Like Hockney, this is man whose canvas is a tablet. His subject? Ultra-slick, quick racing boats.
Dirk Kramers, who counts Ted Turner among his former employers, has been tasked with designing a vessel capable of winning the 2017 America’s Cup — sailing’s most prestigious race.
His new boss is a man who knows a thing or two about winning, multiple Olympic champion Ben Ainslie. The knight of the realm is behind a bold bid to bring the Auld Mug to British shores for the first time.
The competition is still two years away but at the temporary home of Ben Ainslie Racing HQ on an industrial estate just outside Portsmouth, they are plotting victory.
“Everyone wants to see the champagne flying at the finish — that’s the sound bites and visual bites that people live for,” Kramers told CNN.
“But the main chapters of this are being written now. The America’s Cup is being won now.”
BAR’s temporary base — they will relocate to a bigger headquarters next May on Portsmouth’s waterfront — gives little indication of the expertise at work with its white, spartan interior.
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“It’s engineering and optimization and working with athletes with equipment so there are a lot of parallels,” he says.
His job is to work on performance prediction programs and writing code to foresee how the boat will behave and react with sailors and new equipment.
But for all the brains and cutting-edge technology behind it, there is no guarantee this $130 million project will ultimately prove successful.
“That’s the elephant in the room,” admits Claughton, though the buzz through the open-plan office suggests a team brimming with confidence that it is currently on the right path.
Ultimately, Ainslie is a fiercely determined sailor and he is adamant the team can “bring back the Cup to Britain” for the first time in the event’s history. Time will tell.
Read: Ainslie’s America’s Cup bid gets UK Government backing
Read: Kate Middleton’s royal stamp of approval for America’s Cup
