For the 2024 edition of the America’s Cup, six teams have spent the last two years designing and building the second generation of these extraordinary machines, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Now the new boats are in the water, in final preparation for the racing – so what’s changed in the design?

For a start, the 2024 yachts have only eight crew and all teams have adopted the two-helmsmen configuration that was introduced by Luna Rossa in the last Cup, with no crew crossing the deck during manoeuvres. This obviously simplifies the choreography and allows all crew to stay low in their cockpits, reducing aero drag. However, each team has implemented a slightly different configuration of crew cockpits and responsibilities.

The prediction that these second-generation yachts would trend to a similar design space appears to have been premature, at least as far as hull shape and crew positions go.