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ORACLE TEAM USA

As proud official partner of ORACLE TEAM USA, defender of the prestigious America’s Cup trophy, we provide technical racing gear and shore gear for the ORACLE TEAM USA along with official merchandise available online for world wide distribution, onsite each America´s Cup World Series event and at the final in Bermuda – June 2017.

THE ORACLE TEAM USA JACKET

As the official clothing partner to ORACLE TEAM USA, defender of the 35th America’s Cup, we have worked closely together with the sailors in developing the range of technical clothing. We have now produced a limited final production of the masterpiece in the official collection; THE ORACLE TEAM USA JACKET made in all way GORE-TEX ®  stretch. A unique replica of the jackets worn by the team.

Technical Sailing

Watch CBS News

Oracle Team USA caps stunning comeback to win America's Cup

September 25, 2013 / 6:58 PM EDT / CBS/AP

SAN FRANCISCO Skipper Jimmy Spithill and Oracle Team USA won the America's Cup on Wednesday with one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

Spithill steered Oracle's space-age, 72-foot catamaran to its eighth straight victory, speeding past Dean Barker and Emirates Team New Zealand in the winner-take-all Race 19 on San Francisco Bay to keep the oldest trophy in international sports in the United States.

All but defeated a week ago, the 34-year-old Australian and his international crew twice rallied from seven-point deficits to win 9-8. Owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison, Oracle Team USA was docked two points for illegally modifying boats in warmup regattas and had to win 11 races to keep the Auld Mug.

After almost dunking its chances when it buried its bows in a wave shortly after the start, Oracle's hulking black catamaran - with a big No. 17 on each hull - showed its incredible speed when it reeled in the Kiwis while the boats zigzagged toward the Golden Gate Bridge on the windward third leg.

They fly across the water thanks to underwater wings called hydrofoils, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker.

"You're hitting near freeway speed - over 50 miles an hour," San Francisco sailor Kimball Livingston told Whitaker. "These are the fastest boats ever built. We've never seen anything like this in any kind of sailing boat, much less the America's cup."

They don't just look spectacular, they're spectacularly expensive - $100-million to build and operate, Whitaker reports.

The New Zealanders were game despite being stranded on match point for a week. Spithill and crew still had to sail their best to end the longest, fastest and by far wildest America's Cup on a course between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

Team New Zealand had the lead the first time the boats crossed on opposite tacks. By the time they crossed again, the American boat - with only one American on its 11-man crew - had the lead.

As Oracle worked to stay ahead, tactician Ben Ainslie, a four-time Olympic gold medalist from Britain, implored his mates by saying, "This is it. This is it. Working your (rears) off."

It had to have been a gut-wrenching moment in New Zealand, which has been on edge for a week as the Kiwis failed to close out the victory on a warm, sunny afternoon.

The Kiwis had been faster upwind in running away with races early, but Oracle constantly made changes to make its cat a speed freak.

As Spithill rounded the third mark onto the downwind fourth leg, his catamaran sprang onto its hydrofoils at 35 mph, its hulls completely out of the water, and headed for history.

There were hugs and handshakes after he steered the cat across the finish line, 44 seconds ahead of Team New Zealand. Ellison, who has spent an estimated $500 million the last 11 years in pursuing, winning and now defending the silver trophy, hopped on board and the crew sprayed him with champagne.

It wasn't always so jubilant, of course, but Spithill refused to let his team fold after the penalties were announced four days before racing started.

How big was this win?

In sailing terms, it was the equivalent of the Boston Red Sox sweeping the final four games of the 2004 ALCS over the New York Yankees, the only 3-0 comeback in major league history. It's also comparable to the Philadelphia Flyers overcoming a 0-3 deficit to beat the Boston Bruins in the 2010 NHL playoffs.

As stirring of a comeback as it was for Spithill and his mates, it was a staggering loss for Team New Zealand. Barker, 41, was looking for redemption after losing the America's Cup to Alinghi of Switzerland in 2003 and then steering the losing boat in 2007, also against Alinghi.

Team New Zealand was funded in part by its government.

