KIWI LIGHT AIRS TRAINING
A feint northerly airflow hung over Auckland on Thursday as Emirates Team New Zealand called for an afternoon session of light airs training in Te Rehutai, the defender’s America’s Cup winning boat from 2021 now heavily modified. Ray Davies and Pete Burling very much took the lead in the crew briefing session, running through the key goals for the session that saw the team concentrating on flight modes and cant to keep the power on and the foils flowing in conditions that they could well face in Barcelona in October 2024.
The value of these light airs sessions is not to be underestimated and the team’s first attempt at flight inside the harbour showed just how hard it is to get an AC75 flying. Te Rehutai rose and dropped in about 5 knots of wind and flat water so the call was made to tow outside to the Rangitoto Light to find more stability. When the new boat is built, its light air profile is expected to be hugely enhanced and the tricky conundrum for all the design teams in this America’s Cup is building a boat that can perform across a wide variety of conditions.
Emirates Team New Zealand have put a lot of store in the value of systems testing at full scale and even in the light airs, the cyclor units are at the maximum to provide the power for the huge hydraulic demand on the AC75. Several rotations were observed with the chase boat relieving the cyclors after just over an hour.
Thursday’s session lasted some three and a half hours and the Kiwis looked impressive through the manoeuvres completing some 20 gybes all foil-to-foil and 16 tacks with just one early touchdown. A call to jib-up from the J2 to the J1 gave Te Rehutai the horsepower she needed in the afternoon breeze and some fast windward/leewards were observed just off the southern end of Takapuna. Again, the team called a headsail change late into the session, dropping back down to the J2 and it’s these cross overs that are providing a lot of data for the sail designers and engineers. The big J1 is often described as being very useful to get into flight but once flying becomes drag so the Kiwis are looking closely at this.
The J2 saw the team through to the end of the session with another couple of windward/leeward laps completed before the session was pulled just north of Rough Rock and the boat brought back to harbour at 5pm.
Valuable day for the Kiwis who are monitoring everything onboard Te Rehutai and even in the light, they look devastatingly fast with the chase boats and recon RIBs struggling to keep pace.
Long day. Valuable day. The Kiwis are getting ready for the move to Barcelona in early July where the concentration will be squarely on the team’s two AC40s as they prepare for the first regatta in Vilanova i la Geltru in September.
Recon Unit Notes: The race yacht was on the docks edge by 11.59 and was rigged and in the pen by 11.35. The usual team meeting was watched from the RIB with Ray Davies and Peter Burling running it.
She was towed from her berth and just outside the break wall the main was hoisted with it dropping onto the lock at 13.38. The J2 was hoisted next. She was off chase by 13.55 but due to very light air up the harbour she was taken in tow again and brought out to Rangitoto light where she dropped the tow at 14.22 in 6-9 knots from the NNE.
Her first tack was a dud, touching down just after sails were across. 35 seconds later she was back up and foiling. After one upwind and one down she came to a stop at 14.35 and changed to the J1. This was on the lock by 15.06 and she was sailing again at 15.09.
Another upwind and down and she stopped again at 15.21, here a power group rotation was observed. At 15.27 she was off chase and sailing again out just past A buoy running in towards the southern end of Takapuna three times before stopping again at 15.49 where she changed from the J1 to the J2 and was sailing again by 16.06.
Another 2 windward leewards were observed before the yacht came to a stop North of Rough rock to lower sails. She was back in the pen by 17.00
A good light airs day.
Onboard today:
Helms: Nathan Outteridge / Pete Burling
Trimmers: Andy Maloney / Blair Tuke
Power Group: Simon van Velthooven / Marius van der Pol / Louis Sinclair / Louis Crosby / Hamish Bond / Marcus Hansen / Sam Meech
Sails Used:
Mainsail M1: 2 hours 55 minutes
J1: 1 hour
J2: 2 hours
Manoeuvres:
Total Tacks: 16 – 15 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go.
Total Gybes: 20 – 20 foil-to-foil
Take-off: 90° TWA (True Wind Angle) Speed not recorded
Conditions:
Weather AM: N Variable 5-10 Knots poor visibility.
Weather PM: N Variable 5-10 Knots poor visibility clearing up.
Sea-state: Flat
Dock Out: 1330 Dock In: 1700