The Sailors Hoping to Win the America's Cup -- by Pedaling Bikes

"Over his long career making boats go as fast as humanly possible, Matt Gotrel has done all kinds of grueling jobs. In the Olympics, he rowed them to the brink of collapse to win gold for Great Britain. And in America's Cup racing, he used all of that upper-body strength to grind enormous cranks that operated the sails.

What Gotrel had never been asked to do until recently was sail a boat by riding a bike.

But at age 35, Gotrel is part of a new breed of America's Cup sailors known as cyclors. These are the men on every boat who spend their time on stationary bicycles, churning out the colossal power required to move the sails of some of the world's fastest hydrofoil yachts. Though they have been around for less than a decade, these beasts of burden have become utterly essential to modern racing -- and sparked a frantic recruitment drive among the sport's top teams.

That's because over the coming weeks, sailing's most famous regatta could be determined by which boat is carrying the strongest cyclists.

The British and Italian teams have eliminated the Swiss and U.S. and are preparing for a showdown for the right to face the defending champion from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in the Cup finals.

"These teams are becoming more and more professional, and high performance is a big part of that, with crossover from other sports," says Gotrel, a cyclor for the Ineos Britannia team. "So we'd be silly not to go and look for the most powerful guys."

The idea of putting men on bikes to help boats fly above water -- a series of engineering masterstrokes -- was first used in the America's Cup by Team New Zealand in 2017 to devastating effect. The Kiwis, who have held the trophy since, stomped the U.S. team in a rout.

Other boats had experimented with similar concepts, but couldn't quite figure out how to make it work.

For one, many skippers didn't love the idea of having a bunch of cyclors running across the boat midway through the race to switch sides the way the Kiwis did.

These days, that's no longer a concern with every team opting to put their cyclors in fixed positions in tiny carbon pods on either side of the boat. 

Cyclors had been outlawed for the 2021 Cup, but returned in 2024 as crew sizes shrank to eight from 11, which meant that grinders operating hand-cranks could no longer generate enough power.

"Obviously you're way more powerful with your legs than with your upper body, so it's a no-brainer," says Ineos Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie. "We literally can't operate the boat unless they're doing their thing and generating quite immense amounts of wattage."

All that wattage is stored in a hydraulic system and used to adjust the sails during the rapid maneuvering required in the regatta's head-to-head competition.

Over the course of a race, a boat might have to execute up to 50 maneuvers in the space of 20 to 25 minutes. Each one demands a lung-burning sprint from the cyclors.

When they weren't training, cyclors on the U.S.'s American Magic also joined in the technological race to develop those systems and their part of the boat, said Ben Day, a retired pro cyclist turned coach who is the team's performance lead.

"Some of the cyclors are mechanical engineers," he said. "They bring some of their own thoughts about how to support the development."

Not all of them need advanced degrees, however -- which is just as well, since finding adequate candidates is tricky enough as it is. There's only a shallow pool of athletes in existence who can suddenly morph into cyclors.

Road cyclists were built too light, since each boat has minimum weight requirements, and even bulkier track cyclists are often too small. So Team Ineos settled on a different population of huge men who knew what it meant to suffer: they turned out to be ex-rowers.

"We had some guys who had never been sailing before," says Gotrel, who is 6-foot-5, 210 pounds, and has trained on six-hour rides with the Ineos professional cycling team. "Let alone being on a 75-foot foiling boat."

What doesn't change is how much it hurts. The cyclors sit in their boxes, slow-broiled by the Catalan sun, while being thrown around corners, buffeted by G-forces, and pedaling like there's no tomorrow. Their power output averages around 500 watts for 20 minutes, Ainslie said, which is the equivalent of what a Tour de France winner might pump out during the steepest climbs through the Alps. And they must do all of it as their core temperatures soar above 100 degrees -- the rules don't allow for cooling systems in the cockpits.

So by the end of a race, a cyclor is little more than an achy, sweaty mess." [1]

1. The Sailors Hoping to Win the America's Cup -- by Pedaling Bikes. Robinson, Joshua; Kuriloff, Aaron.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Sep 2024: A.12.

 

JAV naujienos: Federalinė prekybos komisija teigia, kad technologijų įmonės nesilaiko privatumo kontrolės

 

 „Tokios įmonės, kaip „Amazon“, „Meta“ ir „X Corp.“, taikė plačias vartotojų stebėjimo strategijas, siekdamos gauti pajamų iš vartotojų duomenų, nesuteikdamos tinkamos privatumo kontrolės, įskaitant ir vaikų, remiantis ketvirtadienį paskelbtais Federalinės prekybos komisijos (FTC) duomenimis.

 

 Vartotojų apsaugos agentūra, kuri 2020 m. gruodžio mėn. išdavė užklausimus devynioms įmonėms, kurioms priklauso didžiausios socialinės žiniasklaidos ir vaizdo transliacijos platformos pasaulyje, įskaitant „Facebook“, „Twitter“, „TikTok“, „Twitch“, „YouTube“, „Snap“, „Discord“, „WhatsApp“ ir „Reddit“. – nustatė, kad daugelis įmonių rinko duomenis neribotą laiką ir paprašius neištrindavo visų naudotojų duomenų. „Twitter“ dabar žinomas, kaip X.

