MAGICAL BARCELONA SHINES FOR THE AMERICANS AND SWISS

Operating quite different strategies – NYYC American Magic starting their two-boat training whilst Alinghi Red Bull Racing go for development at full scale with their AC75 ‘BoatZero’ – this was an engrossing afternoon of watching the very best in the world ply their trade at what’s becoming the business end of both fascinating campaigns. 

For the Americans it was the day that they were looking forward to with both of the AC40’s ‘America’ and ‘Magic’ converted over the weekend into LEQ12’s with the addition of upgraded starboard foils that they tested so solidly and extensively throughout the summer in Barcelona. Perhaps more for validation than anything else, the team were looking again at decisions that had been derived but in the 12-15 knots of breeze when the racing commenced, it was perhaps outright skill and racecraft that won the day. Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison sailed ‘America’ like they stole it and were that ‘click’ ahead in all races, able to eke out strong positions and then defend like crazy with the added advantage of dirty air aiding their cause.

Flight Control and wave management was the name of the game today – oh how they probably wish they had the extra length of the AC75 – and the numerous splashdowns amidst clouds of cold winter spray were par for the course. Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges took the wheels of ‘Magic’ today and ended up calling it a day as the breeze came to its peak.

Tough day on the water and as Riley Gibbs alluded to in interview afterwards there was a lot going on: “The majority of it came down to stability around the track. We kind of saw that it was a pretty asymmetric day as far as the breeze direction and the sea state and yeah just stability and starting...fortunately we likely won't have a mistral hopefully at least during the summer you know kind of developing these long westerly swells that come in, they're pretty challenging, it poses quite an issue for the flight controllers to tackle tack to tack, very asymmetric in set up possibly but yeah difficult.”

Talking about the asymmetric set up on the foils, with America running the silver Wing 03 and Magic running the all-black Wing 04 (we think), Riley responded: “We're coming into the tail end of foil design and always trying to eke out the most in our performance so we're just looking back and confirming our suspicions on what we learned over the summer.”

Whilst American Magic blasted around short upwind/downwind tracks on the America’s Cup course, the magnificent sight of Alinghi Red Bull Racing at full bore, joined them having docked out just behind and plied their early session out towards the airport waiting for the breeze to fill in. As it came in from the south west, the Swiss came down with it towards the racecourse and out further east towards the Forum district.

With slightly less swell than yesterday, what was interesting to note was the overall trim of the boat being far more upright and ‘standing’ on the immersed foil – perhaps a nod to what we’re seeing down in Auckland with Emirates Team New Zealand on their LEQ12 moded AC40. Hardly any windward heel was observable upwind even as the breeze came in – interesting.

Once a course had been laid by the Alinghi Red Bull Racing support crew, ‘BoatZero’ was released for some fast laps where upwind the trim was low to the deck whilst downwind flight looked far more assured and powerful. A caught-on-camera moment at a top mark though showed that there will be plenty to debrief afterwards as the team went for a bear-away and immediate gybe, heading up high and then broaching on the bear-away and never getting it quite back under control again. AC75s bite and when they do, they bite hard. The Swiss did a good job to bail out, head up and stop the motion.

Speaking afterwards, Nicolas Rolaz, former Optimist World Champion and a real find of this Cup cycle spoke to the recon and gave his usual terrific interview. Asked about the communication loop on a busy day like today, he said: “Communication onboard is a is a tricky subject. Even when it's a flat sea state it's something we're always working on and making sure it’s going well, trying to improve it, because it's going to be crucial for racing and we have a really strong base, like a good communication playbook, and still working on it so I wouldn't say it differs much from a flat day to a wavy day, everybody has defined roles and knows what to say and when to say it...keywords are being used and everybody knows what's going on and the helmsmen are putting words on their actions which we need to be able to sail the boat.”

One observable from the on-water recon was the team’s use of the double boards through the gybes at times and something quite unique to the Swiss in their continual raising and lowering of the windward board downwind. Nico commented on this, saying: “So, like people know in this last period we're working on our systems, on the systems on the boat, and it's part of the work we're doing trying to make our systems work better and trying new board drops, sailing with two boards, especially for the start, it's going to be needed, so just practice.”

The mighty Bulls called it time at just after 4pm with almost four hours completed – valuable training, vital time-on-the-water from this most hard-driving of all the teams in the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: NYYC American Magic Had to be patient early in today's two boat session to allow the Barcelona southerly sea breeze to make an appearance, but once it did it quickly established itself and soon developed into a solid system that ranged from 11 to 15 knots.

The team's two AC40s – both in LEQ12 mode with custom foils on the starboard side – were rigged and launched by 1045. A new stubby antenna was observed on top of Magic's mast.

The two boats docked out together at 1200 but then had to wait at the harbour entrance with mainsails up for an hour to allow the sea breeze to build from sub-five knots to around 7 knots by 1315.

