CALIBRATION DAY
It was a rather welcome late morning crane-in and a relaxed 1pm dock-out for an afternoon in Pensacola that promised little for the crew of Patriot with a forecast of a dying breeze but delivered rather a lot. As is becoming their trademark, the ever-evolving New York Yacht Club American Magic Team took advantage of everything the late summer light offered and conducted a thorough three and a half session that looked for all the world like a day of systems-checks, crew trials and calibration of the ride-height controls.
In what turned-out to be near-perfect conditions, the team ran through a 35 nautical mile programme, straight upwind and downwind but interestingly the emphasis was not on having Patriot on steroids at near-race pace and tune as we have seen in recent sessions, the preference today was for bedding-in runs and controlled flight.
Initially Tom Slingsby was not on the wheels, neither too Paul Goodison, so clearly it was a day for the technicians under the guidance and all-seeing-eye of Terry Hutchinson to gain some valuable systems data and check through the advances that the shore team have been implementing recently. Lots of attention was being paid to the twist in the mainsail and the way the headboard was working – American Magic has been fairly consistent on this area – and a crewmember was noted going up aloft to attend to a batten issue mid-session. Any issue looked minor, and he was soon back on deck.
Once Tom Slingsby was installed on the helm after the first session, the concentration shifted to ride height and noticeably downwind there was emphasis on higher flight with speeds rising to almost 40 knots – and remember this is in conditions that barely registered above 5-7 knots. Impressive are these AC75s – very impressive.
Speaking afterwards Head of the Sail Design Department Juan Meseguer - a past winner of the America’s Cup with the BMW Oracle Racing Team back in 2010, confirmed the focus of today’s session, saying: “It is all about systems to be honest and we just put out a list of priorities for the day and we go from system to system, ticking them off and making sure they all work and just how to improve them daily.” Asked what a typical day in the Cup looked like for him, Meseguer responded: “this could be a typical in Barcelona! So for us it was a really good sailing day…we did really good manoeuvres, we gybed very nicely and tacked very nicely, so I think is very good.”
Patriot’s stats certainly held up today with 12 tacks, 10 foil-to-foil – an 83% success rate and 17 gybes with 13 foil-to-foil – a 76% success rate. Flight time was some 46 minutes with the longest airtime being a 12-minute run across the Bay of Pensacola. Training continues this week, and the team are still looking at going outside of the Bay area in search of increased wave height and more breeze but as a calibration day, today was another milestone in this already impressive sailing programme. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed approximately 35nm, comprised of 6 W/L legs with additional self-foil attempts at reaching angles. Paul Goodison/Andrew Campbell/Lucas Calabrese were not observed on board today. Tom Slingsby arrived via tender after the first sailing session. One confirmed, possibly two new cyclists were observed on board. Boat speeds were approximately 30k upwind/ 38k downwind according to the onboard GPS.
Patriot was on foil a combined total of approximately 46 min. Flight times ranged from 4 minutes to 12 minutes. Three headsails were loaded into the support rib today.
Windspeed was measured using a handheld anemometer approximately 8 feet above sea level. 1312 SE 8k/ 1430 SE 7k/ 1542 SE 5k/ 1600 SE 4k
Total Tacks: 12 – 10 foil-to-foil, 2 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 17 – 13 foil-to-foil, 4 touchdowns
Onboard Today:
Helms: Tom Slingsby
Observed: Dan Morris / Terry Hutchinson / Riley Gibbs
Power Group: Colton Hall / John Croom / Trevor Burd
Sails Used:
M1 (AM-MN8):3 hours 5 minutes
J1-6: 2 hours 30 minutes