PACE, PERFECTION, PALMA
Sir Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott, a helming duo with a rightful weight of expectancy on their shoulders, came out swinging on a perfect day on the Bay of Palma and put the hammer down for a session that saw them at near race-pace and looking very much the real deal.
Beneath blue skies and sailing on crystal Balearic waters, INEOS Britannia unleashed T6, their LEQ12 prototype for an almost demonstration day of power, poise and pace with Leigh McMillan and Iain Jensen more than earning their wages on Flight Control and trim as the Ben and Giles show rolled around the Bay.
Right from the moment the tow line was dropped, T6 looked alive and a sighter foiling stint that lasted almost 90 minutes continuously was an opening salvo of intent that ticked off the design team boxes and sucked in the valuable oil of data that Mission Control back in Brackley, Northamptonshire at Mercedes Applied Science, who watch and monitor literally everything, desired.
With the testing done, it was a sailor’s afternoon, and if any bystanders had any doubt as to just how serious this British campaign is, the proof was there to see. Downwind T6 looked on steroids – beautiful high flight and the most majestic gybe to gybes you could imagine, with high exit speeds and deep, deep angles. Upwind it’s hard to deny that this bustle concept is a game changer, and it would be almost unimaginable if it didn’t make RB3, the team’s nickname for its raceboat for the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona. There’s something of witchcraft going on as T6 sinks to the bustle-skim mode and not only fights leeway hyper-effectively but also allows the team to go through accurate modes between windward heel, flat, leeward heel and back to windward heel again. Impressive to watch at pace.
Trim, particularly of the mainsail, is looking increasingly accurate, more refined and perhaps to pre-defined targets. Certainly, a huge improvement from when the sailors first started on T6 and the little tweaks going into the tacks and the tiny dumps on the bear-away at the windward mark before rapidly re-sheeting were more than noticeable in Palma today. The traveller and head of the mainsail look very much to be acting as one and it’s perhaps now in the detail of technique where INEOS Britannia will be making the significant gains.
After sailing, and having captured almost the perfect tack head on, the recon team quizzed Leigh McMillan as to what that perfect tack entailed. Long answer but very good: “You’ve got a lot of people involved in a tack and it's just everyone all working nicely together, the timing and everyone's in tune with that timing, and then swopping roles from one task to the other end and getting all of that timing right - getting the ride height, the heel and the pitch all nicely set up and all the trim adjustments you have to make, to exit the tack. So, it's a lot of choreography going on but I feel like we we’re getting pretty solid generally and trying to put the pressure on that in the pre-starts and put the pressure on a small racecourse and making sure that we're getting more finely tuned…you're looking at speed lost through the tacks that’s always a good one if you're not looking at the pure dynamics of the boat, just looking at your total speed loss from VMG to VMG through the manoeuvres.”
And with the big design decisions perhaps already well advanced, Leigh commented on the relentless focus now: “As your design milestones come and go then the focus moves on to slightly different areas like more fine tune and other areas of the boat that don't have such long lead times on their design decisions, so that will carry on all the way through the campaign until we literally get RB3 on our hands.”
Overall, another brilliant day for the British and the feel around the camp is infectiously positive. Leigh can certainly feel that as he commented: “I think everyone's very upbeat about how things are looking generally, and excited about getting to Barcelona, there's obviously going to be a bit of a step up in the conditions there and certainly the sea-state everyone knows can be quite extreme, so that'll be a nice little step for us. We’ve got the last couple of weeks here and looking forward to getting those last few days on T6 ticked off and getting into Barcelona.”
On-Water Recon Notes: INEOS Britannia made full use of a close to perfect sailing day on Palma Bay today with winds ranging from 12-14 knots from the southwest and a flat to light chop sea state. The team's T6 LEQ12 test boat was rolled out on the dot at 1000 AM and was rigged and ready to go for an on time dock out at midday. Once out of the harbour the team hoisted the M2-2 mainsail and the J3-2 headsail.
T6 was released from a side tow at 1245 and was in the air moments later at the beginning of what turned out to be an hour and a half of virtually continuous airborne sailing. Unlike so many other days on the water the focus today seemed to be less on checking off a list of exercises from the design team and more about sailing the boat fast in race mode.
There was plenty of straight-line sailing – both upwind and down – early in this first session but the number of manoeuvres ramped up steadily during the second half of the session. Both the tacks and the gybes looked crisp and well executed and from the recon boat we got the distinct feeling that the sailors – helmsmen Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott, with trimmers Leigh McMillan and Iain Jensen (and fifth man observer at the back on the starboard side – Bleddyn Mon) – were thoroughly enjoying putting the silver-hulled test boat through its paces.
After a short (15 minute) stop at 1415 the crew were back at it for the second session of the day which was given over to racecourse practice around a windward leeward course comprising a single windward buoy and a two-buoy leeward gate. Three two-lap rounds were sailed – each beginning with some pre-start box manoeuvring and time on distance runs to the start line. Mostly, the mark roundings were clean and fast but there were a couple of touch downs – one on final approach to the starboard leeward mark after a later gybe on to port; and the other on the exit of a JK manoeuvre around the port leeward mark.
Time was called at 1525 with the J3-2 down by 1535 and the mainsail drop completed by 15 40. Dock in was at 1555.
Recon Notes:
Dock-out: 1200 Dock-in: 1555
Conditions: 1230: 180 12-13 knots; 1430: 230 13-14 knots
Weather AM: Warm and sunny with clear skies 17-22°C.
Weather PM: Warm and sunny with clear skies 22-26°C.
Sea state PM: Flat to slight chop.
Onboard Today:
Helms LEQ12: Ben Ainslie / Giles Scott
Crew LEQ12: Leigh McMillan / Iain Jensen (5th Man/observer: Bleddyn Mon)
Sails Used:
Mainsail M1-2: 3 hours 35 minutes
Jib (J3-2): 3 hours 10 minutes
Total Tacks: 32 – 28 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.
Total Gybes: 31 – 30 foil-to-foil, 0 touch & go, 1 touchdown.
Take off Speed: 16-20 knots at 60-70° TWA. Take-offs were all ‘self’ today.