• AES (formerly called Advanced Engineering Services) started by Chris Mitchell in 1984 operating as a sole trader. In 1986 C Mitchell designed and was in charge of building the (alloy) twelve metre masts for KZ3, KZ5 and KZ7 in Fremantle. In 1988 he headed a team of engineers which designed the rig for KZ1 (used in the 1988 America’s Cup). Typical projects AES worked on at that time were an 80 foot Italian masthead sloop Wallygator 1989, Concorde yachts 40 metre sloops in Thailand, 2nd placed Melbourne-Osaka 1991 race yacht Lucky & Luppy in Japan.
  • From 1989 – 1992 C Mitchell was Rig co-ordinator for Il Moro di Venezia in the 1992 America’s Cup; designing all Il Moro rigs and in charge of rig maintenance, developments and modifications. During 1992 the business was incorporated and renamed APPLIED Engineering Services Limited. On returning to NZ in 1992 the business designed rigs for the 105 foot ketch Wallygator, a Swan 68, Swan 651, Frers 77, BFA ML39, Holland A&R 118′ ketch.
  • For the 1995 America’s Cup AES became a design team member in Team New Zealand working on rig design; laminate testing, material supplier selection, mast inertia, mast moulds, carbon mast laminate, spreaders, spreader inertia/laminates, moulds and rigging specifications are examples of the work performed by AES. Alloy Yachts International of Henderson Auckland have built a series of super yachts over 100 feet long, AES has provided full mast specifications and rig layout drawings for Imagine, Corinthian, Sovereign, Atlanta, Hoek 104. Rig designs have been supplied for ILC30 racing yachts, Frers 60, Warwick 70 Maya.
  • The year 2000 was a major milestone for AES, in that project numbers have now exceeded 1000 projects, this represents an influence on approximately 1000 rigs. We won the Cup again with Team NZ!
  • Chris Mitchell has Bachelor and Master of Engineering Degrees (Mechanical) from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), and wrote a thesis titled ‘The Computer Aided Analysis of Yacht Rigs’. Chris has had a paper published by the Royal Instituition of Naval Architects W8 (1993). Titled: Rigging Loads on the Yacht ‘New Zealand’ and Rig Design Formulae. Chris is a Professional member of the Naval Architectural Society of New Zealand, and is currently serving as a council member for the society.Chris is a full member of IPENZ, the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand.
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  AES and the America’s CupAES has been involved with the America’s Cup since the Fremantle Cup in 1987. Whilst Chris was concluding studies at the University of Auckland, the NZ Challenge had mast problems and this in turn lead to a job for Chris appointed by Michael Fay. The NZ Challenge built masts in Fremantle using kitsets designed in Annapolis by Chris under direction from BFA. The etched, tapered masts were built at Proctors in the UK and shipped down to Fremantle. The masts were then assembled and finished off using NZ mast builders and Barry Wraight from Proctors. The work was very successful and eventually lead to a position back at the University of Auckland at the Yacht Research Unit which was funded by Michael Fay. Part way into this work the KZ1 big boat project turned up and Chris became involved with this along with several other well known designers. The yacht KZ1 was designed by BFA, but the rig was designed in Auckland and approved by BFA. The rig design team consisted of Tom Schnackenberg, Richard Karn, Rudy Struyck, John Clinton, Peter Jackson, Richard Honey; Chris was chairman. Roger Hill was draughtsman. All the construction was undertaken by Marten Marine who were also the builders of the yacht itself. For the 1992 America’s Cup Chris was due to do a big trip to Europe and the opportunity came up to design rigs for Il Moro di Venezia. There were NO opportunities to take on the NZ Challenge work as BFA as successfully bid for the complete design supply in 1992. So for 3 years Chris put everything into the Italian team’s effort and this team did a great job to wind the LV Cup and become the Challenger. Since then AES has maintained a number of Italian contacts and clients for repeat business. For the Italian masts the builders were Sparcraft, ACX and Omohundro Company. For 1995 a new opportunity opened up in mast design with Team NZ and this was carried out with the mast builders Southern Spars Ltd. Team NZ won the America’s Cup in 1995 and so at last we had a win after KZ7 the big boat and Il Moro. We were very proud of our involvement with the 2000 America’s Cup Defence where we again assisted Team NZ. Rigs for the 2000 cup have been a major area of development and Team NZ has been at the forefront of this now for two Cups in a row. In comparison the involvement in 2003 was larger than in 2000, but the result was the opposite. We have to take that on the chin and look at the big picture I guess. There was much controversy, about the team. I would say that the reason that NZ only had one team in each Cup was that the size of the country and the pool of people is not big enough to have more. Possibly this is also true of Australia which struggled in 1987. In terms of the pool of personnel, NZ effectively had two or three teams in the 2003 event and the resources were spread thinly, but you make your own luck and we blew it. Still even though we were up against it, we did try as best we could. The next Cup chapter was with Emirates Team NZ, with both Chris and Andrei being [design] team members. The masts, booms and poles consolidated the innovations of the previous Cup becoming considerably more reliable and proving that the innovations were on the right track. The current AC chapter is only just starting to unfold with a bunch of legal challenges. But the proposed new boats appear to provide a lot of room for interesting rig development…
• (formerly called Advanced Engineering Services) started by Chris Mitchell in 1984 operating as a sole trader. In 1986 C Mitchell designed and was in charge of building the (alloy) twelve metre masts for KZ3, KZ5 and KZ7 in Fremantle. In 1988 he headed a team of engineers which designed the rig for KZ1 (used in the 1988 America’s Cup). Typical projects AES worked on at that time were an 80 foot Italian masthead sloop Wallygator 1989, Concorde yachts 40 metre sloops in Thailand, 2nd placed Melbourne-Osaka 1991 race yacht Lucky & Luppy in Japan.

