italomairo.com

First awarded in 1851, the America’s Cup is the biggest prize in sailingand over the years, the competition has been at the cutting edge of sailing technology.

In 1983 Australians used a winged keel to end the domination of American sailors to win the prize. The keel allowed the boat Australia II to be as light and as stable as possible while still having a large sail.

Australia II's winged keel (CTBOLT)

Since this moment, technological advances have been at the heart of the America's Cup, with teams using cutting edge materials and innovative designs to get an edge.

Multihull boats such as catamarans and trimarans were among those innovations that have transformed the America's Cup racing and pushed back the boundaries of what is possible.

This year, two new classes of boat were announced in the America's Cup – the AC72 and a scaled-down version, the AC45, which was used for the preliminary training and racing.

Oracle Team USA (Getty Images)

These catamarans use innovative wing sail designs and hydrofoils that were initially expected to achieve speeds of up to 1.6 times the speed of the wind when sailing downwind.

However, the yachts have achieved almost 2.79 times the wind speed and reached speeds of up to 47 knots, or 55 miles per hour.