AMERICAN MAGIC ON TRACK
Doug DeVos, Team Principal of New York Yacht Club American Magic gives his honest and open appraisal of where the team are at as they prepare to de-camp to Barcelona for the rest of the America’s Cup campaign.
Mr DeVos reflects on what has been a terrific winter of testing in Pensacola, Florida and his huge enthusiasm for the new AC40 class saying: “we’re thrilled with the progress that we’ve made.” Data and performance gathering have been at a premium with American Magic this winter and the team have been the most active on the water of any team in this America’s Cup cycle, re-launching their AC75 ‘Patriot’ and taking that to new levels of outright performance whilst their AC40 programme has been spectacular with dynamic displays of foiling technique sailing from Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison. Mr DeVos reflects on the battle against time – the great enemy in the America’s Cup – and the decisions that have to be made.
This is a must-watch video from one of the great patrons and supporters of American sailing and the America’s Cup and as he says: “We've had a great run here in Pensacola. We're getting ourselves ready to head to Barcelona not too distant future, but we feel we've had a really good session here. This has been a great venue for us with the AC75 earlier and now with the AC40 up and running we feel we've got a lot of good laps in, learning a lot along the way and so we’re feeling that we're on track. A lot of work to do, always a lot of work to do, but we feel we’re on track.”
VIDEO – Doug DeVos – Team Principal – NYYC American Magic.
Recon Notes: The AC40 America was craned in at 11:45. Dock out was 13:00 in a very light 5k of breeze. Chase 2 was hosting several guests including Team Principal Doug DeVos.
The crew attempted to self-foil for about 20 minutes before finally taking a tow up. America was towed to the south end of the Bay to intercept the incoming sea breeze. The AC40 got up on her own and sailed for 12 minutes before touching down in a tack. The crew attempted to get back on foil for another 30 minutes.
The AC40 was then towed back to the north towards the base as the breeze looked more consistent. The majority of sailing occurred after the tow (14:51 to 16:25). The team took a break and had a battery swap from 15:11 to 15:43.
The differences in success rate from foil to foil (regarding getting up) appeared negligible. The last part of the day included: Rapid back-to-back manoeuvres, long runs on one board, bow down/weather heel.
In all, America completed 29 manoeuvres, 7 W/L's, sailed approximately 40nm, and had a total flying time of 70 minutes. Top speeds were approximately 24k upwind and 34k downwind.
Conditions: 13:13 SE 5k/ 14:15 SE 6k/ 15:13 SE 7k. Wind speed measured 8ft above sea level using a handheld anemometer.
Weather AM: 70° Cloudy.
Weather PM: 77° Sunny.
Sea State AM: <1ft.
Sea State PM: <1ft chop
Total Tacks: 19 – 10 foil-to-foil, 7 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.
Total Gybes: 10 – 9 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go, 0 touchdowns.
Recon Notes: America was on foil for a total of 70 minutes (12, 8, 8, 26, and 16 minutes respectively)
Take off speed: 15 knots at 90° TWA (True Wind Angle)
Recon Notes: Initial take off was self, 3 additional self-up’s, 3 tow up's.
Onboard AC40 Today:
Helms: Paul Goodison / Andrew Campbell
Trimmers: Lucas Calabrese / Michael Menninger
Sails Used:
Mainsail (AM-LEQ MS1): 3 hours 30 minutes
Jib (J1): 3 hours 10 minutes
Dock-Out: 1300 Dock-In: 1640