After some separate free warm up and free sailing, the two boats – both sailing with J1 headsails – rendezvoused at the leeward gate of the earlier-set windward / leeward racecourse in front of the W Hotel. America arrived and rounded the left-hand mark but appeared to lose control mid-rounding and did a little hobby-horsing before coming to a stop.

With the breeze now touching 11-12 knots both boats swapped headsails – America to a J2 C3 and Magic to a J2 C4. One practice race was sailed in which America won the start and sailed away to an easy victory while Magic appeared to struggle a little with maintaining steady flight and suffered a splashdown on the first downwind run. Both crews were obviously pushing hard all around the course and with the sea state building quickly throughout the afternoon there were plenty of touchdowns and boat handling challenges.

By 1500 the breeze was in the 12-15 knot range, necessitating a second headsail change: America to a J3 C1 and Magic to a J3-5 (OD). Two more races were sailed in which – despite some super close prestart / start action – America won both. By the second race the breeze was up to 15 knots and after Magic splashed down on the first upwind the race was stopped at the first leeward gate. Similarly, the third race was stopped at the end of the first beat after Magic splashed down and stopped upwind.

After a 30-minute delay Magic sailed to the harbour entrance and dropped sails. Meanwhile America sailed a free windward leeward lap before a thunderstorm started to roll in from the north. America entered the harbour at 1630. Both boats were back on the dock by 1650. Another sailing session is scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday February 27.

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing's Boat Zero was rolled out at 10:00 h. The boat was prepared and craned into the water by 10:30 h. When alongside, sailors and engineers checked all of the boat's systems, including foil arms, mainsheet systems, mast rotation, and jib sheet systems, to ensure that everything was in top condition before the sailing session.

At 11:25 h, they prepared two jib sails on one of the chase boats: J4-1R and J3-1R, and at 12:30 h, they brought the mainsail M2-2R and the jib J2-2L and placed them on Boat Zero. The boat docked out at 13:00 h, and after hoisting the sails, the chase boat towed it out of the harbour in a SE direction to an area where a racecourse was set with four training marks. It was 13:30 h, and there was almost no wind. After 15 minutes of waiting, the wind came in from TWD 200º with 7-10 knots intensity. From there, the sailing session was conducted as follows:

Stint 1 (13:45 h to 14:15 h): The session began with a test of the boat on a not-very-long upwind leg with three clean tacks in between. After 500 m from the last tack, they bore away into a downwind course, performing 5 gybes (3 clean and 2 'touch and go'). After the last gybe, they stopped and conducted a quick team meeting, and five minutes later, they continued sailing, starting again with a small upwind leg and a perfect tack, after which they decided to bear away into a downwind. After two clean gybes, they went into a luffing manoeuvre and stopped the boat. The wind had increased, and they decided to replace their current jib with the J4-1R.

Stint 2 (14:15 h to 15:00 h): The wind shifted slightly to the right, TWD 220º with 10 to 14 knots intensity. After hoisting the J4-1R jib, they repeated the same process as before to start sailing. They began sailing upwind on portside, then, after a few meters, they tacked and quickly bore away to a downwind course. After a couple of minutes, without performing any gybes, they went for a luffing manoeuvre, then, after a short upwind, they tacked and went for a long port tack upwind with a TWA of approximately 40-45º and 30 to 35 knots of speed. The swell was from the SSE that day, so mainly on port tack, one could experience some differences in speed when Boat Zero was going down the wave while going upwind. They tacked again and, while sailing upwind on starboard tack, they started to lift and lower the windward arm several times. In an interview, Nicolas Rollaz mentioned that "they were trying new board drops to improve their system."

After these tests, they bore away into a downwind course on a long starboard line. After a perfect gybe, they put both boards down and started sailing downwind, performing 5 gybes in a row, an exercise set for pre-starts mode training according to Nicolas Rolaz.

Then, they suddenly lifted an arm and started sailing in a long portside upwind back to the starting line of the course area that was supposedly prepared for training.

Stint 3 (15:00 h to 15:35 h): At 15:00 h, they stopped to change the GoPro batteries, and there was also a replacement from the power crew. At 15:20 h, they started again and went for a not-very-long upwind leg, performing 3 tacks along the way. After the third tack, they bore away and went downwind. After performing three clean gybes, they decided to stop. The coach boat came alongside and threw them a towing line. They dropped the sails, and Boat Zero was towed back to port.

Docking was completed at 16:10 h. Mention that today Yves Detrey (Trimmer) and Nicolas Charbonnier (Helmsman) they were onboard in the extra seats that Boat Zero has with the purpose of make the crew swap easier when need, but it seems that it never happened.

As a Summary Alinghi Red Bull Racing Team today sailed for 80 minutes, performed 27 manoeuvres: 80 % fully foiling and sailed with 2 different jibs. Jose Piñana AC Recon