LIGHT WEATHER BULL

It's a tough ask sailing a boat specifically designed for the Hauraki Gulf, albeit very much in Version 2 of the AC75 rule with reduced overall weight, no running backstays, smaller crew-numbers and enhanced systems - yet post the deck modifications, the bow-down tendency has crept in, especially in marginal conditions, and the sailors struggle to find any sort of consistency. In the immediate pre-tack, just as the helms are dialling into the manoeuvre as the windward board is dropped, it’s noticeable that the Flight Controllers tend to dial the bow up a smidgen and this curtails the bow-down motion to a degree but it’s an inexact science and relies very much on feel and sea state to keep flying. A 37.5% percentage rate of foil-to-foil tacks is the number that simply doesn’t lie.

Gybes however were a different matter, and with the generation of increased speed, the Swiss were able to execute more often than not foil-to-foil and returned a 73% success rate, and for sure the team will be looking forward to receiving their new AC75 designed specifically for Barcelona’s conditions to get a more accurate read on their undoubted sailing technique and inherent talent. BoatZero’s different foil profile that goes from the legacy American Magic anhedral on port to the Emirates Team New Zealand flat foil profile on starboard, almost inevitably means a performance profile difference and it’s in the manoeuvres that this is pronounced.

However, it was a solid afternoon for the team once a small breakage that required spare parts to be transferred from the dock to the boat, was solved, and the Swiss thundered around the America’s Cup course area and further offshore inducing windward heel upwind and sending BoatZero at solid speeds on several laps windward leeward laps of just over 2 nautical miles and covered some 38 nautical miles overall.

Speaking afterwards, double Olympic rowing representative for Switzerland at the 2016 and 2020 Games, Barnabé Delarze, gave a cyclors viewpoint on how the development of the hydraulic programme is progressing, saying: “At the moment it’s changing, not every day but very, very, often because it's a constant upgrade and we constantly talk with the hydraulics team, with the system team, and we give our feedback so we help develop and it’s changing a lot…so far it's been as been quite good actually better than expected all the upgrades have been quite fast and effective and yeah we keep pushing in that direction….it's obviously not exactly the same as on the bike but we're trying to get as close as we can and try to get everything smooth. At the end of the day, it is quite close to a bike so hopefully by this time next year we'll have everything even smoother, and it'll be quite enjoyable.”

Delivering the power and constant hydraulic tweaks is a full team effort for all the teams in this America’s Cup cycle with plenty of modern hydraulic systems and thinking available to the team. It’s a key, yet unseen, battleground for the 37^th America’s Cup and the Swiss have a very good partner in Red Bull Advanced Technologies to bounce ideas and tweaks off.

This week however, we could well see two AC40s in action as the team revealed their latest boat, set in full one-design mode whilst their original AC40 with its new, and much anticipated, Tubercle clad outer wing, sat in the hangar ready to go. This will be a very interesting phase now for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who have the rest of the week blocked out as sailing days. The race-training programme begins now. Stay tuned.   

On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC75 at 08:45, and following standard procedures, docked out at 12:00. The M1 mainsail and J2-1L Jib were hoisted in the port, as the yacht was then towed to and released at the port entrance, where sailing commenced at 12:35. The conditions for the day consisted of light wind below 10 knots, from the southeast turning to the south. A residual 0.5m swell from the East was present.

The team began with a half hour stint upwind and downwind, before stopping to attend to an issue. Support crews were on board attending to the mainsail clew and

mainsheet/traveller area, with hydraulics engineers working below deck. Parts were brought on board from the base via a support boat. After an hour and a half pause,

sailing resumed with another two stints sailed. The team put in a few tacks and gybes, as well as a couple of mark roundings about the 2NM windward/leeward course.

The team’s new AC40 was spotted in the yard, in One Design configuration. It was confirmed that the original AC40 is still in its tent with the new ‘Tubercle’ foil still on the port arm.

The team spent just over four hours on the water, covering over 38NM. 19 tacks/gybes were performed, of which 58% were fully foiling.

Dock-Out: 1200 Dock-In: 1610

Conditions: 'Xaloc' – South-east wind - 6-9kn SE @ 12:40, 6-8kn S @ 14:10, 5-7kn S @ 15:40

Weather AM: 17°C, Mostly Clouds.

Weather PM: 18°C, Intermittent Clouds.

Sea State AM: Beaufort 2

Sea State PM: Beaufort 2-3

Onboard Today:

Driving Group: Maxime Bachelin / Arnaud Psarofaghis

Flight Control: Bryan Mettraux / Nicolas Rolaz / Yves Detrey

Power Group: Arthur Cevey / Nils Theuninck / Barnabé Delarze / Théry Schir

Sails Used:

Mainsail M1 (M1-1R): 3 hours 40 minutes

Jib (J2-1L): 2 hours 20 minutes

Total Tacks: 8 – 3 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go, 4 touchdowns.

Total Gybes: 11 – 8 foil-to-foil, 0 touch & go, 3 touchdowns.

Take-Off speed: 18 knots @ 90° TWA (True Wind Angle)

Recon Notes:

12:35 – 13:05 Sailing (1 Tack - Fully Foiling, 1 Tack - Touch & Go, 1 Tack - Touch Down, 3 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 2 Gybes - Touch Down)

14:35 – 15:00 Sailing (2 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 2 Tacks - Touch Down, 4 Gybes - Fully Foiling)

15:10 – 15:40 Sailing (1 Tack - Touch Down, 1 Gybe - Fully Foiling, 1 Gybe - Touch Down)