 

 „Ataskaitoje aprašoma, kaip socialinės žiniasklaidos ir vaizdo transliavimo įmonės surenka didžiulį kiekį amerikiečių asmeninių duomenų ir uždirba iš jų milijardus dolerių per metus“, – sakė FTC pirmininkė Lina Khan.

 

 Šios išvados padarytos, kai šalies įstatymų leidėjai ir toliau stengiasi apsaugoti vaikus nuo tam tikro tipo turinio socialinės žiniasklaidos platformose, kurios sulaukė kritikos dėl priklausomybės sukėlimo ir indėlio į jaunų vartotojų psichines ligas. Ataskaitoje buvo rekomenduojama Kongresui priimti teisės aktus, kuriais būtų apribotas stebėjimas, sprendžiama apsauga ir suteiktos vartotojų teisės į duomenis.

 

 FTC nustatė, kad įmonės agresyviai rinko tiek vartotojų, tiek nenaudotojų duomenis ir agresyviai uždirbo iš jų pinigus be pakankamos priežiūros. Ataskaitoje teigiama, kad įmonės naudojo privatumą pažeidžiančias stebėjimo technologijas, kad palengvintų tikslinę reklamą, ir jų svetainėse trūko tinkamos apsaugos vaikams ir paaugliams.

 

 Daugelis kompanijų teigia, kad jų platformoje nėra vaikų, nes jų paslaugos neleido vaikams susikurti paskyrų arba jos nebuvo skirtos vaikams, rašoma pranešime. FTC teigė, kad tai akivaizdus bandymas išvengti atsakomybės pagal Vaikų privatumo internete apsaugos įstatymą.

 

 „Nors tokia sekimo praktika įmonėms yra pelninga, ji gali kelti pavojų žmonių privatumui, kelti grėsmę jų laisvėms ir sukelti daug žalos“, – teigė FTC.

 

 FTC pridūrė, kad įmonės turėtų apriboti duomenų rinkimą ir dalijimąsi su trečiosiomis šalimis ir filialais, kartu užtikrindamos didesnę vaikų ir paauglių privatumo apsaugą.

 

 „Amazon“, „Meta“ ir „X Corp.“ negalėjo iš karto komentuoti.

 

 Pareigūnai visoje šalyje siekia apriboti socialinės žiniasklaidos platformas. Anksčiau šiais metais Niujorko pareigūnai siekė uždrausti socialinės žiniasklaidos įmonėms teikti turinį nepilnamečiams valstijoje, naudojant algoritmus, nebent tokios programos, kaip Instagram ir TikTok, gautų tėvų sutikimą.

 

 „TikTok“ meta iššūkį teisės aktams, pagal kuriuos jos patronuojanti įmonė, Pekine įsikūrusi, „ByteDance“, turi nutraukti ryšius su Kinija, kad galėtų toliau veikti JAV. JAV vyriausybė tvirtina, kad Kinijos galimybė išgauti duomenis programoje kelia grėsmę nacionaliniam saugumui." [1]

1. U.S. News: FTC Says Tech Firms Fall Short On Privacy Controls. Don Nico Forbes.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Sep 2024: A.3.

U.S. News: Federal Trade Commission Says Tech Firms Fall Short On Privacy Controls

"Companies such as Amazon, Meta and X Corp. employed vast consumer surveillance strategies to monetize user data without providing adequate privacy controls, including for children, according to findings released Thursday by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The consumer-protection agency -- which in December 2020 issued orders to nine companies that own the biggest social-media and video-streaming platforms in the world, including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, Snap, Discord, WhatsApp and Reddit -- found that many of the companies collected data indefinitely and wouldn't delete all user data upon request. Twitter is now known as X.

"The report lays out how social-media and video streaming companies harvest an enormous amount of Americans' personal data and monetize it to the tune of billions of dollars a year," said FTC Chair Lina Khan.

The findings come as lawmakers around the country continue efforts to shield children from specific types of content on social-media platforms, which have come under fire for their addictive nature and contributions to mental illness in young users. The report recommended that Congress pass legislation to limit surveillance, address protections and grant data rights for consumers.

The FTC found that the companies aggressively collected the data of users and nonusers alike and aggressively monetized it without sufficient oversight. The companies employed privacy-invasive tracking technologies to facilitate targeted advertising, and lacked adequate protections for children and teens on their sites, according to the report.

Many of the companies say there are no children on their platform because their services didn't allow children to create accounts or weren't directed at children, the report said. The FTC said it was an apparent attempt to avoid liability under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

"While lucrative for the companies, these surveillance practices can endanger people's privacy, threaten their freedoms, and expose them to a host of harms," the FTC said.

The FTC added that companies should limit data collection and sharing with third parties and affiliates, while providing greater privacy protections for children and teens.

Amazon, Meta and X Corp. weren't immediately available for comment.

Officials around the country are pushing for restrictions on social-media platforms. Earlier this year, officials in New York pushed to prohibit social-media companies from serving content to minors in the state using algorithms unless apps such as Instagram and TikTok obtain parental consent.

TikTok is challenging legislation that requires its parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, to sever ties with China to keep operating in the U.S. The U.S. government maintains that China's ability to mine data on the app poses a national security threat." [1]

1. U.S. News: FTC Says Tech Firms Fall Short On Privacy Controls. Don Nico Forbes.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 20 Sep 2024: A.3.