TESTING DAY FOR LUNA ROSSA

Umberto Molineris and Andrea Tesei were earning their money, desperate to try and keep the Italian LEQ12 up on the foils whilst the brilliantly professional Italian Chase Boat team provided the power to tow the yacht up time and again – every flight was towed.

Short flights under the J1.5 eventually yielded to a headsail change and the team rode with the big, and under-used across all teams, J1. Once up on the foils after several fast tows, the sailors kept the boat higher in the chop than when they are low-riding in flat waters for the end-plating effect, and it was more a case of survival to keep her flying in the light and patchy airs.

One thing that was highly noticeable was how comfortable the team looked upwind when flying on their beautiful long-span anhedral V3 port wing on starboard tack. The stability in a straight-line was next level and the Flight Controllers could gently ease the hull lower to the surface and raise in an instant. However, the transitions upwind between the V3 foil on the port side and the V1 on the starboard side were tricky – sea state definitely had a hand in this – but getting the deeper tacking angle and then coaxing up on the V1 foil was a tall ask for Francesco Bruni and Marco Gradoni on the wheels.

Downwind, the situation was reversed. The LEQ12 rode beautifully on the more bulbous V1 starboard foil on port gybe but the transition over to the slender V3 bulb on the port side more often than not, lead to a splashdown. It was wet at times and puzzling for the sailors.

Speaking afterwards, Andrea Tesei alluded to the fine lines that the team were dancing on this busy and testing day: “We tried to get the conditions we think we're getting in Barcelona, with sea state and very light breeze, so the focus was handling and learning the boat and seeing how she behaved in this hard condition. You obviously need to be very precise in the handling and keep a really nice equilibrium to glide for the waves and not stall the foils and drop into the water… the forecast in the beginning should've been actually not too light a day. We planned for an early dock-out to get the lighter part and set into the sea state that was left over from yesterday but in the end the stronger breeze never filled in…so we just sailed where we saw the best pressure on the Gulf.”

Andrea has been one of the top ranked 49er sailors in the world since 2017 where he won a bronze medal at the European Championships and he clearly sees the correlation between skiff sailing and foiling as he commented when talking about the cant angles the team are inducing and using: “I mean I come from skiff sailing on the 49er and I think it's like using the trapeze line on a skiff, so that's kind of my comparison in the light wind, you cant a bit under the boat to have less righting moment and as the breeze goes up you cant outside and lower yourself on the harness and hike harder - this is a basic principle  - then obviously there's a lot into it (on the LEQ12).”

Testing day but very productive for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli who face an even lighter day on Thursday out on the beautiful Gulf of Cagliari.

On Water Recon Unit Notes: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out the LEQ12 at 08:15 scheduling dock-out for approximately one hour later. Beside some minor modifications and previously seen markings on wings, the boat seemed to run the usual configuration.

On the dock, the boards were raised and lowered multiple times before the sailors proceeded with their trim controls set for the day. At 9:30 the LEQ12 was boarded by 4 crew and was towed out of the harbour to fully hoist the M1 mainsail paired to the J1.5 jib while some checks were conducted on the mast base/ jib track.

The forecast looked light with patchy 7-9kn SSE breeze with swell of approx. .8m 4s from SE offering interesting conditions looking similar to Barcelona. After the first of several, and only, tow-to-fly take offs, the LEQ12 was foilborne on starboard tack for some minutes and back hullborne hitting a wave exiting a tack manoeuvre.

Shortly after being towed back up, the LEQ12 sailed for a while in a straight-line on port tack and stopped having entered a patch without breeze. The prototype was towed back towards the harbour where it awaited the arrival of Chase1 to resume sailing. Three more tow-to-fly followed, and all the rides were interrupted by splashdowns exiting tacks, mostly transiting from the V3 portside wing over to the V1 wing on the starboard foil arm. The team decided to lower the J1.5 to hoist the J1 as the breeze seemed to decrease even further.

Towards Sarroch the light air looked to be more consistent, and a series of tacks has been observed before the pressure died and the LEQ12 was towed back further inshore towards Cagliari. Once some air was encountered, the LEQ12 was released from towline and sailed downwind completing a series of gybes, looking less dry and successful from starboard to portside tack.

The team seemed to focus on light air performance and manoeuvre execution during the whole session which lasted 4 hours and was ended with an approx. total foiling time of 132 minutes, with 24 tacks, 18 gybes [Michele Melis AC Recon].

Dock out: 0930 Dock-in: 1340

Conditions: 09:35 SSE 8-10kn / 10:45 SSE 7-8kn / 12:40 SSE 7-9kn

Weather AM: 26°c @ 0900, sunny.

Sea State: 0.7-0.8m 4s

Onboard Today:

Helms: Marco Gradoni / Francesco Bruni

Crew: Umberto Molineris / Andrea Tesei

Sails Used:

Mainsail M1 (MN1-1S): 4 hours

J1 (J1.5-1-A): 1 hour

J1 (J1-1-B): 2 hours 5 minutes

Total Tacks: 24 - 14 foil-to-foil, 5 touch & go, 5 touchdown3.

Total Gybes: 18 – 13 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go, 3 touchdowns.

Recon Notes: Only tow-to-fly take offs