Hula hoopla: One hull of an idea may mean Cup has been won even before racing begins

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — The tens of millions of dollars spent by challengers, the years of practicing, the intrigue, court cases and drama that have made up this America's Cup may not amount to a hill of beans.

The race may have been decided one December day two years ago. That was when Team New Zealand designer Clay Oliver, who is an American, was designing hull shapes. He spent about two hours working on Cup boats, then two hours working on curves for the record-breaking yacht Mari-Cha IV. As he went from one set of boat lines to the other, an idea began to germinate.

Two months later his hunch became a tank model, and the "hula" was born. A combination of the words "hull appendage," the hula takes advantage of a loophole in design rules. Like a giant clamshell stuck to the bottom of the boat from keel to rudder, the hula nestles a few millimeters from the hull. The innovation gives the New Zealand boats extra dynamic water length — and logically, extra speed.

Seattle yacht designer Bob Perry thinks that when the wind starts blowing, the hula could give the New Zealand boat up to 6 feet of extra water length. Perry should know — he was so intrigued with the boats when they were unveiled last month that he drew a mock-up of them in his Phinney Ridge office to calculate the advantage.

"It's really smart — but it's crooked as hell," Perry said, alluding to the design being outside the spirit of the rules. He believes Team NZ would never have fielded the boats if they were not significantly faster than those that won the last Cup.

"I know better than to doubt the Kiwis," he said.

The more the wind blows, the more the hula comes into play. Perry said that is because the boats gain extra usable length when they heel over. The Cup boats are an unusually narrow design, he said, and the hula could give an advantage in winds as light as 8 knots. Below that, it could work against the Kiwis.

Oliver, who studied naval architecture at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., said that the hula begins to work in 8.5 knots of breeze. At 10 knots, it makes a difference and at 14 knots it is "tremendous," he said. The design works both upwind and downwind, with slightly better gains when the boats sail in the faster downwind conditions.

But those gains are perhaps two or three seconds every mile, Oliver said.

"People expect the boat is going to jump out of the water," Oliver said. "But it is just like any other boat."

Yet even an advantage of two seconds per mile is enough to build a lead of a couple of minutes over an entire race, as the boats crisscross their way through the 18.5-nautical-mile course. Oliver points to other innovations in the rig and sails that he believes will keep his team competitive even in lighter winds.

The hula does have the disadvantage of increased drag over a conventional hull. And there still exists the possibility that challenger Alinghi will fly a protest flag when racing begins, although earlier deadlines have passed without Alinghi lodging a protest.

Oliver said that his team can estimate Alinghi's boat speed but will not really know how the boats match up until racing starts. He said the Swiss probably have made their own improvements, which could add up to a couple of seconds per mile. But he remains confident.

"When I look at the two boats, I would rather have our boat than theirs," Oliver said.

The boats differ in other ways. The Kiwis have gone with a longer, more slender keel bulb than Alinghi. This should give the home team a speed edge upwind but could create more drag downwind. The New Zealanders have also opted for a more conservative sail-rigging system than Alinghi but a more innovative boom design.

Perry believes that even with the technical differences, the series will be close.

"It's going to be a damn good sailboat race," he said. "The Swiss have flawless crew work and as good a tactical team as money can buy."

He rates Alinghi skipper Russell Coutts very highly.

"He is so calm and collected, he is the consummate skipper," Perry said. "He never shows any fluster and has a minimal movement of the wheel."

The battle between Coutts, the former Team NZ skipper, and his protégé, Dean Barker, should prove fascinating — especially during the vital prestart maneuvers. Coutts and Barker raced each other on the two Team NZ boats before the last regatta with great passion, even colliding several times.

"Dean won a huge number of starts that time and got the best of Russell quite a few times," Oliver said. "They both got really, really good at it. It was pretty even between them in the end."

Aside from Barker, 29, the New Zealand crew is comparatively inexperienced. Team NZ won't say who will be on the race boat, as it prides itself on its having a "Double A" team — two sets of interchangeable crew. But expect the tactical team to include Peter Evans, 42, and Hamish Pepper, 31. The elder statesman and head of Team NZ, Tom Schnackenberg, 57, may navigate the boats.

"The average age is a lot younger and the experience level a lot less," Oliver said. "I think it's turned out to be a good thing. The energy level has been higher, and over the last two months the skill level has been, too."

Emotions will be running high among New Zealanders during racing. Coutts became a national hero when he led Team NZ to victory over Dennis Conner's Young America defense eight years ago in San Diego. He then successfully defended the Cup against Italy's Prada Challenge in 2000.

But Coutts became a villain to many when he switched to the Swiss camp. Kiwi passion for the event showed its dark side a little this regatta, when many observers and competitors were put off by the jingoistic "Blackheart" campaign.

Like the many intrigues surrounding the Cup, those issues will soon take a back seat. Because now all attention returns to the water and the sailing of the main event.

And once racing is done, so is the hula. Organizers plan to close the loophole before the next regatta.

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639 or nperry@seattletimes.com