FEELS LIKE SUMMER

Tuesday’s session was all about long flight whilst hunkering ever closer to the waves on the bustle to effectively end-plate ‘T6’ and allow the aero benefits to take effect. It was relentless, with Giles Scott steering from the portside with the W-Foil immersed and Ben Ainslie working the T-Foil from the starboard pod and on a relatively flat-water day, the duo pushed hard on the transitions despite the W-foil having a tendency to elicit a hull splash post gybe before accelerating through. Tacks were a different game altogether and the recon team noted that across the manoeuvres: “the vast majority were foil-to-foil.”

 On a hot day that certainly felt like summer – Luke Parkinson had his shorts on – INEOS Britannia were accurate in their sailing and as Jeff Causey, Head of on-water Operations said afterwards: “It was a good sea breeze, we’re into a nice pattern of that here in Palma now which is making it easy to sort of get out and get what we need on any given day really; so it changes our days because we're not finding the best day in the week we can and going trying to get a really long day, we're changing the focus on to shorter focused sessions and then coming back in and using the rest of the time we have to try and take those learnings into the next day….I think we ticked most of the boxes today.”

Jeff, a veteran now into his fourth America’s Cup having won it with Oracle back in 2013, then gave a fascinating insight into the British approach to this cycle. Comparing this edition with previous campaigns that he’s been involved with, Jeff sees huge advances in the off-water technology being deployed in the design and build, saying: “Yeah honestly I think that on the outside, the speed of the boats is what's noticeably more different but probably fundamentally there's bigger differences in the way we approach the design of the boat from simulation to just the technology; and the design tools that are available are so different, so much more advanced, especially with simulators now. The amount of time that’s spent doing work off the water is so different to what it was, should I say, before my time.”

When asked what it would take to win the America’s Cup this time, Jeff gave an interesting response, saying: “I think team New Zealand got ahead of the field early on with their simulation tools and even in the San Francisco Cup (2013) had an edge on us, I was with Oracle and we obviously had some catching up to do and just got there in the end, but then going forward from that with Bermuda and the time that those guys spent ‘not’ on the water compared to us I think was pretty eye-opening considering where we ended up, so that’s just continued to go in that direction. So, we're all counting days on the water between the teams right now and watching this sort of recon tracker but you know I'm not sure that that directly correlates to where we're making advances and certainly the work we do in the computer is where I think it’s going to be won and lost.”

Arguably the team with the most scientific approach to this America’s Cup, if Jeff Causey is right then INEOS Britannia are certainly on the winning path. A technical issue brought an end to the day today with ‘T6’ being towed back in displacement, but the Brits will be back out on the water on Wednesday looking for that edge to take them to the top of the America’s Cup podium.

Another decent session. INEOS Britannia are moving along very nicely at the moment.

On-Water Recon Notes: Today's training and testing session was short but productive for the British America's Cup team who executed two one-hour flights which saw their T6 LEQ12 test boat sailing fast windward leeward laps that took in almost the entirety of Palma Bay.

With temperatures peaking at around 26°c over the day, the characteristic southerly thermal breeze for which Palma is renowned was in full effect with the wind strength ramping up from 8 knots at 1100 to 15 knots over the afternoon.

Onboard were helmsmen Giles Scott and Ben Ainslie with trimmers/flight controllers Iain Jensen and Luke Parkinson and this crew seemed intent in pushing the boat hard both upwind and down. Speeds were in the low thirties upwind and touching 40 knots at times downwind. With breeze kicking up a significant amount of swell (0.5 to 0.75 metres) there were the occasional touch downs during the 12 tacks and 18 gybes – but the vast majority were foil to foil.

There was plenty of evidence of bustle skimming going on both upwind and down, but the crew did not appear interested in attempting windward heel during the session. After the first one-hour session there was a short stop to change headsails from the J2-1 to the J4-1, after which the boat was up and flying straight away for another hour before what appeared to be an unscheduled stop when the yacht had a splashdown while sailing downwind and immediately made a controlled turn into the wind.

A technician with laptop came aboard but after 20 minutes sails were taken down. Given that the tow in was in displacement mode it is assumed that the issue prevented control of one or more of the foil arms. There did not seem too much concern about the technical issue and the team are expected to be back on the water again tomorrow.

On Water Recon Notes:

Dock-out: 1100 Dock-in: 1432

Conditions: 1100: 160 8 knots; 1130: 190 11-12 knots; 1230: 220 13-15 knots; 1345: 220 13-15 knots

Weather AM: Cloudy early turning warm and sunny 19-25°c.

Weather PM: Warm and sunny with occasional cloud offshore 26° c.

Sea State AM: Moderate chop 0.5 metre

Sea state PM: Steep 0.50 to 0.75 metre swell.

Onboard Today:

Helms: Giles Scott / Ben Ainslie

Crew: Iain Jensen / Luke Parkinson

Sails Used:

Mainsail M1-2: 2 hours 30 minutes

Jib (J2-1): 1 hour

Jib (J4-1): 1 hour

Total Tacks: 12 – 9 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 1 touchdown.

Total Gybes: 18 – 11 foil-to-foil, 5 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.

Take off Speed: 19 knots at 60° TWA (True Wind Angle).