FOIL TESTING IN CAGLIARI
With the wind Gods not playing ball for most of the week in Cagliari, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailors were keen to make up for lost time and hit the water on Saturday for a full-on day of foil and cant testing onboard their lavishly adorned LEQ12.
New screens were noted in the helm pods, but this was a pure test day with the team trying out various flight modes particularly on their new starboard foil and some very interesting crew manoeuvres pre-flight which sees a team member scramble over the deck to the windward side to induce windward heel before the foils bite and the boat pops effortlessly out of the water.
The interaction with the foils is something clearly on the Italian design team’s mind and there were some interesting take-aways in the recon interview with naval architect Andres Suar who clearly has one eye on the conditions in Barcelona saying: “Basically in your design process you give quite a bit more weight to any event that is related to any crash down or hull touching so you need to take that into account and also how the boat will behave once (off the foils), the chances of dropping on a pre start and things like that you need for sure to take that into account as it will be a big difference, and also the interaction with the foils will be quite different.”
And with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli defeating all the challengers last time at AC36, this is a team determined to go one better in Barcelona. The design team were widely praised for the way their AC75 improved over the course of the tournament in Auckland and as Suar says: “Well basically you learn quite a bit from the last time so you already start with something that is a step forward to what you did last time and then the conditions are completely different…so I guess we will see differences this time around.”
With the design team well into the final stretch to sign-off on the designs and go into build, clearly the concentration now is on foil testing and today’s session saw the Italians in flight for some 124 minutes in total and hitting speeds in excess of 42 knots. Impressive to see, the LEQ12 looked rock solid in any mode the sailors chose and with the helms switching out between Francesco Bruni, Jimmy Spithill, Marco Gradoni and Ruggera Tita, the boat was pushed relentlessly hard over the three-hour session. Plenty of good data will have been gathered and the sailors certainly earned their keep with accurate trim and controlled flight.
Another good session for the Italians who are at such a high level now in this LEQ12 that they make foiling at eye-watering speeds almost look mundane. Top level sailing at its very finest from one of the stand-out challengers for AC37 in Barcelona. (Magnus Wheatley)
On Water Recon Unit Notes: The LRPP team has found quite profitable conditions for a productive sailing session with medium to upper range NW pressure, 10-12 knots in the morning and 15-18 knots in the afternoon. The day at the Ichnusa Dock started at 8:00 when the Italian LEQ12 rolled out of the shed and was craned in at 8:20.
Due to the forecast change, the dock-out was postponed of an hour in which the shore crew run the usual checks additionally to some maintenance below deck and hoisted and locked in mainsail before packing it back away. At 11:15 the team headed towards Sella del Diavolo to hoist main+J2 and the LEQ12 was boarded with 4 crew members, a few of which wearing different helmets. Some swaps of helmsmen, facing new screens, and trimmers were observed in the following sailing hours. Throughout the whole sailing session 6 self-take-offs were observed with occasionally a third crew members sitting on windward deck before crossing back and take off while heeling to windward as documented by recon videos.
The sailing session began on the westerly side of the Gulf before heading offshore from Poetto where more breeze was forecasted. After some initial runs and with more pressure filling in, the team hoisted the J4. Beside some manoeuvres closer to shore, the team seemed to focus on testing flight in long broad reach runs; certainly sailing conditions in which the recon RIB struggled to keep up not exceeding 42 kn. Within several downwind modes significant variation of ride height has been observed. Towards the end of the session the Italian LEQ12 headed towards the harbour gate where some mark rounding manoeuvres were tested concluding the day after 75nm with 15 manoeuvres, out of which 8 tacks and 7 gybes and a foilborne time of 124 minutes out of approx. 180 minutes hullborne.
Dock out: 1030 Dock-in: 1315
Onboard Today
Helms: Francesco Bruni / Ruggero Tita / Marco Gradoni / Jimmy Spithill
Crew: Andrea Tesei / Umberto Molineris (swapping out with Vittorio Bissaro)
Sails Used:
Mainsail (MN1-1S): 3 hours 30 minutes
J2 Jib (J2-1-B): 1 hour 15 minutes
J4 Jib (J4-1-A): 1 hour 40 minutes
Total Tacks: 8 - 5 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 1 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 7 – 6 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go
Recon Notes: 6 self-take-offs
Wind Strength: 11:30 NW 9-12kn/ 12:45 NW 12-14kn /14:10 NW 15-18kn ---- Maestrale has increased in afternoon AM:11℃, sunny. PM: 16℃, cloudy.