• From 1989 – 1992 C Mitchell was Rig co-ordinator for Il Moro di Venezia in the 1992 America’s Cup; designing all Il Moro rigs and in charge of rig maintenance, developments and modifications. During 1992 the business was incorporated and renamed APPLIED Engineering Services Limited. On returning to NZ in 1992 the business designed rigs for the 105 foot ketch Wallygator, a Swan 68, Swan 651, Frers 77, BFA ML39, Holland A&R 118′ ketch.

• For the 1995 America’s Cup AES became a design team member in Team New Zealand working on rig design; laminate testing, material supplier selection, mast inertia, mast moulds, carbon mast laminate, spreaders, spreader inertia/laminates, moulds and rigging specifications are examples of the work performed by AES. Alloy Yachts International of Henderson Auckland have built a series of super yachts over 100 feet long, AES has provided full mast specifications and rig layout drawings for Imagine, Corinthian, Sovereign, Atlanta, Hoek 104. Rig designs have been supplied for ILC30 racing yachts, Frers 60, Warwick 70 Maya.

• The year 2000 was a major milestone for AES, in that project numbers have now exceeded 1000 projects, this represents an influence on approximately 1000 rigs. We won the Cup again with Team NZ!

• Chris Mitchell has Bachelor and Master of Engineering Degrees (Mechanical) from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), and wrote a thesis titled ‘The Computer Aided Analysis of Yacht Rigs’. Chris has had a paper published by the Royal Instituition of Naval Architects W8 (1993). Titled: Rigging Loads on the Yacht ‘New Zealand’ and Rig Design Formulae. Chris is a Professional member of the Naval Architectural Society of New Zealand, and is currently serving as a council member for the society.Chris is a full member of IPENZ, the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand.

 
AES and the America’s CupAES has been involved with the America’s Cup since the Fremantle Cup in 1987. Whilst Chris was concluding studies at the University of Auckland, the NZ Challenge had mast problems and this in turn lead to a job for Chris appointed by Michael Fay. The NZ Challenge built masts in Fremantle using kitsets designed in Annapolis by Chris under direction from BFA. The etched, tapered masts were built at Proctors in the UK and shipped down to Fremantle. The masts were then assembled and finished off using NZ mast builders and Barry Wraight from Proctors. The work was very successful and eventually lead to a position back at the University of Auckland at the Yacht Research Unit which was funded by Michael Fay. Part way into this work the KZ1 big boat project turned up and Chris became involved with this along with several other well known designers. The yacht KZ1 was designed by BFA, but the rig was designed in Auckland and approved by BFA. The rig design team consisted of Tom Schnackenberg, Richard Karn, Rudy Struyck, John Clinton, Peter Jackson, Richard Honey; Chris was chairman. Roger Hill was draughtsman. All the construction was undertaken by Marten Marine who were also the builders of the yacht itself. For the 1992 America’s Cup Chris was due to do a big trip to Europe and the opportunity came up to design rigs for Il Moro di Venezia. There were NO opportunities to take on the NZ Challenge work as BFA as successfully bid for the complete design supply in 1992. So for 3 years Chris put everything into the Italian team’s effort and this team did a great job to wind the LV Cup and become the Challenger. Since then AES has maintained a number of Italian contacts and clients for repeat business. For the Italian masts the builders were Sparcraft, ACX and Omohundro Company. For 1995 a new opportunity opened up in mast design with Team NZ and this was carried out with the mast builders Southern Spars Ltd. Team NZ won the America’s Cup in 1995 and so at last we had a win after KZ7 the big boat and Il Moro. We were very proud of our involvement with the 2000 America’s Cup Defence where we again assisted Team NZ. Rigs for the 2000 cup have been a major area of development and Team NZ has been at the forefront of this now for two Cups in a row. In comparison the involvement in 2003 was larger than in 2000, but the result was the opposite. We have to take that on the chin and look at the big picture I guess. There was much controversy, about the team. I would say that the reason that NZ only had one team in each Cup was that the size of the country and the pool of people is not big enough to have more. Possibly this is also true of Australia which struggled in 1987. In terms of the pool of personnel, NZ effectively had two or three teams in the 2003 event and the resources were spread thinly, but you make your own luck and we blew it. Still even though we were up against it, we did try as best we could. The next Cup chapter was with Emirates Team NZ, with both Chris and Andrei being [design] team members. The masts, booms and poles consolidated the innovations of the previous Cup becoming considerably more reliable and proving that the innovations were on the right track. The current AC chapter is only just starting to unfold with a bunch of legal challenges. But the proposed new boats appear to provide a lot of room for interesting rig development…