With the America's Cup at full tilt, the AC75s are humming around at 40+ knots with hidden athletes pedaling, steering, turning knobs and pressing buttons to fly these rad beasts around the course.

There is NO flight, NO racing, without the hyper quick hydraulics that move hydrofoil flaps and arms, travelers and sail sheets. These minute, split-second adjustments made with the press of a button by sailors pass through a web of software and computers that link human thought to action. That space in between is called MECHATRONICS!

In our most techy episode yet we meet the brains behind these Cup systems that allow the scorching racing we have been seeing in Barcelona. Helena Scutt, an Olympian, mechatronics expert for New York Yacht Club American Magic and a member of its Puig Women's America's Cup Team, tells us about how technology makes flying an AC75 possible. 

Ben Biddick, lead hydraulics engineer at Harken, gives us the nuts and bolts of the business end of foiling: controlling flight at pace both with sails and hydrofoils.

As guests for the first ever "All American" episode of WerAreFoiling, they share their unusual career patheways to becoming the geeks who make flight possible in the America's Cup, showing us "how it works."

Helena and Ben give us the deep dive into the entire Cup boat system. From the finger that pushes a button, sending commands and requesting algorithmic answers, to filtering the data from hundreds of sensors all the way through to the fast moving sail and foil controls keeping the AC75's ripping along through almost any sea state and manoeuver.

They are fun, young and blazing new career pathways in the marine industry. I know you're going to love this tech and our conversation. Let's go!