America’s Cup is the world’s oldest and arguably most famous sailing trophy which is awarded to the winner of match races between two sailing yachts. These boats are constructed based on specific, strict rules set separately for each race. In recent times the race was held every 4 years and in 2017 the final match was fought between two AC50-class catamarans of the defending Oracle USA team and the challenging Emirates New Zealand team.
During the competition the boats reach speeds in the excess of 40 knots and have to withstand extreme forces. The design of the hulls and the foils is, in some way, analogous to the design of Formula 1 cars so it may not be a coincidence that the technical director of the Emirates team, Dan Bernasconi (picture to the left) spent earlier six years with McLaren. The Emirates team had to be extremely innovative and aggressive with the design – said skipper Glenn Ashby. In this spirit, Bernasconi and his colleagues developed a software called “Gömböc” which enabled the team to give reliable estimates on lap-times. In the simulator, supported by “Gömböc”, the crew ran hundreds of virtual races and this led, among others, to the development of highly specialized foils.
The software was christened after the Hungarian invention by Bernasconi for whom the Gömböc represents the fragility of stable equilibrium. The New Zealand/Emirates team was victorious in the 35th America’s cup held on Bermuda. In the picture below you may observe the Emirates boat Aotearoa on the left. According to Bernasconi, the software “Gömböc” was a major part of the design process in Team New Zealand, and was a big contribution to winning the America’s Cup in 2017.
Link to the GOMBOC software:
Link to Forbes article reviewing GOMBOC software: