The AC50 (defined in the America's Cup rules as AC Class yacht, or ACC) was a

wingsail A wingsail, twin-skin sail or double skin sail is a variable-camber aerodynamic structure that is fitted to a marine vessel in place of conventional sails. Wingsails are analogous to airplane wings, except that they are designed to provide lif ...

catamaran A Formula 16 beachable catamaran Powered catamaran passenger ferry at Salem, Massachusetts, United States A catamaran () (informally, a "cat") is a multi-hulled watercraft featuring two parallel hulls of equal size. It is a geometry-stab ...

development rule that governed the construction of the yachts used in the 2017 Louis Vuitton Cup and the 2017 America's Cup. Like the larger

AC72 The AC72 (America's Cup 72 class) is a class of wingsail catamarans built to a box rule, which governs the construction and operation of yachts competing in the 2013 Louis Vuitton and the America's Cup races. The class was subsequently replac ...

s used in the 2013 America's Cup, AC50s used L-shaped daggerboard stabilizers as well as T-shaped rudder elevators that were able to generate enough lift to allow the boats to exit displacement mode in winds in excess of 7kt. Prototype versions of crossbeams, wingsails, appendages, as well as steering and trimming systems had been tested by all syndicates on

AC45 The America's Cup World Series are match races and fleet regattas used as heats for the 2013 America's Cup and the 2017 America's Cup. The Yachts AC45 and AC45F The World Series uses AC45 catamarans, a one-design wingsail catamaran designed spec ...

platforms as surrogate yachts before building their AC50. The class allowed hydraulic control of the wingsails and appendages. Motors and computer automation was banned in the class. Each challenger team was only allowed to build one AC50 for competition and only six boats were built. The class achieved a maximum peak speed of over the water, recorded by ACRM telemetry aboard Sweden's ''

Magic Blue Tris(4-bromophenyl)ammoniumyl hexachloroantimonate is the organic compound with the formula 4-BrC6H4)3NbCl6. Commonly known as magic blue, it is the hexachloroantimonate salt of an amine radical cation. It is a blue solid that reacts with many so ...

''. The 2017 America’s Cup class winning boat, designed by a team led by

Daniel Bernasconi Daniel Bernasconi, (born 1973) is a British America’s Cup yacht designer, specializing in hydrodynamic design and performance optimization. He is currently the Technical Director of Team New Zealand and a Founding Director of SumToZero, a specia ...

and sailed by

Team New Zealand Team New Zealand or TNZ is a sailing team based in Auckland, New Zealand representing the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Team New Zealand became a household name in their home country following their consecutive wins in the America's Cup i ...

, featured a distinct polyhedral daggerboard stabilizer and pedal-powered hydraulics to control its 24m high fixed-wing mainsail; four crew providing the power from cycling stations in each hull instead of grinding winches by hand. The AC50 design was developed into the one design F50 class used for the

SailGP SailGP is an international sailing competition using high performance F50 foiling catamarans, where teams compete across a season of multiple grands prix around the world. Its reigning champions are Tom Slingsby's Australia SailGP Team, who wo ...

competition.

References

America's Cup yachts Catamarans Box rule sailing classes 2017 America's Cup {{boat-stub