Sailing
We show the sheer power of modern America's Cup boats in a video that's simply 100 seconds in length with no slow motion footage and no music.
The America’s Cup has always been a game changer in the world of sailing and the 35th edition of the race is no different.
Twenty years ago, the average max speed was 12 knots – today, it’s 40 knots in less than 12 knots of wind. Today, you don’t even hear the wind because you’re going so fast. Yeah, we’ll let that one sink in for a minute.
While sailing these machines, crews constantly sail on the edge between ridiculously fast and total catastrophe, combating situations and G-force speeds when manoeuvering. At this point, we should probably mention the sailors are not strapped in either – so that’s like driving an F1 car without a seatbelt.
Their goal: to get around the race course faster and cleaner than their opponent. It’s basically like putting two firey bulls into a china shop and hope they’re not going to bump into anything.
For the second straight edition, ORACLE TEAM USA will be defending the America’s Cup after winning the oldest trophy in sports in 2010. And since the last cup in 2013, they've been developing and pushing the limits of sailing so hard that the boat is now more rocketship and less sailing boat.
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.
We challenged a team of filmmakers to bring the power of ORACLE TEAM USA to your screen, and we can promise you they have not disappointed.
Matt Knighton and his team – including Sam Greenfield and Javier Salinas – put together some of the most unreal footage we’ve ever seen of ORACLE TEAM USA and, well, sailing full-stop.
Together the team used special camera rigs to give you a unique feel-like-you’re-there angle. Then, the guys were able to get the ‘Holy Grail’ of on-water drone photography when they sent a drone under the boat for risk it all never-before-seen shot under the boat. Greenfield had been working on getting that banger ending shot for over a year and when the moment finally presented itself whilst making the RAW100 – they went for it. Rumour has it that Spithill saw what was happening and lifted the boat up so Greenfield could get the magic shot. Well done boys, well done.
Finally, microphones were set up in locations in, on and around the AC50 to discover sounds we’ve never heard on a sailing boat. Avoiding slow motion and music, we are graced with an action clip that truly exhibits the grace, power, and sheer awesomeness these machines have on the water.
Raw 100 is a video series designed to highlight the talent and creativity of filmmakers. The rules for each video are simple: 100 seconds in length, no slow motion footage, and no music. By having to work within these limitations, filmmakers have to get creative and think outside the box.