NEXT GEN LUNA ROSSA AS SWISS SWITCH

Today, on a choppy Bay of Angels, it was the magnificent opportunity for the younger sailors to get a taste of what life at full throttle is like onboard the team’s super-fast LEQ12 with Marco Gradoni and Francesco Bruni driving hard. Seated in the back seats, on rotation, the Youth & Women’s sailors got to see first-hand just how hard this Italian challenge for the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup really is pushing...and they were more than impressive today.

Over a huge number of pre-starts, where the concentration was on accurate positioning and time-on-distance initially, it was then shaken up with the introduction of the Chase Boat acting as competition. Then over some short-course racing with  Team Coach Jacopo Plazzi calling the shots and Paride Bovolenta driving, the Chase Boat team were pushing hard from the comfort of the power controls to keep the sailors on their toes and put them into hard decision-making situations. Electric to watch in practice and a huge skill to execute well. Over a near four hour session with the wind picking up from an initial 10-12 knots and peaking at 13-15 knots, this was another valuable day on the perfect waters of Cagliari.

Vittorio Bissaro, Flight Controller extraordinaire, spoke to the recon team afterwards and summed up the day saying:  “It was a very interesting day in Cagliari, we don’t have many opportunities to face the waves during winter, this day was one of the few, so was super-interesting to go out and try and learn something, little tricks, super productive.” Talking about the Chase Boat interference, Vito explained it as: “To put pressure, develop communications...and keep the game tight.”

Vito also spoke about the new AC75 that will launch at the beginning of April with some very interesting comments saying: “For sure, it’s very aggressive, very nice boat, super clean, very nice solution. The LEQ was a development boat, so the intention was not to make the best boat just a nice platform to study while the AC75 is clearly a weapon. We looked at every detail, everything around the package and really looking forward to start sailing with it.”

More to come from the Italians in this intensive and future-looking race-training block. Italy looks very, very good right now.

Out in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it was a fifth day in a row of sailing for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who are piling the pressure onto their sailing team for improvement. Key to the new impetus has been Dean Barker who brings a whole other level of competitiveness and race-craft, honed from a lifetime on the match-race circuit and the America’s Cup itself.

Dean certainly looks at the pre-start through a different lens and the learnings for the whole team have noticeably up-ticked. Today Dean and Maxime Bachelin looked imperious over a series of starts and with some aggressive protectionist sailing at key moments managed to convert positions into race wins. Arnaud Psarofaghis and Nicolas Charbonnier looked perhaps jaded today, foiling off the foils, gaining an OCS and getting suckered into pressure mistakes – plenty for the team coaches Pietro Sibello and Nils Frei to dissect in the debriefings.

One of the interesting parts of the day was the very last stint where the trim teams swapped with the helms and proved that the skill-sets required to trim are very different to the accuracy required to helm.

A few spectacular nosedives, broaches and falls off the foils were noted with Bryan Mettraux summing up, with a smile, the feelings of the ‘Trimmer’s Union’ saying: “I had the chance to helm for 20 minutes at the end, it was really interesting, I wasn’t helming when we did the nosedive but I think it was good fun for the whole crew to be able to swap and to share our feelings and experience...I think it’s much harder to trim than to helm so I think both times were a trimmer mistake!!”

So much of this Jeddah training camp has been about race-training but there has also been an awful lot of sail testing and with lighter winds in this block than in previous camps, the crossover between the J2 and J3 has been an area of much debate. Bryan summed it up beautifully saying: “I think we’ve seen in the last two days that between the J2 and J3 it’s really close until 10 knots, when it gets a bit stronger it’s better with a J3, below that it’s perhaps a bit better with the J2...straight line looks pretty close and it makes a bit of difference on manoeuvres, we’re still learning which is the best compared to the wind...with the extra wind speed upwind you’re really happy with a small jib at the front and  downwind you have less apparent wind so a bigger area makes a difference.”

