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"  The America&amp;#039;s Cup, born in 1851 and contested a total of 33 times, has seen its share of changes. Few, though, have been as dramatic as those that will be on display this summer, when 12-story-tall carbon-fiber yachts rip through San Francisco Bay at speeds in excess of 50 mph beginning July 7 (opening ceremonies are July 4). In races of the past, monohulled yachts with traditional sails scurried across open ocean waters far from the fans at a pedestrian 17 miles per hour. Television broadcasts were routinely postponed when the winds died down.  Those problems have sailed away. The culmination of three years of change, America&amp;#039;s Cup 2013 will feature boats executing tight maneuvers near the shore, and LiveLine television technology to make sailing on TV look more like a graphics-heavy NFL telecast. But the kicker\u2014the one that will have AC72 boats screaming across the bay\u2014is the change to a multihull frame with a fixed-wing sail. America&amp;#039;s Cup essentially has put a $10 million high-tech craft on the water. As America&amp;#039;s Cup CEO Stephen Barclay says, &amp;quot;The boats are really fast and cool, and they fly above the water.&amp;quot; Viewers can start to watch the transformation in July, when three boats\u2014from Sweden, Italy, and New Zealand\u2014compete for two months for the right to challenge the defending champion, Oracle Team USA, in the cup&amp;#039;s September finale, a best-of-nine head-to-head competition. High-Tech Yachts The new rules for boats up the length of the hulls to 72 feet (hence the AC72 name). At the same time, the traditional drag-inducing monohulls that were filled with ballast and weighed up to 11 tons have given way to multihulls fashioned from honeycombed aluminum encased in carbon fiber. With a yacht&amp;#039;s weight down to 7 tons, less wind is needed to catapult it to high speeds, even in tight spaces.  As the boats speed up, they also lift. The idea is to keep the hull off the water completely, sailing instead on a pair of inverted-L carbon-fiber foils that act as a lifting device. As boats increase speed, the foils generate lift and keep the boat &amp;quot;flying&amp;quot; above water. To catch all that wind, America&amp;#039;s Cup has ditched flying fabric from the mast, instead offering a fixed wing able to articulate based on the geometry set by the crew. This eye-catching change away from a sail offers up 161-foot-tall carbon-fiber-and-Kevlar wings. But sailors can still manipulate them by changing openings within the wing to capture the wind as needed. By controlling the angle of the wing to the main boat, the deflection of the flap, and creating variations in these openings all the way to the top of the 12-story-tall structure, each boat features variations in how it harnesses the wind&amp;#039;s power. &amp;quot;You can be changing those controls every second,&amp;quot; says Oracle boat designer Ian Burns. Italy&amp;#039;s Luna Rossa team operations director, Matteo Plazzi, says achieving the best shape of the wing at any given point could turn into a complex task, so making controls simple, in minimal moves, was key. &amp;quot;You can achieve any shape, but you must go from one to another with a small amount of time,&amp;quot; he says.  With so many new components to racing, there&amp;#039;s much to learn. And even a bit to build, as Italy was still finishing up construction of its July boat in late June. &amp;quot;We were building something we did not know about,&amp;quot; says Plazzi. &amp;quot;We started with a white piece of paper and have been learning.&amp;quot;  LiveLine Led by Stan Honey, creator of Sportvision&amp;#039;s 1st &amp;amp;amp; Ten yellow football line, K-Zone for MLB, and Nascar&amp;#039;s graphical overlays, America&amp;#039;s Cup will bring sailing into the modern era of television viewing. New graphics developed specifically for America&amp;#039;s Cup television broadcasts\u2014and using Department of Defense GPS technology offering accuracy to within 2 centimeters\u2014can give the exact speeds, predict within seconds the exact time of the race, distance, course boundaries and up-to-the-second race leader information in real time. Add in seven high-definition remotely controlled cameras on each boat, sailors wired for sound, and microphones to pick up the hiss of the water, and sailing suddenly becomes a much more exciting TV event. Barclay says the new graphics will serve to draw in even casual sports fans. &amp;quot;People like things that go fast, but this sport was difficult to understand,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;It was like a chess game without a board. Now with the graphics, all of a sudden you can understand it and it just became a completely different sport.&amp;quot; Whether watching on television or standing on the shore of San Francisco Bay, you can hear the sailors yelling instructions, watch their tactical moves, and witness a spectacular array of technology. If you can keep up with the speed. Follow Tim Newcomb on Twitter at @tdnewcomb. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/sports/a9179/flying-on-water-the-new-tech-of-americas-cup-15652021/>