AMERICA’S CUP

We made the world’s first self balancing sporting trophy, for the America’s Cup.

We won a competition to make a trophy for the 2015 America’s Cup, based on a simple idea – balance. Because sailing is all about balance. The balance between power and agility, between speed and resistance, between human engineering and the forces of nature.

Making it kinetic and self-balanced was a delicate process, that took 5 weeks in total.

The result was a self-balancing silicone bronze trophy, with a poured lead counter weight inside, made from the sash window of an old Bermuda cottage, the keel weight from a Bermuda One Design and a working fisherman’s down rigger ball. On top stands a 1:90 scale foiling AC45 catamaran, leaning over at exactly 32 degrees – the precise latitude of Bermuda on the globe.

We worked with a motley crew of local skills to pull it off. Credit to the following people:

Wood worker Vibio Festa, fishermen Blake and Jim West, Alex Roque of Dynamic Machining, Robert and Max Moniz of Bermuda Electroplating, Donna & Craig Faries of MASS Ltd, Alex Davidson, Meredith Andrews, Stuart Lunn of Lunn Marine, David Swift of Pembroke Paint, artist Desmond Fountain and engineer Bill Andrews.