posted on 2018-11-19, 17:07authored byVernon Neville
The aim of this research was to report the physiological demands of America's Cup yacht
racing. The nature of racing was quantified, specifically the activity pattern and exercise
intensity, and the anthropometric, and fitness characteristics of the athletes documented.
This included physiological assessment (aerobic power and anaerobic power) of the
athletes during' grinding' (standing arm-cranking) the primary activity of America's Cup
sailing. The influence of crank velocity, crank length, crank-axle height and the role of the
lower limbs were evaluated in order to determine the conditions for optimal power
production during grinding. The acute thermoregulatory responses to racing were assessed,
and the chronic responses to training in terms of upper respiratory infection (URI),
salivary-immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and subjective fatigue documented. The exercise
intensity of racing was high, but intermittent, and influenced by how evenly matched the
boats were and the role of the athlete. [Continues.]
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Publication date
2008
Notes
A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Loughborough University.