CORRELATING THE SIMULATIONS
Knowing when to back off and protect the asset is a sign of experience, and today the New York Yacht Club American Magic Team did just that in chilly conditions inshore in Pensacola Bay with the wind in the upper regions and forecast to close-in further. It was a very early start for the shore team who craned it at first light just after 7am and the sailors were on the water at 8.25am to try and eke the most from the day. “Can you smell that? That’s a lot of breeze,” said Dan Flanagan part of the American Design Team, and he wasn’t wrong.
The usual bluebird days of Pensacola that have allowed the team to complete astonishingly long runs recently was replaced by 48 degrees and gusts over 22 knots. AC75’s are a tough workplace at the best of times but this was veering towards un-sailable and the team covered just 14 nautical miles - albeit touching speeds approaching 40 knots at times - on short, for American Magic, runs that topped out at five minutes.
The team were again running the dual traveller arrangement for the mainsail which has come under huge scrutiny and analysis since it was first attached earlier this week. Excellent sleuthing and deduction from Thomas Morris of the Mozzy Sails YouTube channel suggests that the Americans have taken the main element of the hydraulic mainsheet control and effectively laid it down on the secondary (forward) track on a carrier in a bid for aero efficiency and perhaps de-coupling the clew from the mast rotation system. Naturally the team won’t confirm or expand on the suggestion, but Morris’s analysis is more than credible. Today it was hard to tell if it was used or effective and there were plenty of times that crewmembers were spotted peering in between the double-skin sail at the clew, monitoring the new system’s progress.
Speaking afterwards Dan Flanagan from the American Magic Design team gave a decent insight into what the designers are doing with all the data that’s being collected on a dauly basis saying: “If I'm in the container, it's either looking at the next design or looking at the loads from the previous day's sailing from on the water, trying to monitor some of the loads on the water and then just trying to correlate what we see on the water with what we see in the simulations… we're making a lot of progress and obviously we're testing a lot of systems on Patriot, testing a lot of concepts and then simulating them in between and correlating what we see in the simulations and what we see on the water, so I think the team’s really happy with the progress and really happy with where we're going.”
Patriot docked in a little after 10.30am and the superb shore team – some of whom have been seen sporting ten gallon hats recently - packed her away safely in the shed as the weather deteriorated further, and as Flanagan wisely opined: “It was sporty.”
American Magic’s next scheduled sailing day is Tuesday next week. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed inshore today, covered approximately 14 nm, comprised of 4 W/L legs. Five headsails were loaded into the support RIB, 1 was used. Sailing began at 9:09, completed 2 manoeuvres and ended sailing at 10:19. Patriot had a total flying time of 15 Minutes. Top speeds were approximately 39k upwind (according to RIB GPS). Patriot did not sail downwind long enough to gauge speed. The conditions today were high to above high range. Patriot foiled for five short stints with around 15 minute breaks in between. At each break in sailing, attention was given to the mainsheet/traveler and on one occasion a crewman went up the rig to inspect the luff of the main. Sailing was ended when conditions became top end according to the interview. Patriot is not expected to roll out again until Tuesday 1/17.
Total Tacks: 2 – 2 foil-to-foil
Total Gybes: Zero
Notes: Patriot was on foil a combined total of 15 minutes. Flight times ranged from 3 minutes to 5 minutes (5, 3, 3, and 4 minutes respectively).
Take off speed: 20 knots at 70 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Initial take off was self, 4 additional self take offs/ 0 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: Cloudy 48 degrees (AM). Sea State: 1-3ft chop
8:49 N 12-16k gusting to 21k/ 9:37 N 16k gusting to 21k/ 9:47 N 17k gusting to 22k. Wind speed measured 8ft above sea level using a handheld anemometer.
Sails Used:
M1 (AM-MN9): 1 hours 45 minutes
J5 (J3-6): 1 hour 26 minutes
Dock-Out: 0825 Dock-In: 1037