WEEKEND WARRIORS
For Emirates Team New Zealand, the grind goes on and the pace of training is intensifying with every session. After a big week of AC75 sailing in a wide window of conditions and sea-states, Saturday was a very different pace with flat water, blue-skies and the anemometer never registering above 9 knots.
With the America’s Cup match a little over a year away from now and the countdown very much on, the Kiwis are determined to make the most out of every sailing session and their training day pretty much follows a set pattern with warm-up mode sailing and technique practice ahead of running virtual laps of a pre-set course on the onboard computer.
Interesting to see the variances in the modes that they run 'Te Rehutai' in when it’s light with the default upwind mode of flying as close to the water as possible occasionally replaced by added height through the lulls to keep the power on and avoid splashing down. There’s a real accuracy and artistry building into the Kiwi programme now along with consistency through their manoeuvres. Downwind in the light there’s a lot of traveller action evident on the mainsail with it trimmed up to windward pre-gybe and then over-trimmed above the centre-line once through to keep the power on and execute effectively. High exits were the order of the day with Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge really clicking together through the transitions and pushing hard whilst Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney, the A-Team of Flight Controllers in this America’s Cup cycle, worked solidly through the afternoon to keep the AC75 in flight and powered on.
In total, the team executed 23 tacks and 22 gybes over a three-and-a-half-hour session with almost a 100% foil-to-foil rate (just one touch & go tack) which was impressive in the conditions and required maximum output from the cyclor teams who rotated through the session. An issue with the mainsail skin attachments towards the top of the sail dogged the team all afternoon and required the sail to be lowered and re-set and also an unexplained dropping and re-setting of the J2-6 headsail but other than that, the team looked imperious on the water and performing at a very high level.
Speaking afterwards, Blair reflected on the week’s sailing saying: “Beautiful day out there. Saturday here in Barcelona, we wanted to get out there and had those two really nice mid-range conditions earlier in the week, so we wanted to get another light one in for this week and managed to do that. Really flat water so nice change up from the conditions that we sailed the AC75 in August and July.”
Blair also mentioned the importance of getting out on the water in all conditions saying: “We're coming into a pretty critical period now where we’re one year out from the match period so it's important that we get out there as often as we can and try to get a feel for the conditions and today was sort of bottom end and the team did a good job since we haven’t been sailing that much recently of getting the most out of the boat and trying different techniques and different manoeuvres to try and get the most out of it.”
Asked about the variety of conditions that Barcelona is capable of serving up from one day to the next in this autumnal period, Blair added: “Yeah it's pretty exciting though isn't it that Barcelona serves up all different conditions so we're excited by that and it's been good to have a taste of it this week on the wind speed side of things, obviously the water's been really flat all week but had a wide range of conditions on the wind speed…all in all really good first week back on AC75, nice to have the full crew back with us and everyone’s doing a great job and looking forward to a big push over the next month.”
Emirates Team New Zealand will be taking every opportunity in this final month of training in Barcelona to assess the likely conditions of the Match that is scheduled to start on 12th October 2024. The countdown is on. The grind is real. The America’s Cup will be with us before we know it. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Report – Emirates Team New Zealand: Emirates Team New Zealand went hunting for a second day of light air conditions today to round off their week of AC75 sailing. After rolling out on time at 1200 and launching at 1227 the New Zealander's boat left the harbour at 1405 with the M1-3 mainsail and the J2-6 headsail. Winds were in the 7 - 8 knot range at that time with flat seas and the Kiwi crew – helmsmen Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge along with flight controllers / sail trimmers Andy Maloney and Blair Tuke – seemed to have no issue quickly getting the boat into the air on starboard tack.
After a short upwind stint, the boat was born away on to a fast downwind run along the Barcelona shoreline at speeds topping 35 knots. Gybes were smooth and fast and for a lot of the time the boat was sailed in a slightly bow down attitude with the bow kept within inches of skimming the water.
After turning upwind speeds were in the low thirties with the boat often in the same bow down configuration. After a few free sailing windward / leeward laps to the crew went into the now familiar routine of prestart practice before full laps around a virtual windward / leeward racecourse.
A stop at 1540 saw the team drop and re-hoist the mainsail – possibly to correct an internal control line issue at the top of the sail. (Note: the mainsail was hoisted / dropped and re-hoisted at the beginning of the day before leaving the harbour). A stop 30 minutes later was for the team to drop and quickly re-hoist the J2-6 headsail although the reason for this was not evident.
More windward / leeward laps of the virtual racecourse followed during which it was notable upwind that the boat turned a long way into the breeze before the windward foil arm was dropped (example in highlights video at 05.48). With the southerly breeze beginning to fade time was called at 1630 with sails down by 1640 and the boat back on the dock at 1655. No sailing is planned for tomorrow (Sunday October 1).