N A V I G A T O R 02

N A V I G A T O R 02 TECHNOLOGY SET THE BAR “Every team is searching for marginal gains from design, innovation and technology. Ultimately this race needs to be won on both land and water,” says British sailor Sir Ben Ainslie. He is talking about the greatest challenge in world sailing – the America’s Cup. No British team has ever won the Cup. Land Rover BAR – a collaboration between Land Rover and Ben Ainslie Racing – focuses Land Rover’s vast engineering and innovation capabilities on helping to make the Land Rover BAR catamaran go faster, ready for the main event in summer 2017. “The ocean is new terrain for us,” says Tony Harper, Head of Research and Advanced Systems Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover. “We have delved into our talent base to identify the most skilled engineers within the fields of aerodynamics, machine learning and advanced data processing.” Weighing over two tonnes, the vessel will reach speeds of over 50 knots. “Since the birth of foiling [where the catamaran lifts clear of the water to fly on hydrofoils, reducing drag], one of the biggest challenges is understanding how to control these massively powerful machines while balancing on a comparatively small surface area,” explains Harper. Integral to the balancing act is the wing – a 23.9m carbon fibre ‘hard’ sail the size of a Boeing 737 aeroplane wing. With competition rules barring any stored power, the wing provides the boat’s only source of thrust. Through the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA), the Land Rover team is able to optimise aerodynamics to achieve the fastest possible boat speed. Land Rover BAR not only needs the best boat, it also needs the best sailors working at their peak. Land Rover expertise in the field of human/machine interface technologies (HMI) means they can give Sir Ben and his team the information they need, the split second they need it, to make the difference between victory and the rest. Find out more about the America’s Cup challenge at: land-rover-bar.americascup.com Land Rover BAR racing in Oman on the AC45f – the America’s Cup World Series catamaran 6

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