DOLPHINS, MAINSAILS & MAGIC
It was all happening in Pensacola yesterday, the perfect winter training venue for the New York Yacht Club American Magic team who continued their relentless training programme aboard the modified Patriot with another long session in near-perfect conditions and dolphin sightings. Beneath high cloud, on a perfectly smooth Bay and a gentle 5-8 knots of breeze all afternoon, the Americans revealed their re-cut MN-B1 mainsail, adapted for the boomless set-up and hydraulic clew, with a slightly bigger sail area to give them additional horse-power in the take-offs.
And it was a mega session, with 61 nautical miles covered that saw Patriot rocketing along at 30 knots upwind and hitting low forties downwind over 11 long windward leeward runs, with a big concentration on crew-work whilst the afterguard most noticeably were working on the upwind technique of windward-heel. In the conditions they were looking consistent in low flight upwind, fully in control offwind and the crew-work was on-point all afternoon with the cyclors working at capacity and going through their rotations to give everyone maximum time on the boat. Impressive.
Of all the syndicates in this America’s Cup cycle, American Magic look to have a very defined training schedule as they work through a lot of technical systems areas making vital learnings before their design team commit to the new design of their one-build AC75 for Barcelona. The lighter airs of Pensacola are proving to be highly profitable all round for American Magic who can complete long days of stress-testing those systems and Paul Goodison who was helming all day today, crossing the stern with athleticism, seemed pleased with progress: “Obviously we had our new mainsail up today and we were basically trying to figure out what the wind range of that sail against the other (main) sail was…we only had to tow up twice which was obviously quite different to what we’ve been doing so far, so quite a successful day.” And he continued: “We can still be really productive on the light days. Thinking ahead to Barcelona there’s going to be a lot of light, choppy days, so refining the systems for those sorts of conditions is going to be really important.”
Of note from a recon perspective today was the continual adjustment, as would be expected, during the downtime between runs when the chase boat came in, of the new mainsail with heavy concentration on the port side skin. It was later revealed that a batten had broken and was subsequently removed to avoid any further damage and the team struggled to get leech tension on that side throughout the afternoon.
As a first-hoist though, the mainsail certainly looked to give Patriot the required power that it needed for enhanced self-take-offs, hitting that 17 knot magic number, and lifting on its foils unaided. Goodison gave an insight into the process saying: “It’s very hard to get the boat out of the water so the cyclists have got to work very hard. Once you’re up and foiling in the lighter breeze, there’s less load in the boat so the tensions don’t need to go anywhere near as high as when it’s breezy, so they only have to reach maybe half the pressure that they would on a windier day.”
With dolphins leaping and Tom Slingsby on his way back to Pensacola after Thanksgiving on Friday, the Americans will be entering a very intense period of winter training for the next few months and there’s a growing confidence in and around the team. One to watch for sure as the race for the America’s Cup intensifies. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed approximately 61nm comprised of approximately 11W/L/Reaching legs. Patriot began sailing near the base, downwind. Patriot took frequent breaks in between foiling sessions to make adjustments to the new mainsail. According to the interview with Paul Goodison the new main is larger and is more effective for self-take -offs in light air. The difference in power was noticeable. Patriot had 14 sel- take-offs today, where she would have struggled with the older mainsail. The previously mentioned windward heel angle, was most present today while trying to self-foil. Paul also indicates that the more frequent breaks in sailing today were also a result of cycling crew into new positions and that Tom Slingsby will be returning after the Thanksgiving holiday. Speeds throughout the day were consistent with prior days with similar wind speeds, approximately 30k upwind and 40k downwind (using the GPS aboard the RIB).
Dock-Out: 11am Dock-In: 4.40pm
Total Tacks: 10 – 6 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 2 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 10 – 5 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go, 4 touchdowns
Take off speed: 17 knots at 80 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Sails Used:
M1 (MN-B1): 5 hours
J1 (J1-6): 4 hours 40 minutes
Wind Strength: 5-8 knots (65 degrees and cloudy)