Americas Cup defender considers a hydrogen-fuelled future
Fuel cell-powered high-speed chase boats proposed for future Americas Cup challengesThe team behind New Zealand’s Americas Cup-winning foiling monohull has announced it plans to enter the world of powerboating – with a hydrogen-fuelled foiling catamaran.
Emirates Team New Zealand announced yesterday it was working on a new chase boat for the upcoming 37th Americas Cup challenge that was capable of keeping pace with the foiling sailboats developed for the event, which can hit speeds of around 50 knots.
It has teased a boat that looks like it taps into the technology used for an earlier Americas Cup challenge, featuring a long, lightweight foiling catamaran.
Significantly, the boat wears the name of one of the world’s largest car makers, Toyota, on its side, hinting that the hydrogen fuel cell technology that the chase boat will tap may be a marine version of the one developed for the Toyota Mirai road car.
Emirates Team New Zealand said it had partnered with AFCryo, a New Zealand company that is developing a new environmentally friendly method of producing hydrogen by splitting water to make hydrogen and oxygen.
Rule change needed
If the prototype is successful, Emirates Team New Zealand is pinning its hopes on a rule change that will force other teams competing in the Americas Cup to use hydrogen-powered chase boats.
“Currently the Emirates Team New Zealand designers are working on a prototype hydrogen-powered foiling chase boat, to be built at the team’s North Shore build facility, capable of standing up to the demands of supporting an AC75 throughout all aspects of an America’s Cup campaign,” the team said in a statement.
“Once launched and verified, and with the support of the Challenger of Record Ineos Team UK, it is possible that the protocol for the 37th America’s Cup will contain a provision that all teams must use hydrogen-powered support boats.”
That will mean more than 20 orders for the new boat.
However, there’s a deeper reason for Emirates Team New Zealand to look into the technology.
On the last line of its press release announcing the hydrogen chase boat project, the team said it also wanted to explore how the technology could be adapted for the next generation of AC75 foiling boats.
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