This was the first time the America's Cup was raced inshore and San Francisco Bay provided a breathtaking racecourse.

The catamarans were the vision of Ellison and his sailing team CEO, Russell Coutts, who is now a five-time America's Cup winner.

Powered by a 131-foot wing sail, the cats have hit 50 mph, faster than the speed limit on the Golden Gate Bridge.

After Artemis Racing's Andrew "Bart" Simpson was killed in a capsize on May 9, sailors began wearing body armor, knives, an air tank and breathing tube, self-lowering equipment and underwater locator devices.

The new, cutting-edge boats are not without criticism and Ellison defended what some call risky engineering and sailing tactics in an interview with CBS News' Charlie Rose last month .

"People really criticize professional athletes going into the Olympics," Ellison told Rose. "People don't like change. A bunch of people don't like the Olympics now because we've added skateboarding. ... We're modernizing the sport."

Ellison added: "We're competing with other sports to get kids attention. We've got to make our sport exciting and we've got to modernize it. ... It can't be unchanged since 1851."

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Oracle Team USA

• By Sailing World Staff
• Updated: March 16, 2017

ORACLE Team USA’s ACC boat sailing in Bermuda

About the Team

When ORACLE TEAM USA won the 33rd America’s Cup in February 2010, not only did team owner Larry Ellison succeed in his goal of bringing the America’s Cup “home” to San Francisco, California, but his team became the Defender of the 34th America’s Cup.

In preparation for the defense, CEO Russell Coutts and skipper James Spithill, assembled a team comprised of the best international sailing, design, build and support talent. They knew the fight would be hard. They didn’t know the half of it.

The America’s Cup Match in September 2013 was the closest in the long history of the America’s Cup. ORACLE TEAM USA, down 1-8 to an impressive Team New Zealand, mounted one of the all-time greatest comebacks in sport, winning 8 consecutive races to retain the Cup, including a come-from-behind victory in the final, winner take all, race.

Following the second win in 2013, the team has again evolved as it looks to make good on a ‘three-peat’.

Grant Simmer is the General Manager and Chief Operating Officer while Tom Slingsby is the Sailing Team Manager and helmsman/tactician. Jimmy Spithill returns as skipper/helmsman. Young blood has been added to the sailing team as well.

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100 seconds of epic sailing with ORACLE TEAM USA

Part of this story

James Spithill

The youngest skipper to ever win the america’s cup, australian james 'jimmy' spithill is one of the world's most decorated sailors..

100 seconds of raw sailing with Oracle Team USA

You've never seen (or heard) sailing like this before.

Oracle Team USA blasted by a wave in racing

© Ricardo Pinto/ ACEA

All power, all the time

The power, loads and g-force on this boat are epic

© Sam Greenfield/Oracle Team USA

Racing the new America’s Cup Class boats is like a completely different sport. They’re fast, they’re powerful, they punish your mistakes and reward you when you get it right. The game has changed. There’s no going back. ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill

Jimmy Spithill driving OTUSA 17 like he stole it

© Javier Salinas/Oracle Team USA

On board, sailing is more like flying a rocket

There's no going back in the America's Cup

Watch Kriss Kyle slay BMX at Unit 23 Skatepark

Watch brandon semenuk pin it for 100 seconds.

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Oracle Team USA reveals America's Cup racing boat

The Defender, Oracle Team USA, has revealed its America's Cup raceboat, which has been named 17 . The foiling catamaran measures 15 metres LOA and should be capable of a top speed of roughly 54 knots.

Speaking at the launch event, skipper and Boat International columnist Jimmy Spithill was in a typically confident mood, saying, "This is the boat we’re racing to win the America’s Cup. We need to get this boat out on the water and put the hours in getting it ready to race. The long days will continue."

More than 85,000 man hours of design and development have gone into 17 , including input from 15 designers and 50 boat builders. Airbus, BMW, Parker and Yanmar are among the technical partners who also contributed their expertise.

17 was built to America's Cup Class standards, which dictate the design of the hulls, crossbeams and wings. However, there is still significant room for each team to modify the rudders, daggerboards and internal systems to gain that all-important competitive advantage.

