Formula 1 cars. There is so much technology behind making the boats go so fast and keeping them under control. There are also enormous G-forces involved.”

Of course, that doesn’t happen in a ‘normal’ sailing boat. But it is definitely necessary to start on a normal boat, says Van Niekerk. “You learn the feeling for the wind and aerodynamics. It is not without reason that a top sailor like Ben Ainslie is in the British boat. He has already made his mark in normal boats.”

Tienpont thinks so too. “The game has not changed. Port and starboard are still the same and so is the way you handle the buoys. Although there is certainly a difference. When you learn to sail, you feel the wind at your back. The boats in the Americas Cup goes two to three times faster than the wind, so it feels like the wind is coming from the front. That’s a big difference.”

It’s not for everyone, the America’s Cup is really for the elite. “These teams have spent more than 100 million,” says Van Niekerk. “If it were less expensive, more teams would participate.”

“There are more people with Olympic gold than people who have sailed the America’s Cup,” says Tienpont. “It is very special to be on those boats. Just like it is special to drive a Formula 1 car.”

But that does not mean that this branch of sailing should remain an elite sport, according to the former top sailors. “There are smaller boats with a foil. They are more accessible for older youth,” says Van Niekerk.

Tienpont: “The America’s Cup may be the crème de la crème, but nowadays a foil can easily be purchased at a sports store. This makes the sport more accessible.”