RACE PACE QUICKENING IN PERFECT BARCELONA

NYYC American Magic put in a full afternoon of two-boating in their LEQ moded AC40s that are both sporting out of class starboard foils and today looked to be bringing new sail tech with an upgraded mainsail foot fairing on ‘America.’ With an offset swell, lingering from recent storms down the Mediterranean, the sailors had a solid 12-14 knots of south-south-westerly breeze to play with and set up a course and start box just off the Port Olímpic to go into a series of starting sequences followed by laps.

Once again, Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison steering ‘America’ had marginally the better of the day and are the clear helming duo for when the new AC75 arrives at the end of April. Starts were ultra-competitive with the lead boat jostling to kill speed whilst avoiding the hook and it very much looks to be the power-position and enables the helm to decide their position off the line. What appeared to work was starting to leeward and then forcing the windward boat off into an early tack which from a positional and timing standpoint allows the leeward boat to then pick their tack and an optimal sea-state. Slingsby and Goodison looked to be masterful today in the racing against Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges although the deltas were fine.

Speaking afterwards, Harry Melges, very much the face of America’s new foiling generation and the leader of the NYYC American Magic Youth Team, commented on the session saying: “It was certainly a really nice day, like 12-14 knots out of the south-south-west, typical Barcelona. It was actually quite a tricky day with this sea state, there's been a swell coming from the north-east we've had a bit of a mistral up in the Gulf of Lyon last few days so they got pretty big and challenging for us.”

Asked what it’s like to face Slingsby and Goodison, two of the finest sailors on the planet, and whether it was exciting or nerve-wracking, Harry replied: “I’d probably describe it as a little bit of both, it’s a super-fast pace and we're learning so much every time we do a pre-start and we're trying to run through a few different timings and strategies to learn going forward...More mentally exhausted than physically, these boats are pretty easy physically you're kind of sitting there pressing buttons, but there's a lot of focus that goes in to race one of these boats and yeah today was a tricky day with the waves as well, so pretty tired.”

Stunning session from the Americans once again who are really starting to amp up their training and racing schedule over the next couple of months. More tiring sessions to come.

For Alinghi Red Bull Racing, the breeze was pretty much perfect for their longer form AC75 ‘BoatZero’ and with their new AC75 now en route by truck to Barcelona there’s a real, very infectious, impetus around the whole team. In training today, where a series of pre-starts against a chase boat was observed alongside longer runs, noticeably the ride height was a good deal lower than we’ve seen before, possibly a nod to how the new boat is expected to be moded. We also saw the very flat to slightly leeward heel, with ‘BoatZero’ really standing on its foils and putting maximum pressure down there.

Speaking afterwards, Maxime Bachelin mentioned the swells out on the racecourse area saying: “It was an interesting day here in Barcelona but we enjoy it a lot because the wave was on not on the axis of the wind and quite ‘swelly,’ about one metre swell, so it was quite challenging for the team, as well for the power group making a lot of power because it was needed to trim quite a lot the sails and so yeah interesting day and we enjoyed it a lot.”

Looking at times slow through the manoeuvres, particularly gybing downwind, the team revved-up for the racing with a clear goal as Max said: “We're trying to replicate a bit what we do on the AC40 that we were sailing in Jeddah this winter and trying to do a bit of the same moves with the big boat that's taking a bit more time to do manoeuvre, but it's the goal to be as tight as possible on the sailing and trying to handle the boat as much as we can and for sure we can't we can't wait to have the ‘BoatOne’ to see if it's a way easier than this one - ‘BoatZero.’”

Over in Cagliari, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli recovered quickly from their dramatic AC40 nosedive yesterday and continued their impressive two-boat training in a light, patchy breeze that built and faded through the morning session. The team docked-out early with localised thunderstorms heading for the surrounding hill ranges, sucking the wind in from all directions and leaving flat but swelling waters that were less than perfect but vital for the team’s match-racing playbooks that they are developing fast.

On balance, the AC40 had the best of it today with Marco Gradoni getting valuable training once again alongside the legendary Jimmy Spithill whilst Francesco Bruni was in full coach-mode with the Nacra 17 reigning Olympic Champion, Ruggero Tita onboard the LEQ12. ‘Ruggi’ put it brilliantly in interview afterwards saying: “For sure every day, and in every start, it's a big learning for us and I'm pretty sure the old guys are training us well and they're of course getting training on these small boats too. So, yeah, for us it's every day we go in the water and every start we try to take the best out of it and learn as much as we can. To be honest for me it's twenty years match-racing learning put together in three weeks, so it's a big week and everyday it’s a good learning.”

