SMALL GAINS GIANT STEPS IN BARCELONA
Twenty years ago, in the America’s Cup you had a fast boat if you had gained 30cm on a two-mile windward leg in displacement. Today, despite the astonishing speeds of the foiling monohulls of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, the marginal gains look to be back.
On a pitch-perfect, if a little chilly, Barcelona winter’s day albeit with Spring round the corner, NYYC American Magic headed out for more relentless two-boat testing, eking out the gains in their aero-package with their full wardrobe of LEQ12, in-house sails. With a stable breeze up to 15 knots and a moderate sea-state, both of the team’s LEQ12 moded AC40 lined up against each other for massively long foiling runs, almost reminiscent of IACC or 12 Metre testing back in the day, and with huge telemetry coming off the boats and into custom data collection buckets, this was a valuable day. Rotating helming partnership and trimmer combinations equalled-out any manual talent input and after almost five hours on the water, the team returned to the base with smiles on their faces.
Tom Burnham, the American Magic Team Coach, highlighted the importance of these long sessions, saying: “It's critical, every week is critical but this is a really important period for us here doing a bunch of sail testing and set-up testing and it's been awesome, it's actually been a lovely surprise with how great the weather’s been the last two weeks here in Barcelona you know obviously it's winter time and you're not sure exactly what you're going to get but we've had great sea-breezes for the last two weeks and still one more day of it tomorrow before it gets nasty on Friday. But yeah, it's been super important for our programme and really great testing and making a lot of progress that's really good.”
And with so much of this America’s Cup being fought inside super-computers whirring away all over the globe, Tom saw the value of the real-world testing, saying: “We're just validating things that we've had in the test list and learning stuff about sail trims and sail designs and things like that that. You can look at it in a computer all you want, but there's nothing like getting it on the water and having everybody get to see what it really looks like and get a feel for it and be able to make comments about how sails are setting up or how the boat feels with a different cant setting or whatever, so it's just so important to get it in the real world and not only in a computer.”
Taking that data into meaningful analysis is the real game in town and Tom spoke about the team behind NYYC American Magic’s software engineering team saying: “Everything is custom built, we've got a couple of guys on our team who have custom made the software that we use for analysing all the data and doing the debriefs and having the video and audio all synced with the data it's pretty impressive. These guys have been working at this one programme for a couple of Cup cycles now and it's pretty refined and works really well."
Asked whether they’re seeing any surprise data in the numbers, Tom answered: “No nothing earth shattering, a lot of it is confirming what we already know and then making small refinements and adjustments as that’s what this game is all about all those little small gains are what add up to a big gains in the long run.”
Marginal gains but big steps forward for the American team who look dynamite smart on the water and are really making the most of the Barcelona winter testing. More to come tomorrow before the weather closes in at the end of the week.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing kept the Americans company out on the America’s Cup racecourse with the Swiss going deep into their race training all afternoon at full scale and counting down the days now to the launch of their new AC75. It was a tough and long day on the water with the team rotating cyclors to keep fresh legs onboard for the intense race session against the software and the Chase Boat. Pre-start action was frenetic and there was a real zip around the team today, similar to previous session since being back in Barcelona after their training stint in Jeddah. A huge 92 manoeuvre count today was the highest recorded on the AC75 for the Swiss and even more impressive was the 87% fully foiling rate.
Nils Theuninch was one of those rotated-in and spoke of the day, saying: “It feels like we're pedalling non-stop for sure, it's a very hard day in the office every day we are on the water and yeah it's hard and there's a few breaks here and there but mainly peddling all the time... we jumped on the boat for the second part of the day to have fresh legs for the racing and to simulate a bit what it’s going to be like during the Cup so you know it's always nice to simulate what you can before we get to the actual racing and today was one of those days.”
The sailors completed over four hours on the water with Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin confirming their superb, intuitive helming partnership whilst Jason Waterhouse came onboard in the trimmer/flight control position alongside Bryan Mettraux and Lucien Cujean on rotation. Great day for the Swiss whose campaign looks to be peaking just at the right time. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: NYYC American Magic completed a second day of AC40 two boat testing on a day which saw a southerly wind up to 15 knots kicking up a moderate chop on the waters off the Barcelona city front. Once again, the focus was on long periods of straight-line sailing to enable the team to gather performance data on some custom mainsails and a range of headsails.
The shore crew rolled out the AC40 America first this morning at 0855 and had the boat rigged (America's mast now sporting matching branding to the one on Magic) and launched by 0925. Once in the water a team of technicians and their laptops spent an hour setting up and testing the boat's systems with helmsman Paul Goodison joining in this process for a while in the starboard helming pod.