The hard-driving Swiss have a welcome day-off on Friday before training re-commences through the weekend and into the early part of next week before the team return to AC75 training in Barcelona. Another hugely productive day in the crystal waters of the Red Sea.

Meanwhile in Auckland it was a down-range day on equally crystal summer waters, once the morning rain squalls had evaporated, and the perfect opportunity for Emirates Team New Zealand to test through their trims, flight and foil detail.

Once again, Peter Burling could be seen out on both the port and starboard foil arms, checking the most minute of details on the outboard wings and when asked afterward by the recon team what he's inspecting, he gave an interesting answer: “We’re just trying a few things, checking how they should be, it’s obviously a pretty busy time for us just trying to push through a bit of detail stuff and a few conceptual things but really happy with how the programme is going and unfolding and looking forward to continuing that over the next few weeks.”

Asked about the new AC75, in build at the moment and slated for launch in April, Pete put it all in perspective saying: “It’s exciting now that three teams have declared that they’re going to be launching in the next couple of months, yeah it’s going to be a really interesting time of the campaign to see what people have actually been up to in private behind their own lines and it’s all coming to the pointy end now.”

Emirates Team New Zealand have blocked out the next three days as potential sailing sessions. The grind goes on for the Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup. (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 09:15 and 09:40 respectively for their fifth consecutive day of sailing, with the boats prepared and craned into the water by 10:00.

Standard checks were carried out in the morning. Full LE sail plans were prepared ahead of 12:20 dock-out, with the same crew combination as the previous day.

The first 40 minutes were not recorded as the team tested for a marketing stunt. The yachts were towed back to the Obhur Creek to hoist sails, as the M1-3 LE and J2-4 LE were raised on the Red boat, and the M1-4 LE and J3-1 LE on the Black boat.

Red Boat: Dean Barker & Maxime Bachelin

Black Boat: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Nicolas Charbonnier

Stint 1 (13:17 – 13:54, 11-15kn 300° @ 13:20) The session commenced with both vessels engaging in upwind split tacks comparing the J3 vs the J2. This led into competitive tacks up to a stationary chase boat waiting to windward, leading to a gybing battle downwind. Again, the Black boat with the J2 opened a gap downwind.

Stint 2 (14:05 – 14:30, 9-13kn 295° @ 14:05) Four starts were practiced, with the Black boat entering on port on all starts. The 1NM course was set to 295 deg. The third start continued into a race but was abandoned as the Black fell off the foils when luffed by Red, as they lost flow over the rudder to make a manoeuvre according to Bryan Mettraux in the post sailing interview. The fourth start saw Red start on time as Black did not make it on time, struggling with boat speed, as wind started to decrease towards the end of this stint. The Black boat then exchanged the J3 for the J2-3 LE jib.

Stint 3 (14:42 – 15:02, 7-10.5kn 295° @ 14:45) Red practiced a short upwind/downwind as Black finalised sail settings, ahead of Start 5 / Race 2 (1 lap), which again saw Black enter on port. Red pushed from behind on approach to the start line, with Black early and returning back to the start line to clear OCS. Red led at windward mark, then luffing up Black to control position, with Black deciding to drop the windward board to slow down and gybe behind. Red finished first as Black trailed behind.

Helms:

Black: Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz

Red: Jason Waterhouse and Yves Detrey

Stint 4 (15:05 – 15:42, 8-12kn 300° @ 15:10) The helms switched seats with the trimmers for the final stint, as both boats engaged in free sailing to warm up. The Black boat suffered a slow nose-dive downwind transitioning through a gybe, though recovered quickly and sailed down to the start for the final race. Start 6 / Race 3 (1 lap), saw Black enter on port, and following a clear start, Red tacked around the windward mark first, but touched down in doing so. Black followed shortly after, with a touch and go tack, to sail over Red and build a big lead to finish at the leeward gate. Black sailed half the leg upwind before sailing back to base, while Red continued downwind but nosedived before reaching the finish line, deciding to drop the sails and tow back to base.

