Weird way Team Australia sailors are training for the women’s and Youth America’s Cup in 2024

It’s the weird, slightly wacky way our sailors are training for the youth and women’s America’s Cup involving a $200,00 computer game craned into an office kilometres from the nearest waterway.

Australian sailors Jack Ferguson and Olivia Price in the sailing simulator. Picture: Richard Dobson

It’s like preparing for a game of footy without stepping foot onto a pitch or a Tour de France without actually ever riding up a real mountain.

In an extraordinary logical exercise a Sydney suburban office kilometres from the nearest waterways has been transformed into a training centre for top youth and female sailors from across Australia who are preparing for one of the most famous sporting events in the world in a radically different way.

In this New World Order, computers rule - specifically a $200,000 high tech sailing simulator so large and including two 258kg pods, it had to be craned into an office owned by well-known sailor and patron John “Herman’ Winnings with doors and glass windows removed just so it could be set up as the coolest ever training tool.

Welcome to sailing in 2023.

Instead of having their skills tested aboard the high-speed and radical foiling AC40 monohulls to be raced at the 2024 America’s Cup youth and women’s series - expected to be capable of speeds around 40 knots or 75km/h — crew prospects are learning the tricks of this new trade in a simulator.

One of the pods being craned into the office block in Sydney.

Jack Ferguson and Olivia Price in the simulator.

“It’s very cool, like a giant video game, a very cool toy. But it is a weird,’’ said Paris Olympic hopeful Olivia Price, one of the faces of the women’s campaign and one of 32 sailors currently bidding for 18 squads spots in the Team Australia Challenge.

A skipper and crew sit in two separate pods at the one time to race. Each pod boasts steering wheels and controls for such things as trimming sails, moving daggerboards, adjusting the flying height of the craft and its lift. It works in much the same way as modern-day flight or auto simulators.

Data is then gleaned from the simulators to help sailors improve their skills and in the early stages, help determine the youngsters with the skills best suited the campaign.

“The aim of it is to bring people together working for a common goal, learning abut the boat and work on combinations and communications.

“The aim is to start some team building but it is a different feeling. You don't have the wind in your face, spray and no sunburn, which is actually a good thing.’’

At this stage it is unknown when the Australian teams will be able to physically sail the foiling 40s so the simulator, which was bought in by an anonymous backer for the young sailors, will be the closest they can get for training purposes.

Newport, Rhode Island: Alan Bond holds up the America's Cup after defeating the United States contestant, the Liberty.

“This is my absolute dream, to be doing this,’' said Jack Ferguson, who was born two decades after Australia’s II victory but fell in love with America's Cup racing watching in on TV as an eight-year-old with his dad.

Ferguson, who won the junior world U23 49er crown with crewmate Jack Hilderbrand, loves training on the simulator. “This is a new side of sailing and it’s so much fun.’’

This week 27 athletes from NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania are in Sydney trialling for squad spots. These sailors were whittled down from 132 applications from across the country.

The Team Australia Challenge is working to raise $4 million from donations, philanthropy and sponsorship ahead of the 2004 Youth and Women’s regatta in Barcelona which is being used as a pathway into the America’s Cup for women and the next generation of foiling sailors.

In Barcelona, 12 Women’s and Youth crews will race the identical AC40s.

Australia’s campaigns are to form the backbone of a bona fide challenge to bring the America's Cup back to Australian waters in the near future.

How cool is this!! It’s the weird, slightly wacky way our sailors are training for the youth and women’s America’s Cup involving a $200,00 computer game craned into a Sydney office 👏👏 https://t.co/Cz6zB0fKjCpic.twitter.com/XJtiEiemSj

— amanda lulham (@amandalulham) September 14, 2023

It is this prospect that has enticed patron Winning to the project - and a desire to help create a winning culture in sailing for our youngest and brightest talents.

“We want Australia to do an America’s Cup again,’’ he said.

“For me this is all about bringing the Cup back to Australia.’’

Australia II skipper John Bertrand is another patron of the Australia Team Challenge.

SAILORS AT THE TRIALS IN SYDNEY

Tasmania: Charles Zeeman, Will Cooley.

NSW: Miles Davey, Cole Tapper, Paddy Butler, Harry Hall, Harry Smith, Ruben Booth, Jack Hilderbrand, Max Paul, Brin Liddell, Finn Alexander, Jake Liddell, Otto Henry, Ryan Littlechild, Jack Ferguson, Will Sargent, Madeline McLeay, Annie Wilmot, Evie Haseldine, Rita Booth, Tash Bryant, Olivia Price, Lisa Darmanin, Lucy Copeland, Nina Curtis, Jess Grimes, Jamie Ryan.

Queenslanders: Tom Needham and Mara Stransky.

Victoria: Laura Harding.

WA: Zoe Thomson.