SWISS BACK IN ARABIA AS TRAINING CONTINUES IN BARCELONA

With the wind gradually building, the team docked-out at 2.30pm and after some initial warm-ups with the team’s bespoke J1 jib that is exquisitely finished, it was soon out of range and the call to drop down to the equally stunning bespoke LEQ J2’s was made ahead with Arnaud Psarofaghis and Nicholas Charbonnier getting first sight of the brand new J2-4LE. A few line-ups were observed before the crews all swapped around to take out any human bias in this important sail testing programme.

Pretty soon it was down to racing and with Dean Barker bringing a fresh perspective to the pre-start, the first two starts were amped up and saw the Kiwi gain an OCS in the second start after a push from Psarofaghis. The next start saw both boats hit the line hard before Psarofaghis and Charbonnier showed superb race-craft to roll over the ‘Black’ boat upwind – those two sure know how to sail AC40s at their optimum and the precision was impressive. The next start showed how far Psarofaghis has come as a foiling match-racer with a run back to the line that called for maximum stalling. The Swiss nailed it, Barker was forced off at the pin end of the line – another great win for the Psarofaghis/Charbonnier combo.

There then followed two races with a single windward mark and again it was the time-in-the-boat practise of Psarofaghis and Charbonnier that won them the races. A smart right-hand lane off the start line in race five saw the ‘Red’ boat click into some nice lifting pressure and then once ahead made no mistake to bring the boat home for a win. The next, and final race, saw a mis-communication between Barker and Bachelin at the windward mark that allowed the ‘Red’ boat to roll over downwind, seize the lead and never look back. Hugely impressive sailing from this pairing with Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz on trim – plenty for the coaches to think about, Alinghi Red Bull Racing have serious strength in depth now.

Speaking afterward, Maxime Bachelin spoke about having Dean Barker onboard saying: “It’s very good to have him onboard, it's changed a lot compare to Phil (Robertson) so it's making a new situation on the pre-start and then on the races and so I think it's a big plus for us to have him here.” And speaking about the mix up on the final windward mark, Max was admirably honest as he said: “Yeah it was a bit of a misunderstanding between Dean and me and it's more about communication side and yeah we still need to improve, me with my English and him hearing maybe a bit better on that and yeah so it’s good...I think Dean did not know really that the boat was coming on port because I was not explaining it and so it's more about me explaining him and taking the wheel to do the best manoeuvre as possible.” The Arabian odyssey continues for Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

Back in Barcelona, INEOS Britannia was back into action and enjoying a building breeze that started around 6 knots and then built quickly on the back of a big veer to a solid 17 knots by mid-afternoon for the team’s two boat testing and race practice. Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott were back on their familiar ‘Athena' whilst Ben Cornish and Dylan Fletcher-Scott helmed the Athena Pathway boat ‘Sienna’ with one of the Youth Team members onboard getting valuable trim lessons from the hugely experienced Luke Parkinson.

Some opening warm-up preceded two races that ultimately were abandoned with the Ainslie/Scott combination sailing extremely accurately and reading the conditions well. The first race saw ‘Sienna’ fall off the foils and agonisingly unable to get back up and flying, gifting a huge lead that was never going to be bridged. The second race saw the beginning of the day’s big windshift and on the final approaches to the line, left the pin end favoured and ‘Sienna’ stuffed out in ‘coffin corner’ unable to make the line. Ainslie tacked over onto port and crossed but the race was abandoned soon after.

With the wind now really pulsing, Ainslie and Scott stopped for over thirty minutes with an issue whilst Fletcher-Scott and Cornish were having a high old time, ventilating and nosediving as they rocketed around the harbour entrance where a virtual course had been laid. Eventually the two lined-up for a final speed test on the J3 jib but a nosedive on ‘Sienna’ saw that come to a halt and both boats returned to base.

Leigh McMillan who was onboard ‘Athena’ with Bleddyn Mon, Ainslie and Scott, spoke to the recon team after sailing and gave an honest appraisal of the sail testing and the differences between the J2-4 LEQ sail that was onboard Athena as opposed to the one-design J2 on ‘Sienna’ saying: “They are very subtle to be honest, they are both targeting the same wind ranges...but like not huge differences between the two...It was a day of a lot of trimming and a lot of mode changing and so it was really difficult to get a true picture of how it was performing.”

