CHAMPAGNE DAY FOR ALL THE BARCELONA-BASED TEAMS

For Alinghi Red Bull Racing, they are red hot already and the snorting, sporting bulls have their tails up at the moment with the arrival of the new AC75 to their fabulous base opposite the Mare Magnum shopping centre right in the heart of the bustling Port Vell. ‘BoatOne’ was delivered by barge and craned onto the dockside before disappearing behind rather solid shutters amidst maximum security for her fit out for a first launch in April. From the sailors’ faces this was a moment and a dawning realisation for everyone else in the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup that the Swiss mean more than business – they are here to win it.

And on the water today they didn’t disappoint. The pace has gone up. Places are at stake and this campaign is transitioning into the business-end of the regatta with real professionalism. Chase Alpha, the boat that never lacks horsepower was the opponent today for some highly entertaining racing and pre-starts to put the maximum pressure onto Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin who more than stuck up for themselves.

Several key crew changes saw Nicolas Charbonnier, the hugely popular member of the Driving Group, take up trim on the starboard side with Arnaud whilst Bryan Mettraux partnered with Max. Later in the day, Yves Detrey was rotated in and it’s very clear that there are no golden places on the new AC75. In the trim and Flight Control departments, the Swiss are looking to have real strength in depth.

In the swell, it was tough to keep the boat flying throughout and a return of 70% foil-to-foil over some 74 manoeuvres was about as good as they could hope for with the asymmetric foil set-up – expect those numbers to be high 90s consistently when ‘BoatOne’ hits the scene.

A fascinating interview took place after sailing with Aurore Kerr, Structural Engineer for Alinghi Red Bull Racing with a specification in foil engineering. Talking about foil structures, Aurore said: Well, it's about seeing a bit how much the foils will deflect under the water. Once we got a shape, seeing a bit how it will behave once it's under load also having all the load that will go through in the systems not only in terms of deformation of the foil but so that I can feed the guys in the office to design and yeah make the flap move.”

Asked about materials in the foils, Aurore added: “We're not allowed to test many materials, it's mainly steel because we need to have some weight for the balance of the of the boat so yeah not much fancy things, for sure you can see a bit with post-treatment but it's not a big deal I would say.”

Talking about flexure, Aurore commented: “We're looking into different things, different shapes also, I mean with the sea-state we have here we have been testing things also with the AC40s but I mean every foil has its benefits and its down effects and the goal is just to find the sweet spots depending on how the boat will be, how the guys are sailing it so yeah it's about fine tuning those parameters and we're getting into that.”

And on loads, she added: “The load itself will be the same because it’s mainly depending on the weight of the boats but...if the foil is going a bit out of the water it will be more loaded and loaded so it's more about dynamic effects which are quite difficult to model so the load itself won’t change but it's more like the variation of the load that will be affected by the sea state...AI is for sure part of our world but not necessarily much into structure I mean for sure we're using computational power to make our simulations faster but right now it's not only about making our computer think instead of ourselves we need also to make sure that the computer goes in the right direction so yeah it's not only about AI, it's making sure that the structure is right.” Interesting times for the Swiss.

INEOS Britannia have been recovering from the damage caused by the battery fire on Athena, their ‘works’ AC40 but today started to take ‘Sienna’ their Athena Pathway AC40 out of class with a new LEQ12 jib that allowed the recon team to start following them. With the well-established senior helms of Sir Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott onboard, the team looked pretty comfortable in the residual swell despite a few drop downs and safety-first double-board round-ups and on the tech side the recon team noted a quite sloppy, floppy jib through the gybes and manoeuvres – a different sailcloth perhaps?

Speaking afterwards, Bleddyn Mon, one of the real coming stars of this America’s Cup cycle spoke about the difficulties the team are overcoming saying: “It's a kind of challenge for doing the racecourse stuff with a single boat. The two-boat racing we did was incredible and good to get the intensity up and it really punishes you for your mistakes, so yeah we had to kind of keep on top of that once we only got one boat to sail and prepare the best we can for the race.”

The team have clearly switched resources and are combining on-water with off-water simulator training as Bleddyn confirmed when talking about the scale up to the new AC75 that will be on its way to Barcelona soon:  “The way the roles are divvied out on the race boat will be a bit different to this boat obviously having an autopilot setup here, but that's where the simulator comes in and that's where we kind of keep chipping away with the hours in there to kind of really nail that down before we launch.”

The British will be marking the days off to the new boat and Bleddyn is clearly eyeing brighter days ahead saying: “Obviously we've seen the launch dates kind of from all the teams now being announced so an exciting couple months ahead for everybody. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled on other teams as well but yeah for me personally I'm looking forward to seeing the boat in person and getting out there on the water and putting it through its paces.”

