Pushing The Boundaries
With INEOS Britannia
The America's Cup - A Sport Steeped With History
The America’s Cup is sailing’s most prestigious prize, with over one hundred and seventy years of history. The waterborne equivalent to F1 has international teams competing for supremacy across a wide range of design, engineering and athletic domains. The British team for the last two America’s Cups was led by four-time sailing Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie. And now, for the 37th running of the America’s Cup, Ainslie has partnered with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team to form INEOS Britannia.
The partnership boasts a formidable resource in design and engineering, and while it’s impossible to overturn every stone on the expansive ‘beach’ of performance potential, a lot more opportunities can be evaluated effectively by the new team. One of the realisations during the initial period of research into the AC75s (the foiling monohull that will race for the 2024 America’s Cup) was in hydraulic and electronic control systems. INEOS Britannia established that there would be a performance advantage through improved control accuracy if the hydraulic systems were operated at a greater hydraulic pressure than had been used in the previous generation of boat.
A Formidable Resource
The efficiency, speed, responsiveness, and reliability of the hydraulic system is fundamental to the performance of an America’s Cup yacht. The AC75 relies on three hydrofoils to lift its 6,200kg mass out of the water. This removes all the hydrodynamic drag of the hull and allows the boats to reach speeds that would have been implausible just a generation earlier.
Before the step change to these foiling boats, the hydraulics used on America’s Cup race boats had been limited to a handful of controls that adjusted the finer points of the sail shape. On the AC75 all the sail controls became hydraulic, along with the ‘flight’ controls; the flap adjustment of the hydrofoils that keep the boat sailing fast and stable above the water.
Achieving Superior Hydraulic Performance
This had taken the sailing teams into new territory in their search for superior hydraulic performance, but the step up to a higher pressure would mean another level had to be found. There was a long search for a manufacturer that could meet the technical demands of designing and building valves to operate at this significantly higher pressure. There were only a handful with the ability to meet the challenge, and the leading contender was Domin, a Bristol-based, British engineering company that is revolutionising the world of hydraulics with its new technology.
Domin takes a new approach to the design of hydraulics that has started a revolution. They use cutting-edge technology, like 3D metal printing, modern electronics, and brushless DC motors, applied in a way that removes traditional limitations. By going back to first principles, they have developed a core set of technology, the super-fast valve and ultra-compact pump, and have transformed the design of hydraulic motion control, fundamentally changing an industry that had remained largely stagnant for 70 years.
It’s an unequivocal physical fact that liquid doesn’t like to flow around sharp corners, but it’s impossible to create a smooth flowing curve with twentieth century technology, even with the most advanced 6-axis CNC machines. In contrast, by taking architectural engineering design approach and using 3D metal printing, Domin’s hydraulic products are sophisticated and efficient structures that are optimised for fluid dynamics.
The result is ultra-compact hydraulic systems, based around complex metal 3D printed manifolds that can operate reliably under higher pressures because the flow paths are better optimised. This improves the efficiency of the system at both high bandwidth and wide operating power levels.
Compact Control Systems Mean Refined Hydrodynamics
INEOS Britannia knew that Domin’s technology would translate into direct benefits for the hydraulic systems that control both the sails and the hydrofoils. The sail control must be manually powered by just four members of the crew, called cyclors, who generate power pedalling with their legs. While human legs are considerably stronger than the arms (which had to be used in the previous America’s Cup), it’s still a very limited power source. This means that any improvement in efficiency translates to big gains. While for the hydrofoils, more compact control systems could enable more refined hydrodynamic shapes for the foils.
Domin had exactly the right technology to offer a solution to INEOS Britannia with the S6 Pro X Domin Valve, a high-performance servo valve. A partnership was agreed, and an extensive period of collaborative testing and development was begun. The timescale was short, as the decision on operating pressure was fundamental to all the downstream design and engineering of the AC75’s hydraulic systems. Domin’s architectural design approach and use of tools like metal 3D printing allowed both rapid testing and fast iteration, which was essential to meeting these deadlines.
Domin is a hands-on business, priding themselves on personal service and global reach. Their ability to respond to issues as they arose combined perfectly with INEOS Britannia’s methodical approach to the process — both were critical to the positive outcome of the development phase.
Once the design and development of the S6 Pro X Domin Valve were successfully completed, the valves went into manufacture. A multi-stage process of testing then began, continuing throughout 2023 and into 2024 as the valves are delivered. The first stage was a CT inspection, with all valves being inspected for manufacture to their tolerances. They then completed an endurance fatigue test, working the valve back and forward to prove the quality of the build process. This was successfully completed for all the valves.
Taking The Hydraulic Systems to The Water
The third stage was measuring and characterising the valve control response to make sure they behave as expected. And finally, there was a subsystem test by using the valves in their manifolds to prove out the control system. Only once this rigorous testing process was complete, and the data analysed to check valve health and performance, did the parts move onto the build team for installation in the new AC75 race yacht. It was then that the action really starts with S6 Pro X Domin Valves onboard and on the water.
The build and fit out of the AC75 was a two-and-a-half-year process based in the UK. Once completed, the race yacht made the 1,000-mile journey from Northamptonshire to Barcelona, travelling by land and sea over a four-day voyage to the race destination. Once unveiled to the public, the boat was ready for its first sail in the Barcelona waters. Sir Ben Ainslie described the day as “momentous for the entire team.” The S6 Pro X Domin Valves proved their technical ability and operational power for the AC75. Andrew McLean, System Concept Engineer at INEOS Team UK, commented on the valves’ performance; “The hydraulic valves supplied by Domin have been instrumental in enhancing the speed and reliability of the hydraulic system in our race yacht, Britannia. The cyclists are certainly starting to see the rewards of the energy efficiency of the valves”.
Attending the official yacht naming ceremony, the AC75 now named Britannia, Marcus Pont, Domin’s CEO, remarked: “I am in awe at the incredible dedication of Team INEOS Britannia to push the boundaries and accept no compromises. As a business that is driven by the same principles, we’re so proud to be part of this partnership, showcasing the incredible talents within UK engineering.” Britannia was launched in Barcelona in August 2024, for the 37th America’s Cup, fitted with the most advanced hydraulic technology available on planet earth.
