USA 17, formerly BMW Oracle Racing 90 or BOR 90

1 August 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Tall ships, San Francisco Bay Area, Yacht of the Month Reading Time:  10 minutes

USA 17 in the San Francisco Bay © Peter Potrowl/cc-by-sa-3.0

USA 17 in the San Francisco Bay © Peter Potrowl/cc-by-sa-3.0

USA-17 (formerly known as BMW Oracle Racing 90 or BOR90) is a sloop rigged racing trimaran built by the American sailing team BMW Oracle Racing to challenge for the 2010 America’s Cup. Designed by VPLP Yacht Design with consultation from Franck Cammas and his Groupama multi-hull sailing team, BOR90 is very light for her size being constructed almost entirely out of carbon fiber and epoxy resin, and exhibits very high performance being able to sail at 2.0 to 2.5 times the true wind speed. From the actual performance of the boat during the 2010 America’s Cup races, it can be seen that she could achieve a velocity made good upwind of over twice the wind speed and downwind of over 2.5 times the wind speed; this means that downwind she was sailing at nearly four times the speed of the true wind. She can apparently sail at 20 degrees off the apparent wind. The boat sails so fast downwind that the apparent wind she generates is only 5-6 degrees different from that when she is racing upwind; that is, the boat is always sailing upwind with respect to the apparent wind. An explanation of this phenomenon can be found in the article on sailing faster than the wind. USA 17’s homeport is the Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco.   read more…

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