LEGENDS IN PENSACOLA

And on Tuesday the DeVos family, the backers of the syndicate, hosted two of the most famous names in the sport - Tom Whidden and Gary Jobson – onboard the chase boat. Whidden was an eight-time campaigner with the great Dennis Conner, three-time winner of the Cup (1980, 1987, 1988) as well as being an inductee of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame. Gary Jobson was tactician for Ted Turner in 1977 on the all-conquering Courageous campaign, alongside being one of the most accomplished broadcast commentators on the Cup and an inductee of the America’s Cup Hall of Fame also. They came to see what the buzz was all about but unfortunately, today, the Pensacola wind Gods simply weren’t playing ball.

Patriot held ashore for the dense fog to partially clear and eventually docked out at 12.35pm into light mist looking for breeze and keen to get some final practice in before the boat is de-commissioned. Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison, two sailors who perhaps may well be mentioned in the same breath as Whidden and Jobson in time, tried everything to get Patriot flying but it was a case of tow-to-fly for all four runs that were completed and only on one run of six minutes could sustained flight be maintained. Nonetheless, in those brief moments, Whidden & Jobson will have seen a mightily graceful Patriot foiling on smooth water in the Bay with a grace and elegance belying sheer power.

The team called it a day after an hour and a quarter and came back ashore. Michael Menninger, the legendary Etchells World Champion, is an interviewee that the recon team has been wanting to speak with for some time. As the ace Flight Controller on Patriot, Michael’s insight into maintaining flight is invaluable and talking specifically about his role he offered: “It depends on the sea state and on the variability of the breeze, (flight) depends on a lot of things but as a flight controller you’re trying to be as consistent and smooth as possible just to avoid using as much of the flaps and the elevators as possible.”

And speaking about ride height he said: “It's just about how high you want to fly…and the different moding options, you know the higher the sea state and the bigger the difference between the drops and the crests you may want to fly a little bit lower so you don't get as much tip reaching…and it really depends how the boat’s setting up and what type of foil you may have on. I think when we get to the America's Cup it's going to be interesting to see how all the different teams choose to mode their boats through the sea state and people might choose different foils, people might choose to sail different cant angles, ride heights etcetera so I think the sea state brings a certain dynamic piece to the sailing that teams will be able to make different choices and have different platforms.”

Asked whether the role of cyclor and flight controller could be merged, particularly with an eye on the reduced crew numbers (11 to 8) being introduced for AC37, Menninger interestingly commented: “That’s a good question, that's something that we're trying to ask ourselves and sure a lot of other teams are trying to ask as well and it's going to be a long process to learn how we can be good at kind of melding those two things together and it’s an ongoing thing that we’re working on.”

Interesting. It wasn’t like that in the 12 Metre era.

On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed inshore today, covered approximately 11 nm, comprised of 2 W/L legs. Three headsails were loaded into the support RIB, 1 was used. Sailing began at 13:42, completed 2 manoeuvres and ended sailing at 14:17. Patriot had a total flying time of 12 Minutes. Top speeds could not accurately be measured due to the short duration of the sailing. VIPs were observed on board the chase boats today including Tom Whidden, Gary Jobson, and members of the DeVos family. A brief attempt was made to get some hours in but, the breeze never filled in consistently today. The fog was intermittent as well. Today's sailing efforts were likely for the benefit of the spectators. Patriot is not expected to roll out tomorrow Wednesday Feb 1, 2023.

Total Tacks: 2 – 1 foil-to-foil, 1 touchdown

Total Gybes: 0

Recon Notes: Patriot was on foil a combined total of 12 minutes.

Flight times: ranged from 1 minute to 6 minutes (3, 6, 2, and 1 minute respectively).

Take off speed: 20 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)

Initial take off was tow, 3 additional tow-ups.

Onboard Today:

Helms: Paul Goodison / Tom Slingsby

Trimmers: Dan Morris / Riley Gibbs

Flight Control: Andrew Campbell / Michael Menninger

Power Group: Colten Hall / John Croom / Madison Molitor/ Trevor Burd / James Wright / Tim Hornsby / Taylor Brown

Conditions: 12:31 SE 4k/ 13:03 SE 7k/ 14:02 SE 5k. Wind speed measured 8ft above sea level using a handheld anemometer. Sea State: <1ft. Foggy 65 degrees (AM). Sunny 75 degrees (PM).

Sails Used:

M1 (AM-MN8): 1 hour 45 minutes

J2 (J1-6): 1 hour 13 minutes

Dock-Out: 1235 Dock-In: 1430