Yacht seeks geek with sea legs
Then you better boot up your computer.
AmericaOne, an America's Cup 2000 syndicate, has teamed up with Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HWP) and Engineering-e.com (a division of The MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation) to sponsor an online design contest. And the winner of that contest will become the "17th crew member" on AmericaOne.
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in an amazing event, rather than just watching it," said Knute Christensen, Hewlett-Packard technology project manager. "We're hoping this will motivate a lot of people to work hard."
Jib halyard what?
The purpose of the contest is to design a jib halyard lock. A jib is a sail that is smaller than the mainsail and is used in the front of the boat. The halyard is the rope, which is connected to the forward sail (jib or genoa), to raise it up the mast.
The jib halyard lock will attach to the mast to secure the jib halyard after the forward sail has been raised. Ideally this mechanism will help to relieve compression from the mast and eliminate flexibility in the halyard, as well as saving critical time while changing the forward sail.
AmericaOne hopes this contest will spark some creative engineering and show its dedication to the technology involved in the sport of sailing. Hewlett-Packard's goal is to highlight and emphasize the technology used in designing America's Cup boats.
"The America's Cup is a race built upon the successful application of leading-edge technology," said Paul Cayard, skipper and chief executive officer of AmericaOne, in a statement. "From the onset of our campaign, AmericaOne believed that technical computing was one of the cornerstones for successfully developing and evaluating thousands of candidate boat designs.
The nationwide contest will be held through Sept. 1, 1999. Contestants can submit their design ideas online at www.americaonedesign.org.
A panel of four judges consisting of boat designers and mechanical engineers will judge the entries based on the following criteria: creativity/originality, elegance, functionality, practicality/manufacturability and cost.
Round-trip to New Zealand
The winner will be awarded with round-trip airfare for two to Auckland, New
Zealand, in October 1999. The prize includes participating as an AmericaOne crew member in one of the Louis Vuitton Round Robin I races, which are the preliminary races for the America's Cup. The trip also includes lodging and all meals for a week.
"No sailing experience is needed to participate as the contributing crew member," said Bob Billingham, COO of AmericaOne. "It takes minimal athletic skill. Basically you sit in the back of the boat behind the tactician and helmsman and hang on!"
Engineering-e.com hopes the contest will provide engineers with a fun way to get involved in sailing. But they also encourage everyone from retired engineers to high school students to participate in the competition.
"The contest will be a real challenge. The part will be seeing rough conditions such as salt spray, fatigue from locking and unlocking the jib halyard, and high winds," said Doug Marinaro, director of sales and marketing for Engineering-e.com.
The contest winner will be announced in San Francisco in September.