The design philosophy behind Yellow Pages Endeavour, and now Macquarie Innovation, is based upon the previous world record holders - the sailboards.

The sailboards had been steadily increasing the world mark since the early 80's and Lindsay Cunningham, our team's designer, was convinced that a new craft, based on the sailboard planing hull, could go faster.

Rig design
Lindsay's assessment of the sailboard rig was that a solid aerofoil rig would be more efficient. Yellow Pages Endeavour's asymmetric single element rig was developed using the technology and design concepts from Lindsay's Little America's Cup catamarans. After the success of this concept on YPE, a solid asymmetric wing was also designed for Macquarie Innovation. It is here that the two speed yachts differ most significantly to the naked eye. In order to increase the maximum available speed of Macquarie Innovation, more force was required out of the wing. This was achieved by altering the standard section profile of YPE and drastically reducing the aspect ratio of the rig. MI's rig is approx 7.5 m high and 3.4m wide.

Platform design
The evolution of Yellow Pages Endeavour platform began by applying a much greater righting moment to the sailboards rig. This was achieved by placing the crewmen more than 10 metres to windward of the rig. This provided greatly increased righting moment when compared with the sailboard, thereby the ability to hold up much higher sail forces that would drive the craft faster.

To complement this massive righting moment, good fore and aft stability was required. In order to reduce windage and water drag, this fore/ aft stability was achieved by setting two planing surfaces approximately 11 metres apart. The angle of the crew beam was set to oppose the line of force of the overturning moment of the sail and balance the relative amounts of downforce on the fore and aft hulls.

The hull sizes were set to ensure adequate buoyancy during the displacement phase of the craft and the width of the planing surface (1.2m) designed to ensure the most efficient planing aspect ratio possible.

Macquarie Innovation was designed around the same principles as YPE. However, to go faster meant a wider and stronger platform was required to handle the increase in performance from the new wing.

Structural design
The load bearing components are constructed using high modulus pre-preg unidirectional carbon fibre and nomex cores. The crew pod is constructed using lightweight marine plywood. This is one of the safety features built into the MI design. In the event of an accident, it was decided that it was safer to have the crew thrown clear of the wreckage with minimal impedance to their path out of the craft. The other option of the "safety cell" was too heavy and cumbersome to be seriously considered.

All aerofoil fairings are constructed using foam and heat shrink cloth. This allows a very lightweight total structure. The total weight of Macquarie Innovation is slightly in excess of 200 kgs.

Foil design
The foils that control Macquarie Innovation are tiny by comparison to the large dimensions of the craft. They are asymmetric foils with a total span of approx 270mm.

The foils have been thoroughly tested using both computer simulation as well as flow tank testing at the Australian Maritime Engineering facility in Tasmania. With such high design speeds and relatively large loads carried by the foils (each of the four foils experiences the equivalent of an average adult male standing on the end of them), the possibility of experiencing cavitation is real. The section profile is deliberately aimed at delaying the onset of cavitation, thereby ensuring that control is maintained with minimum drag. Two anti-ventilation "fences" also appear on each foil to prevent the low suction pressures from dragging air from the surface down the side of the foil.