Off Petrol Beach the shore team put a start-box in and the nimbler, lighter-weight AC40 was quicker to fly and seemed more manoeuvrable but in a straight line and once flying any speed differences were marginal. Plenty of pre-start action was observed with the key idea being to get the other boat off the foils as self-starting was proving difficult and both teams achieved this on occasion. A total of five starts followed by short course racing were completed, the team had planned to do more but in the late morning, the swell picked up and the wind dropped off and they were back at their base before noon. 

‘Ruggi’ Tita summed up the day saying: “It was not an easy day, for sure we had very tricky condition big waves, long swell and the wind coming from everywhere because of this thunderstorm going around, but I think we used the best of the day and we tried also to do some starts and it was a good day, some good learnings...I think AC40 had a bit of an edge today in this big sea-state but more or less we were pretty similar.”

With both Orient Express Racing and the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, also out today sailing their AC40s in one-design configuration, Barcelona was a busy place. The pace in the race for the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup is noticeably picking up. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic took advantage of a close to perfect afternoon for sailing in Barcelona today for another two-boat practice racing session on their AC40s ‘America’ and ‘Magic’ in LEQ12 mode with custom starboard foils. Both boats were rigged and launched by midday ahead of an ahead-of-schedule dock out at 1255 and had sails up – America MC4 mainsail and J2 C3 headsail, Magic MN5 mainsail and J2 C4 headsail – at the harbour entrance by 1320.

An additional new (we believe) faring was noted on the bottom aft edge of the mainsail on America. The pair left the harbour five minutes later and immediately set off on a close quarters downwind run that ended at the leeward gate of the practice racecourse. After a short windward / leeward free sailing session, the boats rolled into a series of six pre-starts and races. America (Tom Slingsby, Paul Goodison, Michael Menninger, Andrew Campbell) largely had the upper hand in the racing over Magic (Harry Melges, Lucas Calabrese, Kyle Langford, Riley Gibbs).

That said, overall, the pre-starts were generally close with both boats mostly powering towards the line in close formation. The difference between the two boats came down to the ‘America’ crew looking crisper and more consistent through manoeuvres and while in flight – although neither were error free.

Both crews looked to be pushing hard all day with both pulling off high speed single-board round ups at the leeward gate. The final sailing of the day began at 1630 with the boats separating for some free sailing: ‘Magic’ setting off upwind and ‘America’ heading off on a long downwind and upwind return. Time was called at 1700 with both boats back on the dock by 1725.

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing's AC75 ‘BoatZero’ was rolled out at 10:00. The boat was prepared and craned into the water by 10:25. When alongside, sailors and engineers checked all 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 11:10, they prepared two jib sails on one of the chase boats: J4-1R and J3-1R, and at 12:36h, they brought the mainsail M2-2R and the jib J2-2L and placed them on Boat Zero. The boat docked out at 13:00 and hoisted sails then after, replacing the jib J2-2L for J3-1R instead.

The Chase Boat towed ‘BoatZero’ out of the harbour at 13.20 and once out they stopped, and three technicians jumped onboard boat Zero for about 20 minutes. According to Maxime Bachelin, who we interviewed after the sailing session, the problem was due to an issue in the electronic systems that the team quickly solved once detected. At 13:50 they started sailing on a downwind course. At that moment wind was TWD 195º with 9-11 knots intensity and swell coming from a 137º direction so was not symmetrical to the wind. From there, the sailing session was conducted as follows:

Stint 1 (13:50 to 15:40): The session began with a test of the boat in down wind direction performing seven gybes in between the medium to long runs, from which the second and the seventh gybes were clearly touch down. On the last gybe they stop for a while to perform some quick checks. A racecourse with up & down wind doors was already set and when they continued sailing, five minutes after they stopped, they went for a full lap at the racecourse, performing five tacks in the upwind and two gybes in the downwind. They stopped after doing a radical luffing with both arms down after going through the bottom door of the racecourse. Boat captain and an electronic technician went quickly onboard to make a few checks. From that moment forward ‘BoatZero’ seemed to sail smoother and with better control in their manoeuvres.