The AC40 Magic was rolled out at 1050 and rigged and launched by 1125. The two boats docked out at 1225 and by 1250 had sails up at the harbour entrance (America with a C5 mainsail and J2 headsail; Magic with a C4 headsail and J2 headsail). Both boats were up on foils at 1305 in 10 knots of breeze for a 15 minute fast downwind run with five foiling gybes.
With the wind ramping up to 14-15 knots the crews changed to J3 headsails. A second flight lasting 55 minutes saw the boats complete two long windward / leeward laps in close formation with two foiling tacks and two foiling gybes.
After a 15-minute break the boats set off on a third flight – this time lasting 30 minutes – featuring a long windward / leeward lap that saw just one foiling tack and two foiling gybes. A 30-minute stop saw the teams change headsails – America to J2 C3; Magic to J2 C4 – and the sailors rotated between the boats. The final session was a mammoth one hour and 10-minute flight that was a huge windward / leeward lap followed by a final upwind match race back to the harbour. This final stint finished at 1655 with both crews bearing away into the harbour to drop sails in the main basin.
Dock-in was at 1715. Another sailing day has been scheduled for tomorrow Thursday February 8. No sailing is scheduled for the following three days.
On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing's AC75, Boat Zero, was rolled out at 10:30, followed by stepping of the rig and crane in at 10:50. Standard checks were conducted, with further work observed in the starboard cyclor and trimming pod.
The team docked out at 12:30, with the M2-2R mainsail and J3-1R jib hoisted in port. An issue with the Windex was noted before releasing the towline, but it looked minor. Sailing commenced from the port entrance, with Arnaud Psarofaghis at the helm on starboard and Maxime Bachelin on port. Notably, Jason Waterhouse replaced Yves Detrey in the starboard trimming position for today. The sea was flat in the morning, with a slight chop in the afternoon as the breeze filled in.
Stint 1 (13:00 – 13:20, 7-10.5kn 200° @ 13:00) The first stint began with a downwind/upwind warm-up, followed by a couple of drop and lifts of the windward foil. Additionally, the team practiced manoeuvring with two boards down, including a double gybe.
Stint 2 (13:25 – 13:30, 8-13kn 200° @ 13:25, 11-15kn 205° @ 13:40) The second stint saw the yacht engage in a short upwind and a tack-and-bear-away manoeuvre, then sailing a short downwind and attempting a gybe-to-round-up-and-tack, touching down on the final tack. The whole sequence was then repeated successfully. With the wind increasing in strength, the team exchanged the J3 for the J4-1R jib.
Stint 3 (13:47 – 14:07, 12-16kn 205° @ 13:45) This stint focused on pre-start manoeuvres, with the team lifting and dropping the windward foil, predominantly on starboard tack, both upwind and downwind. Following, successive 360-degree manoeuvres were practiced, albeit not executed perfectly clean.
Stint 4 (14:14 – 14:30, 12-17kn 215° @ 14:10) The fourth stint consisted of another long downwind segment, further practicing sailing with two boards down. Pre-start practice began towards the end, with the yacht entering on port for Start 1, while Chase Alpha entered on starboard.
Stint 5 (14:35 – 14:45, 11-15.5kn 205° @ 14:35) Start 2 continued into a one lap race, with the course set at 210, as the yacht entered on port and the chase on starboard. The wind slightly decreased towards the end of the session, prompting a sail change from J4 to J3-1R. A full cyclor team rotation was carried out before the following stint.
Stint 6 (15:08 – 15:35, 8-11kn 210° @ 15:05) The sixth stint began with an upwind/downwind warm-up, incorporating 360-degree turns as well as sailing with both boards down. Start 3 and Start 4 saw the chase boat entering on port and the yacht entering on starboard.
Stint 7 (15:40 – 16:02, 11-14.5kn 205° @ 15:40) Start 5 continued into a two-lap race, with plenty of cover manoeuvres observed. A touch down tack occurred at the second windward gate, followed by another touch down at the subsequent leeward mark rounding with both boards down.
Stint 8 (16:11 – 16:25, 8-11kn 205° @ 16:10) The final stint consisted of a long downwind stretch on starboard, followed by a sharp JK manoeuvre, then continuing upwind on port, with the yacht alternating between low and high modes before sailing into the port to the end the sailing day.
Sails were dropped by 16:35 and the team docked in at 16:45. Following just over four hours on the water, with 135 minutes spent sailing, a total of 92 manoeuvres were observed, marking the highest count in a single day on the AC75, achieving an 87% fully foiling rate.