TRAVELLER TALES
New York Yacht Club American Magic broke cover on their new dual mainsheet traveller system today now fully functional and giving the mainsheet trimmer a whole host of new trim options
The innovative system was first seen, minus the car, on Sunday but today looked like the first full operational outing and now with two travellers positioned approximately six feet apart, the lower part of the mainsail can be even more aggressively trimmed both to elicit the ‘pop’ to flight from displacement mode but also to give additional trim options in marginal conditions where small spills of the leech are required by dropping the aft traveller whilst flight and power can be maintained by keeping the forward traveller trimmed. What we saw today was the sheer responsiveness of the system, with the mainsheet trimmer able to adjust the car positions aggressively and in pre-flight displacement the necessary fanning of the lower half of the sail looked far more productive in that vital moment before the boat rises and flies.
American Magic have been working intensely hard on their systems and it’s hard not to believe that they have taken a jump on the opposition in this area as sailing on their 2021 Auckland AC75, Patriot, has afforded them the ‘at-scale’ testing that will inform the build of the new AC75 that will shortly be signed off and go into production. The team’s cyclor system has been refined with the help of cycling component giant SRAM and the power output looks to have steadily progressed from the early days where the cyclors were rotated after about an hour. Now they’re going longer, and the hydro demands of the boat are being met with more proficiency. All round, the American programme is looking like the real deal and with their AC40’s arriving in early Spring, this is a team that has impressed from the off and looks to have real momentum.
Today’s session was a case of hunting the wind as the light conditions inshore in the Bay of Pensacola called for a total of eight tow-ups from the chase boat and relatively short flights varying from 1 to 27 minutes with the team covering some 44 nautical miles. The big highlight was the 100% success rate on the seven attempted foil-to-foil gybes and in the conditions a respectable 55% completion rate on the eighteen tacks foil-to-foil. Patriot’s flying time once again was right up there with a total recorded at 74 minutes – absolutely mustard for the design and sail teams who have possibly the best data to date of all the challenging syndicates.
It may well be far too early to start calling ‘favourites’ in this America’s Cup cycle with so much design, build and sailing time left to run but any conversation in that area must include American Magic as their programme to date has been pretty much top drawer. With Tom Slingsby back from the Christmas break this week, expect the team to go deep into their manoeuvre techniques as he and co-helm Paul Goodison continue to push the boat at race pace. Trevor Burd, one of the key members of the Power Group at American Magic highlighted the strength of the afterguard and the team spirit around the camp saying: “They're all the best in the world and we're doing things differently every time, we're trying to improve our technique and learn every time we're doing a manoeuvre.”
Pensacola – the ‘City of Five Flags’ – is bearing witness to a remarkable programme being executed by American Magic and in the coming days it will be fascinating to see the new mainsail technology in action and the further development of the team’s technique. It’s all happening. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed inshore today, covered approximately 44 nm, comprised of 6 W/L legs. Three headsails were loaded into the support RIB, 1 of them were used. Sailing began at 12:45, completed 25 manoeuvres and ended sailing at 16:30. Patriot had a total flying time of 74 Minutes. Top speeds were approximately 32k upwind/ 38k downwind according to the RIB GPS. Patriot left the dock at 10:20 and did not begin sailing until 12:45. During this time the crew were working on the new attachment to the traveller. Patriot was then towed up at 12:45, sailed for 6 minutes, then stopped for an hour and twenty minutes and attended to the new equipment and waiting for breeze. The breeze was more consistent during the last part of the day (6-7k 16:00 to 16:30), Patriot performed the majority of manoeuvres and had the day's longest foiling time. Patriot is scheduled to roll out at 8:15am tomorrow 01/11.
Total Tacks: 18 – 10 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go, 7 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 7 – 7 foil-to-foil
Notes: Patriot was on foil a combined total of 74 minutes. Flight times ranged from 1 minutes to 27 minutes (6, 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 8, 15, 2, and 27 minutes respectively).
Take off speed: 16 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Initial take off was tow, 0 self take offs/ 8 additional tow ups.
Onboard Today:
Helms: Paul Goodison / Riley Gibbs
Trimmer: Dan Morris / Lucas Calabrese
Flight Control: Andrew Campbell / Michael Menninger
Power Group: Trevor Burd
Conditions: Sunny 45 -58 degrees (AM-PM):
10:40 NE 3K/ 12:04 SE 4K/ 12:18 SE 6K/ 13:42 SE 6K/ 15:50 S 6K Wind speed measured 8ft above sea level using a handheld anemometer.
Sails Used:
M1 (AM-MN8): 6 hours 10 minutes
J1 (J1-6): 4 hours 15 minutes (UP 12:25 DOWN 16:40 Not sailed on for approximately 2 hrs while waiting for breeze)
Dock-Out: 1020 Dock-In: 1649