Siemens has today announced that it has expanded its digital engineering partnership with Luna Rossa, strengthening its role as a technology partner, as the team optimizes its racing yacht for the forthcoming 38th America’s Cup.
As competition margins continue to narrow in the America’s Cup, teams face growing challenges in managing complex engineering workflows, connecting simulation and design data and making faster decisions across aerodynamics, structures and onboard systems. Addressing these challenges requires an integrated digital approach that spans disciplines and supports rapid iteration under demanding timelines for which Luna Rossa has expanded its adoption of the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio of industry software.
“Developing a competitive yacht means managing complexity across many engineering domains while continuously refining performance,” said Gilberto Nobili, Technology & Operations Director at Luna Rossa. “By expanding our collaboration with Siemens and adopting a wider set of technologies to drive our innovation, we can strengthen our digital engineering foundation and support the team as we prepare for the next America’s Cup.”
“High-performance sailing presents many of the same challenges faced by leading manufacturers,” said Franco Megali, vice president and CEO for Italy, Israel and Greece, Siemens Digital Industries Software. “By expanding our collaboration with Luna Rossa, Siemens brings together advanced digital engineering technologies to support innovation under some of the world’s most demanding performance conditions.”
Addressing key engineering workflows with integrated digital engineering
Through the expanded collaboration, Siemens supports Luna Rossa by connecting simulation, systems engineering, structural optimization, product design and traceability within an integrated digital engineering environment.
Yacht design, data management and traceability: A unified digital design and data management approach helps connect engineering teams and workflows. Siemens’ Designcenter™ software serves as the strategic CAD platform for product design, enabling the development of complex components and assemblies alongside Polarion™ software for application lifecycle management (ALM). Polarion supports requirements, test and traceability management, helping connect engineering intent with validation activities across the development lifecycle.
Advanced simulation and performance exploration: To better understand yacht behavior under complex operating conditions, the team uses advanced computational fluid dynamics and fluid-structure interaction capabilities. Simcenter™ STAR-CCM+™ software is used to support aerodynamic and hydrodynamic simulation, helping engineers virtually evaluate performance and assess design trade-offs earlier in development. Siemens’ digital twin technology and reduced-order modeling (ROM) and further support efficient performance exploration while managing computational demands.
System and mechatronic modeling: Understanding interactions between onboard systems is critical to overall yacht performance. Using Simcenter™ Amesim™ software, the team performs system‑level and mechatronic modeling to analyze and optimize system behavior earlier in the development process, helping inform design decisions before physical validation.
Structural modeling and optimization: Lightweight, high-performance composite structures play a key role in competitive sailing. Siemens structural modeling and optimization technologies, including Simcenter™ 3D software, Simcenter™ Optistruct™ software and Simcenter™ Hyperstudy™ software, are used to support composite design, structural optimization and multidisciplinary design studies, helping engineers explore multiple design options efficiently.
Together, this integrated digital engineering environment helps Luna Rossa to explore design options earlier, connect simulation and design data more effectively and support informed decision‑making as preparations continue for the forthcoming 38th America’s Cup season.
To learn more about Siemens digital engineering and simulation solutions, visit www.siemens.com/software
