SWISS CLICKING IN BARCELONA
There were happy faces shoreside at Alinghi Red Bull Racing on Wednesday evening as the sailors put in a simply scintillating performance, another ‘best day’ in a week where they have shown remarkable improvements in technique aboard their AC75 ‘BoatZero.’ Never the easiest boat to sail, and designed for Auckland conditions, although heavily modified now to the new AC75 rule, the Swiss sailors can take huge credit for the almost vertical learning curve that they’ve been on and the way they’ve honed their foiling and overall boat-handling technique to really deliver results.
Take one of the first gybes down the Barcelona America’s Cup racecourse as a prime example of what Bryan Mettraux, the coolest of Flight Controllers in this Cup cycle, called the “click” of improvement: Barrelling down on starboard gybe with the port NYYC American Magic anhedral immersed, the gybe was called. Just ahead of the transition and as the port side Emirates Team New Zealand flat foil is dropped, there’s a little tweak on the leeward foil to raise the bow. The port foil drops and BoatZero’s tendency to dip the bow is negated; and with a high angle immediately out of the gybe, followed by a bear-away to course, the gybe is pin-point perfect. The tone was set for the day.
Coming back from port gybe, with the flat port foil immersed, there’s apparently less of an issue as the NYYC American Magic anhedral dips and the bow stays flat – surely something that could well influence the design of the new foils for their new AC75? The long-span, flat foils that seem all the rage across the LEQ12 fleet, are there for a reason.
Another key tweak that can clearly be seen in the Flight Controller positions are the motor-bike handlebar twist grips that it’s believed control the wing flaps. Calibrating those so that the really minor tweaks through the gybes (and tacks) can be made consistently is something that Alinghi Red Bull Racing have worked relentlessly on, and the results are clear for all to see.
An area the team may well be zeroing in on with BoatZero (pardon the pun) is the leeway-give specifically around the leeward marks. On the ETNZ flat foil, it was noticeable that as they headed up to go upwind on a tight angle, there’s a slippage to leeward. With so much focus in the LEQ12 foil designs on trying to prevent that slippage with theories ranging from asymmetric foil arms to increased sidewalls on the bulb profiles, Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be itching to get their new AC75 and start full-scale foil testing – it could be a key determinant of success at the 37th America’s Cup.
Bryan Mettraux came to the recon interview with a broad smile on his face after sailing on Wednesday and his general demeanour gave away the distinct clue that things are really looking up in the camp. Talking about the day he said: “Yeah for sure we improve every day and today was the perfect condition - flat sea-state, nice breeze between 10 and 15 so the water made for the those conditions, so it was a really nice day on the water… I think today is a bit of everything just improving a ‘click’ on every detail it makes the difference onboard. The boat’s are really sensitive and when everyone is doing his job it can go fast and nice.”
‘Fast and nice’ was an understatement – Alinghi Red Bull Racing looked brilliant on the water today and their foil-to-foil percentages were higher than we’ve seen before by a margin of 10%. When the America’s Cup is measured in fractions, this Bull is on a charge. Impressive sailing from the Swiss, who continue through Thursday and Friday and continue to set the on-the-water marker high. The other teams will be watching closely.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC75 at 08:45 and launched the boat shortly after. The shore crew worked with the sailors to calibrate mast rotation, traveller, forestay, and mainsail skin tracks. The J2-2L and J4-1R jibs were carried on chase boats, while the J1-2R was prepared on deck along with the M2-2L mainsail, ahead of 'Garbi' winds, which started from the south and gradually increased in strength, before shifting to the south-southwest later in the afternoon. The wind ranged from 10-15knots throughout the day, with a relatively flat sea state. Today the cyclors wore 'Inuteq Cooling Vests,' while setting up the boat at the dock.
Sailing commenced at 12:25 from the port entrance, with the team practicing light wind starts and tacks, perhaps experimenting with take-off angles in light winds. The J1-2R was exchanged with the J2-2L, then resumed sailing and executed five fully-foiling gybes downwind on the 2NM course (leeward gate + single windward mark). The next stints
consisted of several pre-starts and laps of the course with brief pauses in between.
The team played with asymmetric cant angles with two boards down in the pre-start, exploring the balance of stability and speed in this mode. In one of the stints, the team performed a JK manoeuvre at the leeward gate as well as a tack and bear-away around the windward mark. An improvement in bow down sailing was also noted, with less skimming of the bow on the water, and good cant angles reducing foil arm drag. The yacht was also seen to slip with not enough grip in some roundings, as can be seen at the end of the highlights video.
The team spent five and a quarter hours on the water and covered over 53NM. Today’s performance stood out to the Recon Unit as their strongest sailing day so far, with records broken in multiple departments:
- 66 manoeuvres performed, most in a single day
- 91% Fully Foiling Gybes - highest in a day (79% Fully Foiling Tacks – second best day for tacks)
- 85% Fully Foiling Manoeuvres - Overall
Onboard Today
Driving Group: Maxime Bachelin / Arnaud Psarofaghis
Flight Control: Lucien Cujean / Yves Detrey / Bryan Mettraux
Power Group: Barnabé Delarze / Arthur Cevey / Augustin Maillefer / Florian Trüb
Dock-Out: 1200 Dock-In: 1715
Conditions: 'Garbi' - Afternoon Thermal Wind - 6-8kn S @ 12:25, 7-9kn S @ 12:45, 10-13kn S @ 14:30, 9-12kn SSW @ 15:50
Weather AM: 27°C, Intermittent Clouds.
Weather PM: 28°C, Mostly Cloudy.
Sea State AM: Beaufort 1-2
Sea State PM: Beaufort 3-4
Sails Used:
Mainsail M2 (M2-2L): 4 hours 55 minutes
Jib (J1-2R): 25 minutes
Jib (J2-2L): 3 hours 10 minutes
Jib (J4-1R): 1 hour
Total Tacks: 33 – 26 foil-to-foil, 4 touch & go, 3 touchdowns.
Total Gybes: 33 – 30 foil-to-foil, 3 touch & go, 0 touchdowns.
Take-Off speed: 18-20 knots @ 70-90° TWA (True Wind Angle)
Recon Flight Notes:
12:25 – 12:35 Sailing (1 Tack - Fully Foiling, 1 Tack - Touch Down)
12:50 – 13:05 Sailing (1 Tack - Touch Down, 5 Gybes - Fully Foiling)
13:20 – 13:30 Sailing (1 Tack - Fully Foiling, 3 Gybes - Fully Foiling)
13:35 – 14:00 Sailing (8 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 8 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 1 Gybe - Touch & Go)
14:25 – 15:10 Sailing (9 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 3 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Tack - Touch Down, 6 Gybes - Fully Foiling, 2 Gybes - Touch & Go)
15:25 – 15:50 Sailing (3 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 3 Gybes - Fully Foiling)
16:05 – 16:30 Sailing (4 Tacks - Fully Foiling, 1 Tack - Touch & Go, 5 Gybes - Fully Foiling)
16:40 – 16:50 Sailing (1 Non-Foiling Tack)