FRIDAY NIGHT FIGHT
What a way to end a week. Emirates Team New Zealand held AC40-3 and their LEQ12 in dock waiting for a Friday weather window to appear and when it did, the team took the opportunity of the summer Auckland light to throw some remarkable shapes on their dancefloor of the Hauraki Gulf in big breeze and leaden, misty skies. The sheer sight of two AC40s lined up going hammer and tongs against each other is something new in world yachting and my goodness, it’s good.
And it’s close stuff – even with one AC40 in total one-design mode and the other in development mode, it’s a cigarette paper’s width between them in terms of performance, point, and manoeuvrability on short runs – very different story though as time goes on. When placed into the hands of the America’s Cup defender team, these are weapons-grade performance sailing machines and utterly thrilling to watch.
With the wind funnelling in at 25 knots, and gusts of 35 knots, wisely Ray Davies, the UberCoach to ETNZ, kept the team ashore with the meteorological team advising via laptop on the conditions that were expected to ease into the evening. At just after 4pm, Davies made the call to tow out to the southern shoreline of Waiheke Island and what greeted the sailors was a gusty 8-16 knots that kept the mainsail trimmers more than active and put a premium on crew co-ordination and communication.
It wasn’t a great start though as the Recon Unit commented: “The LEQ12 got up onto her starboard foil, sailed for 20 seconds then rolled into a gybe, kept her old foil down and luffed up to stop. Crew were seen inspecting the mainsheet/outhaul system. The chase boat came alongside, and the boat captain and two tech/engineer people got onboard and inspected the same area. No hydraulic fluid was observed leaking or on deck. While the recon boat was with the LEQ12, the AC40, about a mile to leeward, sailing downwind struck a U.F.O. and capsized. It was righted and sailed the rest of the session.”
But what followed was poetry in motion at speeds that nudged the 50-knot barrier. Two windward/leeward runs in close proximity, then the boats blasted off together to the Motukorea Channel between Rangitoto and St Heliers and set on a broad reach down to Bean Rock where the recon RIB just couldn’t keep up, even at 46 knots. As the two hardened up for the ‘work’ home it was here that the LEQ12 showed its pace and by Rangitoto Wharf, Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge called for the windward board to be dropped to allow the one-design AC40 to catch up. Encouraging for the design team who have made some pretty big changes to the LEQ12 both visible with the foils and unseen below decks.
It was a day for the sailors for sure, but the data that will have been gathered will have Dan Bernasconi, Chief Designer of ETNZ and his team, more than animated in the wash-up session after this. When many would have called it a day and tripped into the weekend, the Kiwis went for it and put on a performance that in many ways, changes sailing, and its perception, perhaps forevermore. This was high performance at a level unseen before in 40-foot grand prix foiling race boats and utterly mesmerising to watch.
The big take-away from the Recon Unit on the water was that “on port tack the two boats looked even, but on starboard the anhedral foil is visibly faster, lower downwind and higher upwind.” The even bigger take-away for the rest of the world watching is that AC40 racing is going to be utterly spectacular.
Watch the video. You won’t disagree. Sailing is changed.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: A big delay from the planned dock out time of 12.00 due to strong NE breezes. The rain started to ease about 13.50, with the breeze still above 30 at the entrance to the harbour, the AC40 was first out of the shed at 14.25 and rolled out onto the dock edge under ominous concrete coloured sky’s. She was floating in the pen at 14.40. The LEQ12 came out the door at 14.45 and was floating in the pen at 15.15. You could feel the tension on the dock with coaches and crew poring over weather information on tablets and phones everywhere.
At 15.55 Ray Davies got everybody in the team together around the back of a chase boat and gave the plan. By 16.05 both boats were towed out of the basin with sails stowed on their respective chase boats. Yachts where then towed down the harbour and out to the southern shore of Waiheke Island in the Tamaki Straight (the ‘Back Paddock’) Main and #3 jibs were set. The LEQ12 got up onto her starboard foil, sailed for 20 seconds then rolled into a gybe, kept her old foil down and luffed up to stop. Crew were seen inspecting the mainsheet/outhaul system. The chase boat came alongside and the boat captain and two tech/engineer people got onboard and inspected the same area. No hydraulic fluid was observed leaking or on deck. While the recon boat was with the LEQ12 the AC40, about a mile to leeward, sailing downwind struck a U.F.O and capsized. It was righted and sailed the rest of the session. A fix/patch was found for the outhaul on the LEQ12. It looked to be locked off close to max setting for the rest of the session. The boats did two upwinds and two downwind runs staying close, this made getting the recon boat in close a lot more difficult.
On port tack the two boats looked even, but on starboard the anhedral foil is visibly faster, lower downwind and higher upwind. Potentially more twitchy in bad chop/confused sea state. After the 4 or so windward leeward legs the yachts moved to Motukorea Channel between Rangitoto and St Heliers, here they did a broad reach down to Bean Rock hitting well over 40knots at times. At Bean Rock they both hardened up and tacked onto port for a long upwind lay through to Islington bay where they tacked and headed for home on a broad reach again. The LEQ12 had such a jump on the AC40 by Rangitoto Wharf that it put its windward foil down/in to slow down to bring the boats back together again. Once past the lee of Rangitoto about Northern Leading, the breeze solidified, and they were off. Recon boat tapped out doing 46 knots and could not keep up. Back on the dock at 18.40
Dock out: 1600 Dock-in: 1845
Onboard the Boats Today
Helms/Crews: Nathan Outteridge / Pete Burling / Liv Mackay / Leo Takahashi / Sam Meech / Marcus Hansen / Josh Junior / Blair Tuke
Sail Used:
M2: Mainsail
J3: Jib
Recon Notes: LEQ12 mainsail looked to be inverted up range up wind at times, looks slightly bigger than the AC40 but potentially flatter toward top.
Total Tacks: 12 – 9 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 1 touchdown
Total Gybes: 9 – 9 foil-to-foil
Recon Notes: Rapid and easy. From dead in water to fully foiling in less than 50 secondsWind Strength: 25 knots gusting 35 up until 15.35, then dropping to 8 to 16 knots
Take off speed: 13 knots at 75 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)