The team spent three and a half hours on the water and 120 minutes of sailing. 78 manoeuvres were observed of the Black boat, with a 90% fully foiling rate.

On-Water Recon Report – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: The Italian team rolled out their LEQ12 prototype at 11:30, stepped mast and craned the yacht in by 11:50. The usual checks were executed at the dock before locking in M2-1 ready for dock-out scheduled at 13:00. The prototype was boarded by four sailors hosting two guests and only the flight controller/trimmers rotated during the session. The mainsail was hoisted and paired to the J2-2 while pressure was measured 10-12kn from 135° with a light building chop. The first foiling stint began with a light initial tow to accelerate the yacht which then self-took-off on port tack, several self-take-off only were observed during the day.

Once up and foiling, the team conducted the usual warm up tacks before bearing-away on starboard tack and executing some gybes, repeating this routine twice before decelerating after 20 minutes. In the meantime, top and bottom marks were set at 135°.

As the second foiling stint began, first few of numerous pre-starts of the day were practiced. Afterwards, the LEQ12 sailed an upwind and a downwind leg before stopping on the next upwind leg after 25 minutes. On the racetrack, one Chase Boat engaged with the prototype simulating matching racing behaviour. During this short break, trimmers swapped, and guest seats were occupied by members of the Women’s and Youth teams.

For the third foiling stint, lasting approx. another 20 minutes, the LEQ12 self-took-off up on port and bore away, gybed towards the bottom gate to practice some additional prestart drills. In these, the Chase Boat occasionally pressured the LEQ12 inside the box before racing against each other for some legs. On the bottom gate, the LEQ12 came off the foils after touching down on a JK manoeuvre and the team took the opportunity to swap sailors once again.

Back on the foils at 14:55, the team practiced additional starting drills and race afterwards. The breeze was building with the sea-state, now reaching 12-14kn from 125° with approximately 0.4m chop. After the second upwind leg, the yacht was decelerated ending the fourth stint after 45 minutes. Marks were collected during the last 10-minute-long foiling stint which saw the LEQ12 sail on the virtual track before straight-line sailing towards the harbour. The tow line was then passed the day was called at 16:10 with 115 minutes foiling time, 13 pre-starts, approximately 40 tacks and 30 gybes [Michele Melis AC Recon].

On-Water Recon Report – Emirates Team New Zealand: Day 65 with ETNZ in the LEQ12 out on the Hauraki Gulf. With a wind delay this morning the team docked out at 12pm after the rain showers had passed and the breeze started to build again. Light NEs allowing for a start off Mechanics Bay with the M2 Main and J2 Jib.

Taking off in around 5.5 knots, the team sailed upwind out the harbour in search of more wind. Tacking their way out the Rangitoto channel and continuing up the shoreline short tacking to stay in the wind. Recon team observed differences in heel angle modes from tack to tack, sailing the boat much flatter on starboard. Beating up the Rangitoto shoreline the team spent time putting in many tacks.

Stopping for lunch and a battery change about 1pm they continued beating up the Rangitoto Island and Motutapu Island shore testing different flying modes as the swell increased. In a dying wind the Recon observed the team requiring more steering input to keep the LEQ12 flying. After a touch down exiting a tack, the team required a tow to get back on the foils as the wind was very light. Completing a solid bear away in light wind the team ran down the shoreline towards Auckland. Being bottom end of the wind range conditions the team needed very high exit angles out of the gybes. 

After sailing downwind back to just east of Rangitoto Lighthouse the team stopped to inspect the Starboard foil. Having a look for about 5 minutes they continued sailing showing no signs of concern. Beating back up the shoreline they failed to foil through a tack and spent a long while building to get back on the foil. Popping after some time the team bore away spending a long gybe on starboard. Then completing a round up and stopping to check over the Port foil. Showing no signs of concern they continued sailing down the harbour completing a few more manoeuvres and a short up and downwind lap in the inner harbour, before completing the day in Mechanics Bay.