Grant Simmer, chief operating officer at Oracle Team USA, hailed the launch as a "major milestone" for the Defender. "These boats are highly-engineered, with complex systems, and built to perform under extreme conditions," he explained. "It’s a great achievement by our designers, builders and engineers to get us to this point where the race yacht gets handed over to the sailors.”

Oracle Team USA will race in Bermuda this summer as they attempt to retain the America's Cup, with the decisive match due to take place from June 17-27.

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Bmw oracle racing sails usa 98 in auckland, 17.01.2007 press release, usa 98, bmw oracle racing's new race yacht for the 32nd america's cup, sailed for the first time today after being launched at the team's training base here. the team is conducting sea trials this week before starting an in-house racing programme to prepare for this year's cup competition in valencia, spain.bmw oracle racing ceo and skipper chris dickson was at the helm for the maiden voyage of usa 98. "in a four-year campaign, it is only twice that the team has the thrill of taking a new yacht on its shakedown sail," dickson said. "certainly this day is a milestone in our programme as we enter race mode and the final stretch to the louis vuitton cup.", press contact..

Kathryn Vallis BMW Group Tel: +1-201-307-3727 Fax: +1-201-307-4004 send an e-mail

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Racing Phase of Programme Starts 90 Days to Louis Vuitton Cup.

Auckland, New Zealand. USA 98, BMW ORACLE Racing's new race yacht for the 32nd America's Cup, sailed for the first time today after being launched at the team's training base here. The team is conducting sea trials this week before starting an in-house racing programme to prepare for this year's Cup competition in Valencia, Spain.

BMW ORACLE Racing CEO and Skipper Chris Dickson was at the helm for the maiden voyage of USA 98. "In a four-year campaign, it is only twice that the team has the thrill of taking a new yacht on its shakedown sail," Dickson said. "Certainly this day is a milestone in our programme as we enter race mode and the final stretch to the Louis Vuitton Cup."

USA 98's first sail consisted of structural and technical tests on the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland. The team will first confirm the structural soundness of the new boat before race training begins. "The report card comes when we sail with the boat fully-loaded in race mode but for sailing right out of the box, 98 feels pretty special," Dickson said. "We will start putting USA 98 through the paces later this week."

About USA 98: Like USA 87, the team's first 2007-generation America's Cup Class yacht, USA 98 is the product of the BMW ORACLE Racing Design and Build teams. BMW engineers are integrated into the 38-person international design team, bringing expertise in structural engineering and load analysis from the German premium car manufacturer.

Both USA 87 and USA 98 represent collaboration between two of the world's leading yacht designers - Bruce Farr and Juan Kouyoumdjian. "Bruce Farr and Juan K are a formidable team - both in the diverse experience and strengths they bring to the programme as well as the professional working relationship they have forged over the course of this campaign," said Ian Burns, BMW ORACLE Racing Design Coordinator. "They have a great mutual respect for each other's work and their individual styles have brought the best out of the design team. Bruce and Juan worked closely together on both boats in a very similar process, bringing an interesting perspective to the design approach."

The design team's strategy called for each boat to have its own special strengths and distinct features rather than building two identical boats. "We incorporated all we learned from the innovative platform of 87," Burns said.

The USA 98 design was brought to life by the 25-person team of boat-building experts led by boat construction managers Mark Turner, Tim Smyth and Mark Somerville. The carbon fibre composite hull of USA 98 was from a different mould than USA 87 which was also built at the team's custom facility in Anacortes, WA, USA. BMW ORACLE Racing can elect to race either of their two latest-generation race boats in the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup and there is also an option to substitute boats in between racing rounds. The Louis Vuitton Cup starts in 90 days.

