LIGHTING UP BARCELONA
The thermal breeze in Barcelona in early springtime can be a fickle mistress at times. The forecast was marginal for the opening day of the new week, but Alinghi Red Bull Racing waited dockside through the morning to give Mother Nature the benefit of the doubt before docking out just after 1pm as the first breeze lines of the southerly Garbi thermal started to come onshore. It looked like a wise call but agonisingly the anemometer just couldn’t register above 6 knots and it was ultimately a short session for the Swiss.
BoatZero was back on the water though after seven days in the shed whilst its younger sister, the AC40 stole all the headlines last week and the team looked well-up for an afternoon of training. Having launched the biggest M1 mainsail, matched with the J1, the team gave BoatZero every chance, but flight was elusive and even a tow out to the south to meet the oncoming breeze yielded little better conditions. It was clear that this was a not-to-be day, and the call was made just after 3pm to repair back to the Port Vell and prepare for sailing, hopefully, tomorrow.
Arthur Cevey, a member of the Power Group as a cyclor for Alinghi Red Bull Racing after a podium finish for the Swiss in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup in 2017, saw the day in a positive light saying: “There is always something to learn when we go out on the water. Every day we try some new things on the on the boat so even if it's light conditions we’re still learning a little bit more.”
The team have announced their intention to sail on Tuesday by way of lighting up the W Hotel tonight that sits on the promontory to the west of the Barcelona beachfront in red. It’s a terrific engagement with the local community that have very much taken Alinghi Red Bull Racing to heart as the first team to be fully based in Barcelona and is something they do ahead of every sailing session.
More tomorrow. The big Bull sleeps tonight.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC75 at 09:00, stepped the mast and craned in 30 minutes later. No new components were observed on the boat, after having rolled out for the first time in a week.
The team selected the M1 mainsail for the day The M1-1R mainsail and J1-1R. A recent ‘Component Update’ showed that a few jibs have been adjusted, though none of these jibs were brought out today.
The team set sail at 2pm, though there was not enough wind to get on foil. After 25 minutes, sailing was canned and the J1 was dropped. The team towed the yacht South in an attempt to find better wind, though this proved unsuccessful. They turned around and headed back to base, with the intention of sailing the following day.
Onboard Today
Driving Group: Arnaud Psarofaghis / Nicolas Charbonnier
Flight Control: Bryan Mettraux / Yves Detrey
Power Group: Théry Schir / Florian Trüb / Nicolas Rolaz / Barnabé Delarze / Arthur Cevey
Conditions: Garbi - Thermal breeze - 5-6kn S @ 14:00. Conditions too light to foil. Weather AM: 13°c, Sunny. Weather PM: 14°c, Sunny.
Sails Used:
M1 (M1-1R): 2 hours 10 minutes
J1 (J1-1R): 40 minutes
Total Tacks: 0
Total Gybes: 0
Recon Notes: 14:00 - 14:25 Sailing Displacement Mode (3 Non-Foiling Tacks)
Dock-Out: 1315 Dock-In: 1545