Leigh also gave a very good walk through of a gybe from a trimmers perspective saying: “As a trimmer it depends whether you are trimming into the gybe, it’s just trying to keep the heel right so that you get the board nicely into the water and transitioning the load onto that board and then basically you hand the trim over to the opposite side and go straight into your jib trim so you getting a good landing position for the jib  on the exit for the other side of the gybe. And then in reverse when you're landing , you’re just looking to pick up the traveller and seeing where it's got to into the manoeuvre and transitioning it to a good landing position for the conditions and making sure that you get a good stable roll control on the exit of the gybe.”

Plenty more to come from INEOS Britannia and Alinghi Red Bull Racing this week. NYYC American Magic were back on the water today but in full one-design mode so no recon. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing's AC40-7 (Black) and AC40-4 (Red) were rolled out at 10:30 and 11:00. The boats were craned into the water by 11:30 and standard checks were carried out. Full LE sail plans were prepared for the day, ahead of 14:30 dock-out, delayed due to the late thermal wind. Three new sails were commissioned today: the M1-4 LE mainsail, the J1-5 LE and J2-4 LE jib.

The standard crew configuration was maintained from the previous day, with Dean Barker helming Red alongside Maxime Bachelin, and Arnaud Psarofaghis and Nico Charbonnier helming Black. The M1-3 LE mainsail and J1-3 LE jib were hoisted on the Red boat, while the M1-4 LE and J1-5 LE were hoisted on the Black boat.

Stint 1 (14:50 - 15:12, 8-12kn 305° @ 15:00) The team started with an upwind/downwind of sail testing, sailing long stretches on each tack. Following this stint, the J1 jibs were dropped and exchanged for the J2-3 LE on Black and the new J2-4 LE on Red.

Stint 2 (15:28 - 15:55, 9-12.5kn 310° @ 15:25) The team exercised another stint of sail testing, with Black making a clew adjustment after the first upwind tack, while Red executed 360 manoeuvres in the meantime. The team then continued on the same course as the previous stint. A full crew swap was carried out ahead of the next stint.

Stint 3 (16:10 - 16:37, 9-12kn 290° @ 16:05) A bit more side-by-side testing was carried out, followed by split tacks upwind, then rounding a stationary chase boat at windward, followed by a long downwind gybing battle back to the course start line.

Stint 4 (16:42 - 16:53, 11-14kn 290° @ 16:45) Start 1 and 2 saw the Black boat entering on port, Red on starboard. The second start was more aggressive, with Black (Dean + Max) pushed into an OCS. 

Stint 5 (16:56 - 17:08, 10-13kn 290° @ 17:05) Start 3 saw the Red boat enter on port, Black on starboard, with both boats starting clear, Black on windward, then getting rolled after the first tack. Start 4 saw Red entering on port and both boats early on approach to the start, resulting in Black (Dean) sailing over Red (Arnaud) at the line but early to the start and being forced to sail below the pin end.

Stint 6 (17:14 - 17:40, 10-13kn 290° @ 17:15) Two one-lap races were sailed in the final stint, with the course set at 300 degrees, 1NM long, and a single windward mark. Start 5 (Race 1) saw Red enter on port, with Black turning up high on the approach to the start, forcing Red to tack off to the right, where they found big gains and led at the top mark, extending their lead to the leeward gate, as Black touched down at the leeward mark rounding. Start 6 (Race 2) saw Black enter on port, then starting to windward and tacking off immediately, with Red following soon after. A tacking battle ensued in the middle of the course, as Black made it to the windward mark just ahead, but touched down while tacking round the mark, due to miscommunication between Dean and Max. Red rolled Black and led downwind to win the final race, as both boats then headed back to base.

Sails were dropped by 17:50, marking the end of a productive session that spanned three and a half hours on the water and 125 minutes of active sailing. A total of 77 manoeuvres were observed, with a 97% fully foiling rate.

On-Water Recon Report – INEOS Britannia: The British rolled out their two AC40s, Athena(a) and Sienna(b) in one-design foils configuration, at 08.30 and 09.19. They were craned to the water at 09.06 and 09.58, respectively, after stepping the mast and measuring the tension on the forestay on both boats. Two go-pro cameras were added under the spreaders of AC40(b).

The team docked out at 11:12, after a short ten-minute delay and got on the tow with no sails and headed towards the America´s Cup racing area.

Once there, at 11:40 one-design mainsails were hoisted, combined with the LEQ12 J2-4 on AC40(a) and a one-design J2 on AC40(b).

