Meet the crew

05.02.2010 (15:41 CET) - Valencia, Spain - Alinghi

Meet the Design Team, Tom Schnackenberg (NZL)

Although he'd never presume to say it himself, it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to describe Tom Schnackenberg as the father of modern sail design. If that sounds a little pompous, there are few who would argue that he has been the most influential sail designer of the modern era. However his role at Alinghi is to have a broader overview of the design process. The Kiwi modestly describes himself as “floater”. “I’m doing a bit of helping with data analysis, giving the guys my input on the sails, doing whatever people ask me to do,” he says.

When it comes to the America’s Cup, Schnackenberg has seen it all. This will be his 11th Cup campaign, the first one dating back to 1977 when he was involved in designing some sails for the American defender Enterprise.

Schnackenberg helped change the course of America’s Cup history in 1983 when he designed the sails for Australia II, the wing-keeled wonder that snatched away the Auld Mug from the New York Yacht Club. Although the radical wing keel was credited for being the magic bullet that made Australia II such a special boat, skipper John Bertrand preferred to give greater credit to the advanced composite sail designs developed by Schnackenberg.

Having said that Schnackenberg has seen it all, no one has seen anything quite like the contest that the 33rd America’s Cup will bring. The closest experience he has is the so-called America’s Cup “mis-Match” of 1988, when Schnackenberg was responsible for designing the sails for the giant keelboat that the Kiwis put up against Dennis Conner’s much smaller catamaran. “The ‘Big Boat’ was impressive every time it went sailing. There was the same sense of newness and scale that we are getting this time with these boats. When I was watching Alinghi 5 the other day, I was commenting to Alain Gautier just how nice the mainsail and jib looked, how tidy they looked. I was watching the sails go up and down, and then you notice these tiny people and suddenly you are reminded of the scale of this boat.

“Everything about it is big and powerful, when loading the furled gennaker on to the trampoline of the boat, it’s like wrestling with an anaconda. Once a sail like that gets moving, it’s got a fair bit of weight and momentum, and it really is like wrestling with a big snake, trying to manage the sail. I remember the same thing in 1988, with 10 people carrying the mainsail, when the sail was so big that it would take on a mind of its own.”

For such an inquisitive mind, the multihull project has been intriguing for Schnackenberg. “Everyone is enjoying the multihull experience. The Version 5 boats were getting a bit familiar. From a technical point of view, what has really interested me is the fact that the boats are going so much faster than the wind. You have to get out of your old habits of looking behind you for puffs of wind when you’re travelling downwind, because with this boat, whichever part of the race track you’re on, the wind is always in front of you.”