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ADIOS TO PALMA FOR INEOS BRITANNIA

The final sailing session of what has been an invaluable training camp in Palma, concluded on Thursday for INEOS Britannia in picture-perfect early afternoon conditions that allowed the sailors to rifle through a whole load of starboard foil tests whilst giving the sailors some carte blanche to perfect their windward heel technique both upwind and downwind.

T6, the INEOS Britannia LEQ12 looked absolutely alive with Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Ben Cornish driving her hard aided by Bleddyn Mon and Leigh McMillan performing wonders on trim and flight control. Big steps have been taken forward in mainsail control and the lovely tweak to windward just before they tack is fast and effective. The flow-vis paint was back again with the Boat Captain climbing out onto the raised orange starboard foil arm and applying liberal quantities of mid-blue paint before the team go into full bow-up mode to stall the foils and both measure and photograph the flow detachment results over the top of the foil. Interesting test.

The full report is below from famed yachting journalist Justin Chisholm,  who also interviewed Leigh McMillan who gave a terrific run down of the day and bade Palma a fond farewell whilst looking forward to Barcelona. The INEOS Britannia base is very near completion now in Barcelona and has been a hive of activity this week ready for the team’s arrival in short order with a first scheduled sailing day on 1st August. The British America’s Cup challenge is at full tilt now.    

INTERVIEW: LEIGH MCMILLAN, FLIGHT CONTROLLER, INEOS BRITANNIA

On-Water Recon Notes: INEOS Britannia's final sailing day at their training base in Palma, Mallorca may have been one of the shorter sessions the team has conducted, but the weather conditions were nothing short of perfect for the final bouts of testing the British had scheduled.

An early roll out at 0820 and a launch time of 0905 was followed by a longish delay to the dock-out which took place at just before 1145. That meant that once the silver T6 LEQ12 test boat was out of the harbour with sails up – M2-2 mainsail and J2-2 headsail – at 1210 the southerly thermal breeze was already at 10 knots.

T6's first flight lasted just under half an hour, when after a longish upwind leg, the crew bore away for a fast (38 knot) reach over to Magaluf where the J2-2 headsail was swapped out for the J3-2. The second flying session involved more long upwind and downwind runs with the crew – helmsmen Ben Cornish and Dylan Fletcher with Leigh McMillan and Bleddyn Mon (with cyclor Matt Rossiter in the fifth man/observer seat) – sailing the boat at times with pronounced windward heel downwind more than upwind.

Given the flat sea state the manoeuvres were mostly clean and crisp with only a fraction of touch-downs or touch & go’s observed. After 40 minutes of this activity, it was time once more for the foil painting exercises the team has engaged in for the last several sailing sessions. Once again, the routine was: paint the upper inner section of the starboard foil wing, sail for a few hundred metres, round up, foil up, photograph the foil. Three rounds of this were carried out.

The final section of the day involved more upwind downwind sailing, with more windward heel practice, before a final multi-gybe downwind run saw the T6 round up outside Palma Cathedral for the final time. Sails were down by 1430 and the team docked in at 1440. The British team's next scheduled sailing session is August 1 in Barcelona.  

Recon Notes:

Dock-out: 1143 Dock-in: 1440

Conditions: 1300: 180 8-9 knots; 1530 210 14 - 16.5 knots; 1630 220 15 - 16 knots

Weather AM: Cloudy with sunny spells, warm 27°C.

Weather PM: Cleared skies, warm 29°C.

Sea state PM: Flat / very light chop

Onboard Today:

Helms LEQ12: Dylan Fletcher-Scott / Ben Cornish

Crew LEQ12: Bleddyn Mon / Leigh McMillan (5th Man/observer: Matt Rossiter, Cyclor)

Sails Used:

Mainsail M2-2: 2 hours 30 minutes

Jib (J2-2): 30 minutes

Jib (J3-2): 1 hour 30 minutes

Total Tacks: 10 – 10 foil-to-foil, 3 touch & go, 0 touchdowns.

Total Gybes: 15 – 11 foil-to-foil, 3 touch & go, 2 touchdowns.

Take off Speed: 18-20 knots at 70-80° TWA. Take-offs were all ‘self’ today.