For the first half of the training, shifty, puffy and patchy west-southwest winds prevailed, oscillating from 250 to 225 in direction, and from 6 to 13 knots in intensity. At 12:45, the wind shifted left to 215 and increased in intensity, averaging 16 knots, gusting 17 and more at times, providing more stable wind conditions, but much more challenging when combined with the 0,90 m swell from 195.

From 11:55 till 12:20 both boats warmed up, sailing independently one from another, while the coaches set an upwind-downwind course with top and bottom gates.

At 12:20 the first race got underway. It was an even start with Boat A to leeward of B. Close to the left virtual boundary, both boats tacked almost at the same time, with a four boat-length lateral gap. Athena standing to the left, found more breeze and a better shift, coming out higher on port after the tack and built a lead from there on. On the last third of the upwind, the wind decreased dramatically in intensity, with B falling-off the foils and A extending. Boat A rounded the top left gate in the lead, far ahead of B which was left sailing on displacement mode for many minutes. Athena rounded the bottom right gate after three gybes on the lead, almost half-a-leg ahead of Sienna. Then the race was abandoned.

At 12:40 a second starting sequence got underway. Approximately thirty seconds before the start there was a considerable shift to the left, making the pin end extremely favoured, leaving both boats all of a sudden under the pin end lay-line. Boat A which was to windward in a controlling position saw the opportunity and pushed boat B to leeward of the pin end. At the starting time, A was tacking to cross the starting line on port a few seconds lake, while B was left to leeward of the pin on starboard tack. Immediately after, the race was abandoned.

At 12:45 the wind shifted left to 215 and built in intensity very quickly. At this time, both boats lowered their respective J2s, to be replaced by one-design J3s.

From 13:00 till 13:30 both boats sailed on their own, getting used to the new conditions and headed closer to the shore, next to the port entrance, probably looking for flatter water and more sheltered conditions. Two virtual upwind-downwind were executed by both boats while the coaches picked up the marks from the former race area and tried to re-set the course closer to the harbour.

At 13:30 ‘Boat A’ stopped and stayed heading into the wind for approximately thirty minutes, with no chase-boat on the side. Possibly dealing with some kind of unidentified problem. B continued to do some tacks and gybes, ventilating and nosediving on two occasions.

At 14:00 the two boats were back sailing and tried to speed test downwind. After sailing for not more than two minutes, boat B ventilated and nosedived, being forced to stop. Once sorted, one short upwind speed test was performed that ended up entering the port at 14:15

At 14:20 both boats lowered their sails inside the harbour. Athena and Sienna docked at 14:40, and the former was the first of the two to be craned out of the water at 15:10. Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on INEOS Britannia

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: (Sunday) Alinghi Red Bull Racing started their fourth trip to Jeddah with the rollout of their AC40-7 (Black) and AC40-4 (Red) boats at 09:15 and 09:35 respectively, each equipped with one design appendages.  Tell-tales were added along the length of both masts, as well as markers at the mast base for Cunningham, indicating a focus on of mast rotation and Cunningham, with these systems potentially linked.  A blue pressurized tank was carried on to the Red boat by a hydraulics engineer as works were carried out below deck.

Unfortunately, sailing observations were not made due to an unresolved issue with the recon boat's lower legs of outboards. One Design mainsails and J2 LE jibs were prepared on both boats, ahead of 12:00 dock-out, however the decision to change to the J3 must have been made once the team reached open water. Dean Barker’s return to sailing operations were noted, as he helmed the Red boat, alongside Maxime Bachelin. Arnaud Psarofaghis and Nico Charbonnier helmed the Black boat. The crew swapped boats during the day, as evident when the team docked-in three and a half hours later at 15:25, with crews on different boats from dock-out.

Updates received from Rodney Ardern (Recon Rep/Sailing Team Manager) indicated M1 OD mainsails and J3 LE jibs were up by 12:30, with a jib clew adjustment made at 12:40. Further notes were provided by Rodney via email:

“Being the first day in the 40’s for a couple of weeks the session was a shakedown and systems checks day. Both boats have OD foils. Both boats had OD mainsails and we used two previously used LEQ J3’s. The boats did 20min of individual warm up, followed by some straight-line work to get everyone focused. During the straight-line sections, we swapped sides and sailed on both tacks – upwind then downwind. Swapped crews and repeated the sequence. After that we did two practice starts followed by a 2-lap race on a 1nm course.”