WE’VE GOT WINGS
To witness Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailing in perfect south-westerly breeze and flat waters off Barcelona, is to see a team high on the vertical learning curve. The sailors have just got better and better over the winter through first-class coaching and boat modifications designed to make flying and sail control all round much improved from where they started. It all came to bear on Monday as BoatZero was put through its paces, hitting speeds in excess of 45 knots over a nearly five-hour session in almost Auckland conditions that the boat was designed for.
Arnaud Psarofaghis skippering BoatZero showed the racing world what they can expect when the Swiss line-up in anger at the 37th America’s Cup with gutsy bear-aways at high speed, accurate round-ups and precision tacks and gybes. Far and away the best sailing session the team has conducted to date, Alinghi Red Bull Racing looked sharp on their sail control, exercising speed creases and big camber down to the clew in the lighter airs before going almost board-flat as the breeze went above 15 knots towards the end of the session. The team’s sail programme is well advanced, matched perhaps only by the finalists from the 36th America’s Cup (ETNZ and LRPP), and it’s all highly logical to produce deep cord sails that can be flattened with ease once flying – nothing radical, just effective but we can expect to see innovation in the very near future.
This is a team brimming with talent, fused with deep Cup experience, the work ethic is peerless, the camaraderie has an almost ‘family’ feel to it and the goal is abundantly clear. But the one thing that really marks Alinghi Red Bull Racing is their humility. They freely admit that they are, as Silvio Arrivabene says: “a young team with plenty to learn for us and that's why we're here,” and they are the great unknowns in this Cup cycle, more than capable of causing a huge upset to the long-established teams. Fascinating to watch.
Silvio Arrivabene, the affable co-general manager for Alinghi Red Bull Racing gave a terrific interview covering a wide waterfront of the campaign to date, after sailing today, and talking about the partnership with Red Bull in relation to a similar partnership between INEOS Britannia and Mercedes, he explained that it is so much more than just technology they share: “Well I think the partnership is a little bit different, because if I understand correctly INEOS Britannia partners with Mercedes Formula One whereas we partner with Red Bull the company, the Austrian company, the drinks company in a way and then amongst the galaxy of companies they have there is also of course the Red Bull Racing Formula One team and Red Bull Technology with whom we exchange a lot on the technical side. That has certainly been a privilege to have that preferential access, but you know certainly our partnership is beyond technologies, it’s with Red Bull.”
Talking about the biggest gain to partnering with Red Bull, the classic response was proffered: “We’ve got wings!” and on the basis of today’s session, he’s more than correct. Asked about the sailing and evaluation programme, Arrivabene offered: “We're pretty much on schedule, and plenty to do and we feel like we've had some good sessions over the winter with this boat and now we're looking forward to launching the first AC40 and that will bring us some new learnings and very excited. It actually looks a fun boat both from the videos and in the shed, so certainly going to focus on that pretty soon.”
Stay tuned, Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s AC40 was tow-tested on the waters of Barcelona today (Wednesday) and the team will hopefully be having their maiden sail aboard her in very short order this week.
The Swiss have certainly got wings and are on a roll right now – the team to watch, for sure. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out at 07:50, craned in the AC75 and carried out standard systems tests at the dock. The AC40 was towed into the main shed, with its rudder removed, to have its stickers added. The AC75 mainsheet actuator was returned to the system, eliminating the suspicion from the previous day regarding upgrading the system to one similar to that of Luna Rossa and American Magic. New seats have been added to the cockpit.
Today’s weather saw what’s locally known as a light Garbi. A 'Garbi' is a South Westerly afternoon thermal wind, usually sunny, common to the area between March and September. A light Garbi ranges from 10 - 16 knots between 180° - 200°, while a strong Garbi blows 16-20+ from 220°. The morning saw flatter water, though the sea got choppy in the afternoon as the wind increased.
The team spent almost five hours on the water, covering over 75 Nautical Miles, the most in a day so far, with one of the longest amounts of time spent on the foil. Speeds above 45 knots were reached. The team sailed longer stretches in the morning as manoeuvres in quick succession were difficult in the light wind. The team stopped for a 25 minute on-water lunch break between changing jibs at 14:00 as the wind increased. It was noticed that after tacking in lighter winds, the flight trimmer is keeping the new windward wing in the water longer. ARBR put the hammer down and upped their frequency of manoeuvres, mostly ‘Touch & Go’s, though still struggled to complete a significant amount of clean fully-foiling tacks and gybes. Regardless, this is some of the best consistent sailing seen so far. They also practiced bear-aways and rounding, occasionally using a Yellow Cardinal and a Sunday Regatta buoy as marks. An end to the session was called at 16:00 and the team returned to base.
Onboard Today
Sailing Team: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Lucien Cujean, Maxime Bachelin, Pietro Sibello, Nicolas Charbonnier
Flight Control: Bryan Mettraux / Yves Detrey
Power Group: Nicolas Rolaz / Nils Theuninck
Conditions: Light Garbi – South-West afternoon thermal wind, 8-10kn S @ 12:00, 8-10kn S @ 12:50, 10-14kn SW @ 15:00, 12-14kn SW @ 15:40 8℃, Sunny (AM). 10℃, Sunny (PM).
Sails Used:
M1 (M1-1R): 4 hours 50 minutes
J1 (J1-1R): 45 minutes
J2 (J2-1L): 45 minutes
J3 (J3-1R): 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Tacks: 33 – 0 foil-to-foil, 23 touch & go, 10 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 21 – 5 foil-to-foil, 10 touch & go, 6 touchdowns
Recon Notes:
12:05 – 12:40 Sailing (2 Tacks - Touch & Go, 3 Tacks – Touchdown, 1 Gybe - Touch & Go, 1 Gybe - Touch Down)
13:05 – 13:50 Sailing (6 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Tacks – Touchdown, 3 Gybes - Touch & Go)
14:30 – 15:00 Sailing (5 Tacks - Touch & Go, 3 Tacks – Touchdown, 4 Gybes – Fully Foiling, 4 Gybes - Touch & Go, 3 Gybe - Touch Down)
15:05 – 15:35 Sailing (2 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Tack – Touchdown, 1 Gybe – Fully Foiling, 2 Gybes - Touch & Go, 2 Gybes - Touch Down)
15:45 – 16:00 Sailing (8 Tacks - Touch & Go, 2 Tacks – Touch Down)
Take off Speed: 19 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Dock-Out: 1120 Dock-In: 1635