POWERED UP IN PENSACOLA
The Pensacola breeze came in today, serving up a blustery 17-20 knots for the American Magic Team over a short, sharp chop that put an emphasis on heavy-weather control and crew co-ordination. The power group on the cyclors were rotated periodically to provide ultimate output but the day was dogged by technical issues as Trevor Burd described: “We had a bit of an issue with the hydros at one point today, so it was a matter of getting the part out, onshore, a little tickle up, having the guys take a look at it and then it run it back out to us.”
It was a busy day for the shore team all round with a lengthy set-up onshore as the team fitted new upper shrouds and spent a good deal of time on the actual mast stepping. Once on the water, the Americans ran through a series of long test runs on straight upwind and downwind legs and a concluding oval run around the Bay, opting not to gybe and only completing five tacks, four of which were foil-to-foil. The team broke out a new self-tacking J3 jib for the wind conditions that was declared on the equipment register on the 14th November 2022 alongside a new J2 which wasn’t used today.
Trevor Burd seemed pleased with the day saying: “It was great to see all the gear up range and start testing systems in a bit more breeze than we’ve had in the last few days where we’ve had a lot of light and dying breeze.”
And this time-on-the-water approach that sees the American Magic Team out in Pensacola Bay almost no matter the conditions is all designed to get the team up to speed as quickly as possible as Burd explained: “We’ve got a lot of guys who don’t have a ton of experience sailing these boats yet, so we’re trying to get them as much time as they can in new positions like trimming and flight control and then a lot of guys in the power team, we’ve been trying to get them time in the boat as well.” And in the 20 knots of breeze, Burd gave an insight into how tough sailing these boats is for the cyclors and why they’re substituted: “It depends on the conditions. There have been days when we’ve run the same guys all day and that’s been okay, but on a windy day like today, it’s probably a couple of hours, you’d be pretty hard pressed to get a full day out of it.”
The Magic programme continues with upgrades and systems integrations coming onstream at pace and the team looking co-ordinated and making strong progress. It wasn’t the most stellar session in sailing terms today as the team opted sensibly for safety-first in the upper wind range with just 24nm covered and the longest foil run being timed at 18 minutes but a lot of boxes on the to-do list were ticked off and Patriot will be back on the water through to the end of the week. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed approximately 24nm comprised of 5 up/down wind legs. Patriot began the day getting towed downwind to the south end of the bay, self-foiled, and sailed upwind for 4 minutes. Patriot then touched down briefly before self-foiling again and touching down 3 minutes later. The support rib approached, and the team worked for approximately and hour and half (fixing a hydraulic problem mentioned in the interview and numerous adjustments in the main clew area). At 1509 Patriot was back up and foiling, completing the majority of the days sailing until calling the day at 1554. The last 30 minutes of sailing today resulted in covering the most distance (circling the bay as an oval rather than W/L) at the highest speeds. The longest time on foil was 18 minutes, achieving approximate boat speeds of 38k upwind and 44k downwind. Trevor Burd also mentioned in the interview that new "upper end shrouds" were fitted recently resulting in the extra rigging time today. Two new jibs were added to the equipment list on 11/14 a J2 and a J3. The bow mounted camera was missing today.
Breakage/Issue: Patriot parked in the middle of the bay for approximately 1 1/2 hours to fix what was described by Trevor Burd in the interview as a "hydraulic problem"
Dock-Out: 12.30pm Dock-In: 4.30pm
Sails Used:
M1 (AM-MN9): 3 hours 25 minutes
J3 (J3-6): 1 hour 32 minutes (Note: New sail. Up 13:05 Down 13:37//Up 15:00 Down 16:00)
Take off speed: 17 knots at 70 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Total Tacks: 5 – 4 foil-to-foil and 1 touchdown
Total Gybes: Zero.
Conditions: 17-20 knots in the PM. Sea State: 1-3ft
Team: Riley Gibbs (Trimmer), Trevor Burd and Colton Hall (Power Group), Dan Morris/Paul Goodison/Lucas Calabrese/Terry Hutchinson/Andrew Campbell were observed in various positions