About BMW ORACLE Racing BMW ORACLE Racing is the Challenger of Record for the 32nd America's Cup representing Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco, and the only American entry in the contest for sailing's most prestigious prize and the oldest trophy in international sport. Team owner is American Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle. Partner of the team is German premium car manufacturer BMW. Sponsors include Allianz, leading global financial services provider; Girard-Perregaux, Swiss manufacturer of high-class mechanical timepieces; Henri Lloyd, Technology Partner and supplier of team clothing and Network Appliance, Inc. (NetApp), a world leader in unified storage solutions. The Louis Vuitton Cup, the Challenger Selection Series for the 32nd America's Cup, starts 16 April in Valencia, Spain. Eleven teams from nine nations are vying for the right to Challenge for the America's Cup. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will face the Swiss Defender Team Alinghi in the 32nd America's Cup Match starting 23 June in Valencia.

For any further information please contact:

BMW Group Nicole Stempinsky BMW Sports Communication Tel.: +49 (0) 89-382 51 584 Fax: +49 (0) 89-382 28017 E-Mail: [email protected]

Jörg Kottmeier Head of BMW Sports Communication Tel.: +49 (0) 89-382-23401 Fax: +49 (0) 89-382 28017 E-Mail: [email protected]

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USA17 (BMW Oracle Racing 90)

In 2007 Russell Coutts approached VPLP to design USA 17 , the fastest racing sailing boat to contest the America’s Cup . Little did the team know that the project would take three years of relentless modifications, improvements and developments to produce a trimaran featuring 35 m floats and a 68 m pivoting wing mast! Proof of the pudding came in 2010 with victory over the Swiss catamaran Alinghi in both races of the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia (Spain).

For VPLP, it was the most enriching and intense investment of time and energy that the firm had ever known. Winning the America’s Cup justified VPLP’s approach of continuously researching and testing hypotheses. It also vindicated the firm’s policy of optimizing weight, power and simple yet efficient sail plans, a policy applied to each and every boat designed by VPLP.

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SailGP pilots AI for preventive maintenance and high availability

Hydraulic failures can lose races. That’s why one league is looking to Oracle AI.

Alan Zeichick | October 13, 2023

With a loud splash, the 15-meter catamaran smacks the waves as it makes a fast turn during a SailGP practice run off the coast of Australia. As it maneuvers, the hydraulics aboard the F50 sailboat work hard to stabilize control surfaces, including rudders, foils, wings, and more, to maintain speeds approaching 60 mph or 100 kph. Electric motors powered by lithium-ion batteries drive the hydraulics needed by the F50 to complete its practice run and move on to the next race in the international sailing competition.

SailGP , founded in 2019, is a global organization where teams from 10 countries compete using identical boats. Racing events span two days, and all technical information about each catamaran is shared with all participating teams. That ensures that race outcomes are determined by the sailors’ skills, not mechanical differences.

Despite the adrenaline-pumping action that hooks sailors, team owners, and fans, this isn’t a story about racing. Rather, this is a business tale about how SailGP boats use high-tech tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to keep availability high and maintenance costs low.

After all, without working hydraulics, there’s no way to sail the boat—and no possibility of winning the trophy, $1 million prize, and global bragging rights.

The business problem

While individual SailGP teams are driven to win, the broader objective of the global racing league is fan engagement. SailGP is made up of national teams—Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States—each with passionate followers who watch events live or online, engage through virtual reality, purchase clothing and memorabilia, post on social media, and otherwise help the relatively new league flourish and grow.

The most recent complete season, which ended in May 2023 after 11 races, saw Australia as the overall winner, with Denmark named the team judged to have the lowest environmental footprint; sustainability is important to the SailGP organization.

If mechanical problems keep a team from competing in a race, disappointment could lead to fan disengagement. And if a boat fails mid-competition, there’s always the prospect of crew injury or race disruption. Plus, nobody wants to see that sort of news coverage in the sporting press.

With so much at stake, the league’s business executives want to ensure that catamarans are on the water as much as possible for both training and racing, while minimizing the chances of failure during an event. That means expending resources on monitoring the boats’ infrastructure and mechanical operations and using the results of that analysis to fine-tune the extensive maintenance performed after each sail.

Those boats on the water? I call them ‘extreme IoT devices.’ We get a huge amount of information off the boat and then turn that into metrics that we can understand and make better decisions with. Warren Jones CTO, SailGP

That’s where AI-based anomaly detection comes in. By analyzing billions of data points collected from sensors on the boats, the engineering team can identify parts that might be about to fail and preemptively replace them, just in case.

