SWISS ROLLING
Alinghi Red Bull Racing continued their relentless programme today on this, their twenty-seventh day out on the waters of Barcelona. Whilst some teams have paused this week with sailors away at the SailGP Grand Prix, the Swiss are heads-down, working away at pace and checking through a myriad of systems, control set-ups and sail cross-overs with a real focus on data collection, A/B testing and as Design Co-Ordinator Adolfo Carrau says: “comparing apples with apples.”
The data gathering exercise for all teams is non-stop with just about every component on these boats wired back to computer systems for analysis and interesting to hear that Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s design team have implemented a new system as Carrau confirmed: “This is going to be never ending until the end now of the campaign but it’s going well and we’re gathering a lot of data with a new system. But in general, it’s also all this componentry that’s coming along as we progress and as the team improves we manage to fine-tune systems and things that are very hard to grasp from outside – but from the inside there’s a lot going on.”
Bridging the training gap to the more established teams that sailed and trained in the AC36 cycle was always going to be a tough ask but methodically, step-by-step, the young Swiss sailing superstars of tomorrow have traversed the highs and lows of training, battling through adversity, scaling the vertical learning curve and put on a performance today when the wind played ball, late in the session in what’s becoming known as the ‘golden hour’ just before sunset, that they can be immensely proud of. Huge credit to the sailors, their coaches and sailing advisers Dean Barker and Pietro Sibello who were onboard today, the shore team and the support units who have kept focussed on the task in hand and what a reward to see the sailors sailing like this. The foiling tacks were good, the gybes looked tough to complete post the manoeuvre with some dramatic bear aways amidst spray but certainly massive progress forward.
BoatZero was towed out west late in the afternoon where the breeze seemed more consistent and after changing down to their J2 were up and flying quickly. It was a five hour day on the water, having docked out at 11.15am, and the original set-up saw the big J1 and the beautifully re-cut M2-2L (slightly smaller) mainsail on the boomless set-up. As the wind filled in producing an 11-knot consistent breeze, the team set about the training putting BoatZero through a total of 16 tacks, 3 of which were foil-to-foil (4 touch and go, 7 touchdowns, 2 displacement) and 11 gybes, with 2 foil-to-foil (2 touch and go and 7 touchdowns). That’s a healthy number and it’s clear to see the progress being made in terms of sheer sailing technique – and against a stunning Barcelona background.
Speaking afterwards, Carrau was pleased with the day’s work, saying: “Today we spent a couple of hours looking for wind and we went a bit west as the wind was a bit tricky all day. We had to do a few jib changes and yeah, we spent the whole day trying different techniques and settings so as you saw, some things were working, some things were not but all in all it was a pretty useful day and we managed to collect a lot of data which was good.”
The gap is closing rapidly and with Alinghi Red Bull racing scheduled for a pretty full week of sailing this week, the old adage about ‘time on the water’ rings very true. The Swiss are on a roll for sure. (Magnus Wheatley)
On Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing covered over 65 Nautical Miles over a five-hour session. The wind on the sea was less than forecast, though the direction oscillated about SSW as predicted. The team started by towing out of the port, north along the coast, however made a U-turn upon finding no wind. They continued to tow south of the port towards the airport but were not able to get on foil when attempting to sail in this area. The yacht was towed back towards Barcelona, by then the wind increased and allowed the team to progress with the sailing day. The team settled with the J2 and proceeded to perform good sailing stints; upwind and downwind manoeuvres including bear-aways and heading up, managing a few fully foiling manoeuvres. The focus is still on drilling manoeuvres and consistently flying on foil in the changing Barcelona conditions, while collecting data from the current systems on board.
Wind speeds were measured with an anemometer 3m above sea level. Wind Log: 3-4kn 210° @ 11:45, 7.5-9kn 230° @ 12:30, 6.5-9kn 220° @ 13:30, 9-11kn 220° @ 13:50, 8-10kn 200° @ 15:25. Towing North East 11:30 - 11:45 , Towing South West 12:05 - 12:20 , Sailing 12:40 - 13:00 (J2 Jib, Displacement, 3 Non Foiling Tacks) , Towing North East 13:15 - 13:30 , Sailing 13:30 - 13:40 (J1 Jib, 1 Foiling Gybe - Touch Down) , Sailing 13:50 - 14:00 (J3 Jib, 1 Non Foiling Tack) , Sailing 14:10 -14:30 (J3 Jib, 1 Non Foiling Tack , 2 Foiling Gybes - Touch Down) , Sailing 14:50 - 15:20 (J2 Jib, 4 Foiling Gybes - Touch Down, 2 Foiling Gybes - Fully Foiling, 2 Foiling Gybes - Touch Go) , Sailing 15:25 - 16:20 (J2 Jib, 3 Foiling Tacks - Fully Foiling, 4 Foiling Tacks - Touch Down, 4 Foiling Tacks - Touch Go). Sails down at 16:30 and tow back to base.
Driving Group: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Dean Barker, Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux, Pietro Sibello
Power Group: Nicolas Rolaz, Nils Theuninck, Augustin Maillefer, Thery Schir, Nico Stahlberg, Florian Trub
Dock out: 11.15am Dock-In 4.50pm
Total Tacks: 16 – 3 foil-to-foil, 4 touch and go, 7 touchdowns and 2 displacement
Total Gybes: 11 – 2 foil-to-foil, 2 touch and go, 7 touchdowns
Take-off speed: 19 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)