Ten minutes after stopping they continued sailing in the racecourse and did two laps. At every lap they take the doors in a different tack so they could train bearing away and luffing from each side. At the up winds they were doing three tacks and on the down winds two gybes.

After sailing these two laps it was 15:12 and they stopped to perform a replacement to the cyclors crew and after they complete the replacement, they went for one lap more to the racecourse. 

Stint 2 (15:30 to 16:37): Wind keeps stable from the same direction TWD 195º with a bit more intensity, 10 to 14 knots. They started with some races in between ‘BoatZero’ and the Chase Boat. Basically, they performed two starts and in both the chase boat and ‘BoatZero’ were trying to protect the right side of the line. It was ‘BoatZero who entered first into the box in both of the starts and then was trying to make close turns without losing the flight close to the line, while the Chase Boat was going for longer turns and not getting too close to ‘BoatZero,’ which was crossing in both times the start line earlier but both Chase Boat and AC75 crossed the line some seconds after ‘second zero’.

After the first start they made one crossing in between them after one tack and then they came back to the line to proceed with the second start.

After the second start they went for three laps with plenty of crossings in between Chase Boat and ‘BoatZero.’ In the first lap they performed seven tacks and ‘BoatZero’ was too short on the lay line when arriving to the top mark. ‘BoatZero’ made five gybes on the downwind and took the right side of the gate at the bottom while the Chase Boat took the left side (looking towards the wind). On the second lap they performed six tacks going upwind and three gybes at the downwind leg. ‘BoatZero’ took the right side of the bottom door and performed a perfect JK when taking the mark to cover the Chase Boat who took the left side gate.

On the last lap they performed six tacks in the up wind and seven gybes on the downwind leg which was the result of many crossings in between them.

After this training race, at 16:30 they went back to port sailing upwind and tacking four times. Docking was completed at 17:05. As a summary Alinghi Red Bull Racing today foiled for 107 minutes, performed 65 manoeuvres: 80 % fully foiling. Jose Piñana AC Recon

On-Water Recon Report – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Luna Rossa rolled out their AC40 (white) at 7:00 and their LEQ12 (red) at 7:25, stepped masts and craned in respectively at 7:20 and 7:40. Dock-out was scheduled for 8:30 and both yachts were towed out of the harbour. M1 and J1 OD were hoisted on white, first main M1-1 was paired to the J1-1 on red. The forecast looked tricky with swell from 115°, about 0.5m, significantly offset to the offshore northerly breeze from 305° 6-8kn.

The first foiling stint saw the yachts execute a series of manoeuvres in the patchy light breeze. Then both yachts lined up for some upwind and downwind runs. In terms of boatspeed the boats looked pretty similar, especially downwind, while upwind perhaps the red boat looked slicker. White definitely looked more stable on the offset swell.

Several shorter stints were sailed by both yachts, which were quickly towed up again once splashed down after unsuccessful manoeuvres. The whole area by the harbour looked quite patchy and main traveller over-sheeting and pumping was seen quite often. As the rain increased both teams came off the foils and took a break.

More pressure was seen offshore of Petrol Beach where the team headed and successfully found some profitable knots to place marks for the starting box. At 9:45 the first pre-start drill was run with red on port entry, chasing down white approaching the line quite aggressively. White managed to start slightly more leeward and forced red to tack bailing out.

During the day, the team conducted some short upwind and downwind races with both yachts eventually engaging if not split. For the second prestart drill, white had port entry and both yachts sailed towards the upper right boundary at first. They converged approaching the line and white managed to force red to windward ending up off the foils.

In the third pre-start, both yachts sailed apart in the box and managed their own time on distance without engaging closely. Red started closer by the committee boat and white further to the pin, seemed like an even start.

Both yachts came off the foils and the pressure had picked up to 10-12kn from 325°, J1-1 was then lowered to hoist the J1.5-2 on red. The starting line was now longer and two additional pre-starts were observed ending pretty even with a decent gap on the line and some closer engagement in the short upwind/downwind leg. The team had planned some further pre-starts but in the following four drills either red or white fell off the foils without enough breeze and increasing swell. The rain increased, the pressure died completely, and sails were lowered with approximately 105 minutes foiling time and approximately 35 tacks and 25 gybes [Michele Melis AC Recon].