While parts for an F50 catamaran aren’t cheap, the opportunity cost of an in-use failure is significantly higher.

The technology platform

The F50 racing catamarans, constructed in Warkworth, New Zealand , are so technologically sophisticated that they might be confused for data centers with sails. With only a few exceptions, hydraulics control critical components, such as pitch controls and the rudder.

“Those boats on the water? I call them ‘extreme IoT devices,’” says Warren Jones, CTO of SailGP, pointing out that there are 125 sensors on each boat. “We get a huge amount of information off the boat and then turn that into metrics that we can understand and make better decisions with.”

Indeed, hundreds of sensors and cameras generate telemetry every second. All that data is logged locally, and select information is beamed in real time to SailGP’s UK operations center, where it is used by performance analysts, systems engineers, and operations staff, and to inform fans around the world of conditions on the boat.

Despite the sophisticated computers on each catamaran, the crew is completely in charge. Digital sensors are passive, and sailors operate the boat through switches, knobs, wheels, and other controls—all race-day plan execution is performed by hand. That makes each competition a true test of skill for the six-person crew.

After a race, all data is downloaded from each boat and transmitted to Oracle Cloud. There, the data is shared with each team’s managers and with the league’s officials. SailGP practices full transparency; each team receives all the same information from each sailing—even from competitors’ boats. That helps constantly improve performance and allows for each team to understand exactly what happened on the water.

“We have an open data policy,” says Jones. “Instead of the traditional racing circuit, where data is kept secret, SailGP uses that to go faster. Team Australia can see what Team Britain is doing, and Team Britain can see data from Team USA.”

That’s another reason data collection is so essential.

“This information about what’s going on in the boat is highly critical to how the teams perform and how they strategize,” he said. “It’s a constant: more data, more information, more people.”

In addition, the engineering team uses telemetry data to detect faults within each boat, going beyond routine post-sailing maintenance to address unexpected issues or unusual readings. That’s where AI-powered anomaly detection, which was initially deployed to monitor each craft’s numerous hydraulic actuators, comes in.

Hydraulics under pressure

On watercraft, as on land vehicles, hydraulic systems work by pumping specialized fluids into cylindrical pistons. When more hydraulic fluid is pumped into the piston, the piston is pushed out, moving a control surface in one direction. When fluid is released from the cylinder, the piston retracts, and the control surface moves in the opposite direction.

For those who aren’t familiar with sailboats, you can see the same activity when hydraulic actuators on an airplane move the flaps to control the plane’s lift.

When too much hydraulic pressure is applied, however, bad things happen. Pressure seals inside the piston may begin to leak. The flexible hoses delivering hydraulic fluid stretch or break. Hose couplings and fittings can weaken. A piston rod might deform or jam. Best case, performance suffers. In other cases, that hydraulic component stops functioning. In the worst case, catastrophic failure leads to a spray of slick hydraulic fluid all over the boat and the crew, which can not only be dangerous in itself on a fast-moving vessel that might be on rough seas but might lead to cascading failures.

To maintain the control positions set by the crew, hydraulic systems are constantly increasing or decreasing in pressure.

“We use pressure sensors to manage the load within the design constraints of the boat,” says Scott Babbage, head data analyst for SailGP. “From a system safety point of view, we have a pressure vessel, and the pressure that we’re storing in there needs to be measured. We have a pressure sensor, so when the pressure accumulated drops to a certain level, we recharge it with the pump, and when it reaches its upper limit, we stop charging.”

Sounds easy, Babbage says, but that’s deceptive.

“If a pressure sensor is failing, we’re getting incorrect readings on those sensors,” he said. “We don’t know exactly when to fill and when to stop filling. We potentially could overfill, over pressurize an accumulator, and have one fail.”

That could be catastrophic and, given that sensor faults are caused by hard use and a hostile environment, staying ahead of the problem is an ongoing battle.

“There’s corrosion with the salts in the water and the g-forces when the boats hit the water,” says Jones. “And sometimes, some parts are a little lower quality than others—we call them ‘Friday afternoon’ parts.”

