SWISS WAVE RIDERS
If you want to find proof as to why the AC40 is the world’s most exciting new class of foiling monohull, look no further than the video of Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailing in swell on the America’s Cup racecourse on Tuesday. Sensational stuff from the young Swiss team who looked masterful in the 1m waveforms with occasional white-tops over a delicious 12-14 knots of late afternoon ‘Garbi’ south-south-westerly.
Did we see Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin actually luff over the swell on foil upwind? It certainly looks so – old habits die hard but it appeared highly effective at keeping the foils in the water at a high ride height. And the variety of ride height, pitch and cant angles on display today shows a team high on the learning curve and even higher on confidence. What we also saw was perhaps an early indication of how pre-starts will be conducted in the upcoming regatta series with the first race just six months away now in Vilanova i la Geltrú in September.
Throughout the session, the Swiss AC40 could be seen practising the two-board down, low speed mode which gives the helmsmen options to tack or gybe quickly in the start box whilst keeping the boat at a consistent and measurable speed – vital for the final time-on-distance run into the line before the windward foil is hoisted and the speed shackles are unleashed.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s Chase Boat team had thrown in a leeward gate and a short windward mark for this late afternoon session and the sailors were absolutely revelling in the conditions. Layline calls, particularly at the leeward gate were perhaps hit and miss affairs judging by the recon footage but explained through the flight modes they were choosing – ride high and the AC40 has a tendency to want to sail higher to the wind whilst a slow low downwind tends to yield a more accurate layline. Getting that flight right was no easy task in the swell and more often than not, the Swiss went for double-board down roundings at the leeward gate. We’ve seen Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli practising the single board down/turn-up relentlessly as the kicker it gives post the buoy is immense – expect this to come into the Alinghi Red Bull Racing AC40 programme imminently.
Speaking afterwards, the vastly experienced double America’s Cup winner Yves Detrey gave a great insight into the day saying: “We are still in the process of trying out things and we're trying the ride height and pitch trim and also the cant angles. We play with all these parameters at the moment so that's why sometimes we are changing the behaviour of our boat on the water because we don't have all the answers yet.”
Looking at the day overall Yves commented: “It was a pretty good day…with a nice breeze, quite a bit of waves as well but yeah, we managed the sailing pretty well I think as a group, and I think it was one of our best days and we're pretty happy with it… obviously we are making plans every day. When we are out there, we need to sometimes reassess…we put marks in the water just because it makes us move around the racecourse and at the same time it will improve our manoeuvres and communications onboard, so I think I think it's the right way to do it…. we were trying to stick to the plan, but you know what we say: ‘you need a plan before you can change it’ so that's what we do every day basically.”
The ‘plan’ looks more than effective for Alinghi Red Bull Racing at the moment. Impressive sailing from a highly committed team that just look better and better on the water. More to come this week.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC40 at 10:35, a later start than usual due to the best wind forecasted for later in the afternoon. The shore crew prepared the yacht for sailing ahead of 14:00 Dock Out. The One Design M1 Mainsail and J2 Jib were hoisted in the port, before the yacht was towed and released at the port entrance.
The wind started from the South and slowly ticked to SSW as the strength gradually increased. A residual 1m+ swell almost perpendicular to the wind direction peaked in the morning and slowly died throughout the day.
Sailing commenced at 14:25 on a 1 Nautical Mile upwind/downwind course. A big focus was put on starts and manoeuvres, including JK mark roundings and double tacks/gybes before mark roundings. The team put in 45 solid manoeuvres in the first stint with the J2 jib, which was then dropped in exchange for the J3. The team had a slight delay as they struggled with halyard issues, but after safely feeding the line back through the rigging with a crew member up the mast, they were able to resume sailing. The second stint saw an impressive 49 foiling manoeuvres in the increased breeze.
This was Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s most consistent day with respect to foiling manoeuvres, with over 80% of tacks and gybes performed foil-to-foil. The team spent almost four and a half hours on the water, sailing over 40 Nautical Miles and completing a total of 94 manoeuvres.
Onboard Today
Driving Group: Arnaud Psarofaghis / Maxime Bachelin / Nicolas Charbonnier
Flight Control: Yves Detrey / Lucien Cujean / Nicolas Rolaz / Bryan Mettraux
Additional: Starting Crew; Starboard: Arnaud Psarofaghis + Lucien Cujean, Port: Maxime Bachelin + Nicolas Rolaz, Pietro Sibello on Chase Boat
Conditions: Garbi - afternoon thermal wind - 9-11kn S @ 15:00, 10-13kn SSW @ 16:30, 12-14kn SSW @ 17:45Weather AM: 13°c, Mostly Cloudy. Weather PM: 14°c, Intermittent Clouds. Sea State: Beaufort 2-3 - short chop + 0.5-1m E Swell
Sails Used:
Mainsail M1 (M1-1): 3 hours 40 minutes
J2 (J2-1): 1 hour 30 minutes
J3 (J3-1): 1 hour 15 minutes
Total Tacks: 50 – 40 foil-to-foil, 9 touch & go, 1 touchdown.
Total Gybes: 44 – 37 foil-to-foil, 7 touch & go.
Recon Notes:
14:25 – 15:45 Sailing (18 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 5 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Tack – Touch Down, 19 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 2 Gybes - Touch & Go)
16:35 – 17:40 Sailing (22 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 4 Tacks - Touch & Go, 18 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 5 Gybes - Touch & Go)
Dock-Out: 1400 Dock-In: 1820