RIPPING IT IN AUCKLAND
Getting up close with Te Rehutai at full pace in a hefty 15-22 knots north-north-easterly was the opportunity to see the defenders of the America’s Cup in two metre swell doing their level best to keep the rudder in the water. Bow-up mode both upwind and down was the mode with few chances taken but the way the team were throwing the AC75 around was a demonstration in big breeze sailing from some of the finest foiling sailors on planet earth.
It wasn’t an easy watch at times. Through the gybes the recon team noted a tendency to ‘skate’ with both boards down and they witnessed several large splash downs post gybe captured via drone which seems the most effective way of keeping pace with the monster speeds that Te Rehutai generates.
Pete Burling summed the day up well after sailing, saying: “It was an awesome day out there again, we were kind of back into that same north-east direction that we had yesterday…it was nice to see some of the smaller gear (the J4 & J5 jibs) and then as the breeze dropped we just changed up codes with it. Really productive day for us, it was a good one to test in and see how the power progression is going on the power side of the boat and really happy with how things are going.”
For two hours the Kiwis relentlessly worked upwind and down on imaginary courses of approximately two nautical miles in length, but it was early afternoon where the real drama happened.
Sailing on starboard tack in what seemed a relatively benign wind and sea state for the day, the tack of the J2 jib let go and the sail rapidly peeled off the forestay and swung back towards the port pods. Luckily no-one was hurt in the incident and the sailors backed the boat off and the Chase Team were in quickly with Ray Davies immediately on the bow inspecting the tack damage and reporting back.
Pete Burling broke the incident down saying: “We’re not quite sure why it let go but yeah for us it's all a part of learning. We’re wanting to push the gear, push things hard and it's obviously unfortunate that it broke but we were probably lucky that it didn't hit anyone on the way back. Pretty happy that we could get it down, get everything else down, and get the boat back in one piece. Pretty nasty for it to be that big but yeah obviously happy to do it early on in the campaign…it blew back pretty quick and then it didn’t really light up the main too much at all, the hull just touches in and we put the boards down and started just kind of going backwards trying to get the apparent wind off it so we could save it from flapping and destroying too much stuff in the rig. It looks like the damage we’ve been pretty lucky with…I think we're in pretty good shape we’ll obviously have a good look at it tonight, obviously the jib’s not in the best shape but everything else seems to be alright.”
The incident happened quickly and naturally the session was called to a halt immediately. The recon team also noted some damage to the port skin of the mainsail and after docking in at 2.30pm, Te Rehutai was craned out for inspection 35 minutes later and wheeled back into the shed. No word yet from the team on possible sailings again this week via the recon portal.
Recon Unit On-Water Notes: Te Rehutai was rolled from the shed at 9.25. Had the rig stepped, in blustery conditions again and was lowered into the water at 10.10.
After leaving the berth she was towed down to Oraki where she stopped, took chase 1 alongside and bent on the M2 and J5. The mainsail was on the lock by 11.23 and the jib by 11.36. She was sailing by 11.40 in 14-18 knots of NNE breeze making for #1 buoy where she did five laps of a windward leeward course of about 2 NM in length.
No marks were set but by staying close to the team’s drone pilot boat we were able to be quite close for several tacks, gybes and round ups. In this session I saw three or four big splash downs after gybes but every time she hotted up and got going again.
The yacht came to a stop by #1 Buoy at 12.15 and changed from the J5 to J4 and was sailing again at 12.29. She did another 5 laps of a shorter windward leeward showing more control with more power. Te Rehutai came to a stop again at 12.56 where a power group rotation was observed and then the J4 was swapped out for the J2.
At 13.11 she was sailing again ripping around a short course really throwing it around to get 4 gybes in in less than 1.6 NM. The yacht came to a stop again at 13.34 and batteries were swapped between chase and yacht. At 13.43 she was off again with a longer beat out of about three miles, a run back in towards us and just past where she hardened up on the breeze, looking settled in on starboard tack for no apparent reason the J2 tore from the forestay and slammed into the rig and leeward skin of the mainsail damaging both.
After this incident the Main was lowered, and she was towed back to base arriving at 14.30.
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 M2: 2 hours 15 minutes
J2 : 45minutes
J4: 35 minutes
J5: 40 minutes
Manoeuvres:
Total Tacks: 34 – 33 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go.
Total Gybes: 36 – 30 foil-to-foil, 4 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.
Take-off: 90° TWA (True Wind Angle) Speed not recorded
Conditions:
Weather AM: NE 15-22 Knots 45% cloud cover. 20°c
Weather PM: NNE 11-17 knots 65% cloud cover. 22°c.
Sea-state: 1.5 – 2 metre chop.
Dock Out: 1100 Dock In: 1430