FINAL DAYS OF FOIL AND SAIL TESTING IN PALMA

The programme with ‘T6’ their tricksy-looking LEQ12 continued today (Tuesday) with the team really digging into the foil data – painting on mid-blue flow-vis paint, riding bow-up to push the foil to stall, taking photos and then repeating. In the sail department they rifled through two J2 jibs and settled on sailing the J3 in down-range conditions – those cross-overs are being properly analysed – as Ben Cornish and Dylan Fletcher-Scott ticked off a long list of testing for the designers.

Speaking afterwards, Dylan Fletcher-Scott gave a broad-ranging interview talking about the intense and long testing day today (they didn’t dock in until 6pm), how he’s settling into the team, his role, and the outlook for starting sailing in Barcelona soon. The excitement is building ahead of the team de-camping to the Cup venue and Dylan summed it up well saying at the end: “I think all the teams have got their strengths and ultimately we've only seen Alinghi (Red Bull Racing) in Barcelona so let's see when we all get there and see who's looking top dog.”

INTERVIEW: DYLAN FLETCHER-SCOTT, HELMSMAN, INEOS BRITANNIA

On-Water Recon Notes: The British team wrang the absolute most out of a day that didn't have the best of weather forecasts. Sultry temperatures in Mallorca over the last few days meant thunderstorms were a distinct possibility at some point, but happily the dark clouds that piled up over the mountains behind Palma Bay stalled there, leaving the skies over the bay all but clear other than some high cloud. There were a few sprinkles of rain over the day but nothing serious. After rolling out at 1030 the British T6 LEQ12 test boat was on the water just over an hour later ahead of a dock out at 1230.

A new low 'windscreen' type arrangement was spotted in front of the flight controller/trimmers' cockpit. The collar at the foot of the mast used on the last sailing session was not onboard. Sails – M2-2 mainsail and J2-1 headsail – were up by 1300 and, in no more than 8.5 knots the boat was up and foiling five minutes later.

The first 45 minutes session comprised a couple of laps of upwind and downwind sailing with the focus appearing to be on maintaining a low bustle-skimming ride height, as well as sailing narrow wind angles upwind. Given the light airs tacks and gybes were somewhat inconsistent with plenty of touch downs and touch and go manoeuvres in between the fully foiling ones.

During the first stop the J1-1 was swapped for the J1-2. With the breeze at just nine knots at this point the crew – helmsmen Dylan Fletcher and Ben Cornish, with trimmers/flight controllers Leigh McMillan and Bleddyn Mon – spent 10 minutes trying to self-take-off before having to resort to a to- up from a chase boat. Once up they stayed airborne for some twenty minutes before another stop for new batteries.

The third session began with a self-take-off before the team repeated the exercise of 'painting' the outer upper surface of the starboard foil wing that they did on their previous outing last Friday. This time the 'paint' was a much darker colour – presumably easier for the foil cameras to spot. It was applied by a fifth crewmember onboard just for this exercise. As during the previous session, the foil would be painted, the crew would sail for a few hundred metres on starboard, then tack, sail bow up on port, and then stop to photograph the foil and reapply the paint. This was repeated three times over a half an hour period. Following this the J2-2 was replaced with the J3-2.

With the wind peaking at 10 knots by this point the boat seemed to come alive in this sail configuration – with speeds in the mid to high thirties downwind and the low thirties upwind. This final section of the day saw the team sail several long upwinds – sometimes out of the Bay – before coming back downwind with multiple gybes. The final downwind run finished outside Palma Cathedral at 1730 with sails down by 1750 and the boat back on the dock at 1800. A sketchy weather forecast for tomorrow means no sailing is scheduled.

Thursday is the team's final possible sailing day in Palma.

Recon Notes:

Dock-out: 1227 Dock-in: 1800

Conditions: 1300: 170 7.5 – 8.5 knots; 1540: 215 9 knots; 1700: 190 8-9 knots

Weather AM: Cloudy and warm 20°C.

Weather PM: Sunny with high scattered cloud, occasional rain showers, hot 26°C.

Sea state PM: Flat to light chop

Onboard Today:

Helms LEQ12: Dylan Fletcher-Scott / Ben Cornish

Crew LEQ12: Bleddyn Mon / Leigh McMillan

Sails Used:

Mainsail M2-2: 5 hours

Jib (J2-1): 50 minutes

Jib (J2-2): 2 hours 30 minutes

Jib (J3-2): 2 hours 15 minutes

Total Tacks: 15 – 10 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 5 touchdowns.

Total Gybes: 30 – 19 foil-to-foil, 9 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.

Take off Speed: 18-20 knots at 80-90° TWA. Take-offs were ‘self’ and tow-up today.