In other words, there are many opportunities for hardware to fail.

In all but the simplest cases, crews are unable to repair the problem, which means the catamaran will be harder to control at speed. There are manual overrides that, in case of hydraulic failures, should enable the boat to get back to shore. But even so, a catastrophic failure creates a safety hazard for that boat and crew and potentially for other boats maneuvering nearby.

From a business viewpoint, the boat is out of the race and out of the running for prize money, fans are disappointed, and bad publicity might affect the popularity of the sport. In addition, repairs tend to be costly and time-consuming, which can affect the team’s ability to train and compete.

As with all major sports leagues, SailGP operates on a tight schedule.

Patterns of predicted failure

Sensors on each F50 catamaran measure the pressure on each hydraulic line and record the position of each piston rod. Each hydraulic device also has a switch that tells the system to turn the pump on and off; readings from switches are captured and logged.

In a hydraulic system, pressure is not constant. Take a control surface that’s slapping against the sea. When that surface is pushed harder, the piston rod is compressed, and pressure increases slightly. For any given amount of pressure in the hydraulic cylinder, the position of the piston rod will normally jitter slightly.

F50 sailboat telemetry systems capture billions of readings. If telemetry reveals a pattern that doesn’t match expected ranges, there’s a good chance something is amiss. Perhaps a switch is beginning to malfunction. Maybe a hose or coupling needs to be replaced, or a pressure sensor is miscalibrated. Anomalous readings are early predictors of failure, if not in tomorrow’s race, perhaps in the next few weeks. It’s less costly—in every way—to replace or repair a part before it breaks.

“It’s been quite useful to see when pressure sensors are failing,” said Jones. “Often they don't fail completely, but they'll start to measure erratically.”

Another challenge: It may not be that a particular reading is off, but that relationships between associated sensors are slightly abnormal.

How will you find such a needle in a haystack? For humans, having too much data is a problem. Fortunately, for AI-based anomaly detection algorithms, a seemingly overwhelming quantity of data is a gift that keeps on giving, especially for this small engineering team.

“Scale is the benefit here,” says Babbage. “We have a small team of engineers servicing a lot of boats. When you think of Formula One racing, they have probably 20 engineers working on each race car. We have a team of four engineers who are looking after all our boats.”

Enter anomaly detection

After each sailing, data is extracted from the F50, often via a compressed binary file, containing billions of data points, including each sensor’s identification tag, the sensor’s reading value, and a timestamp.

A simple extract, transform, and load (ETL) operation converts the binary data into a comma separated values (CSV) format and then uploads the data into Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse . Once data is in the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure ( OCI) Anomaly Detection takes over, scanning data associated with the hydraulic systems—nearly 400 million readings per race.

The AI service has been trained, using machine learning, on the relationships among the various components of each hydraulic actuator. It generates a report detailing potential problems with each boat, including the specific hydraulic actuator, the anomaly detected by the service, and the potential severity of that anomaly. This data allows the engineering crew to prioritize maintenance activities.

“Anomaly detection takes around six or seven hours to do a deep dive into that data,” says Jones. “We wake up in the morning, and it tells what our technical team needs to swap out. It’s very efficient.”

The results

Does all this high-tech analysis work? In a word, yes. According to SailGP, OCI Anomaly Detection finds one fault on average after two days of sailing—which includes shakedown cruises and crew training days as well as the races themselves. Since adopting cloud-based anomaly detection, SailGP reports that no hydraulic malfunction has impacted a boat or affected any race activities.

Fans are happy, crews are safe, and the SailGP organization can operate its full fleet of boats, in part due to behind-the-scenes technology in the cloud.

“I’m really, really proud of what we do with Oracle,” says Jones. “Every challenge that I've ever brought to them, Oracle has said, Hey, we’ve got this.”

Photographs: Courtesy of SailGP

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The competitive sailing league uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Autonomous Database to stream race metrics to athletes and fans.

SailGP, sailing’s fastest racing league, relies on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to deliver real-time data to the league’s eight national teams, broadcast partners, and fans worldwide.