NYYC American Magic also just had the one boat out today with the now confirmed damage caused to ‘America’ in yesterday’s training session just forward of the port foil arm keeping her in the shed. Terry Hutchinson, President of Sailing Operations confirmed the issue saying: “We had a bit of an unfortunate situation yesterday with ‘America’ where we stopped kind of halfway through our day to do a battery swap and you know we had a crack in the hull. I don't really know where or when it happened but it was there and so we stopped and today was as much about continuing the improvement of the guys on ‘Magic’ to make sure that when we start racing again at the end of the week that they are at as high a level as they can possibly be when they race the team on America. So, it was a very good day, you know these boats are, in conditions like this, they're awesome because everything is manageable, and we had a good ramp up in the breeze and it was champagne sailing, so I think from our perspective and what we were trying to achieve you know it was a good day for us in that regard.”

And what a good day it was. ‘Intense’ perhaps summarises the session that Terry put the ‘Magic’ crew under today with Harry Melges coming in to steer alongside Lucas Calabrese whilst Youth Team member Severin Gramm partnered with the experienced Kyle Langford on trim. Full report below but Terry commented that: “We were working a lot on our timing today, we were working a lot on our inner boat communication and we were working a lot on our time and distance to make sure that they hit the line on the breeze with a half a second to kill or bang on and so the subtleties of that are a lot but it starts at 6 minutes before entry when we're sitting alongside on the chase boat and getting our time in and getting our sequencing there in a proper manner.”

For Orient Express Racing Team, meanwhile, it was a challenging day of fighting both the boat and the conditions with the recon team being sent ashore to fetch a toolbox as the persistent ‘hydro issues’ came back again before the wind shut down completely just before midday. Thankfully it was just a lull and once back and flying along with the afternoon breeze, the team went into some entertaining pre-start practice with ‘accuracy’ being the watchword.

Interestingly the new LEQ mainsail has quite considerable depth to it with the trimmers able to billow the bottom two-thirds and induce the drive which looked more than handy in the sea-state. Matthieu Vandame, Trimmer for the French Challenger explained it saying: “So this main is an LEQ one so it's a bit different from the normal one design, it’s a bit deeper so which is quite useful for today.” Asked about whether they had battery issues onboard he added: “It was not batteries; it was mostly hydro settings, so we had some problems with the hydro system a few weeks ago and we're still trimming it to be correct and to be able to use it.”

On a day like today, Barcelona is a heavenly place to sail. The forecast looks good for the rest of the week, so we can expect plenty more action to come. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s AC75, ‘BoatZero,’ was rolled out at 10:00 and craned in 20 minutes later. Systems checks were carried out with the sailing crew in their positions on board. The team docked out at 12:00, with Nico Charbonnier noted in the starboard trimming position. The M2-2R mainsail and J1-2R jib were hoisted in port, but the J1 was dropped and replaced with the J3-1R before heading out to sea.

Stint 1 (12:50 – 13:24, 8-11.5kn 165° @ 13:05): The day began with a short downwind leg on starboard tack, leading into multiple tacking manoeuvres upwind, none of which were fully foiling. The team then turned downwind and performed four gybes, of which only one was fully foiling. The tech team jumped on board to attend to issues.

Stint 2 (13:34 – 13:47, 10-14kn 170° @ 13:30): Improved performance was noted in the subsequent upwind and downwind manoeuvres, finishing off the stint with a leeward mark rounding.

Stint 3 (13:55 – 14:20, 10-14kn 180° @ 13:50): Further refinement in upwind and downwind sailing was observed, with the crew rounding the set leeward gate, but no windward marks set for rounding and bear-aways. Following this stint, a full cyclor team swap occurred at 14:25. Bryan Mettraux also replaced Yves Detrey in the trimming pod.

Stint 4 (14:35 – 14:46, 11-14.5kn 190° @ 14:30): The revised crew line-up engaged in a free sailing session to warm up ahead of pre-start practice.

Stint 5 (14:53 – 14:58, 13-19kn 195° @ 14:50): This stint focused on a pre-start against the Chase Alpha, with the yacht entering on port. The increase in wind speed to an average of 14/15kn, peaking at 19kn, made for slightly challenging boat handling. A big touch and go gybe before the approach to the start resulted in a late start.

Stint 6 (15:03 – 15:28): Start 2 continued into a two-lap race vs the chase boat. The yacht entered on port and subsequently started to windward of Alpha but slightly behind. Alpha controlled the upwind, and a touch and go tack around the windward mark allowed the chase boat to extend its lead. The yacht tacked onto a lift after rounding the leeward mark, seeing them into the lead. The yacht continued to lead the upwind and downwind but lost it on a touch down gybe to leeward of Alpha, allowing the chase boat to roll over and take the win at the downwind finish.

Stint 7 (15:40 – 15:57, 9-14kn 195° @ 15:45): The day’s sailing continued with a long upwind leg followed by a reach back to base.

With sails dropped in port and dock in at 16:10, the day wrapped up after four hours on the water, with 120 minutes of active sailing. Throughout the day, 74 manoeuvres were observed, achieving a 70% fully foiling rate despite the challenges presented by a residual swell of up to 1m with a 5s average period.

On-Water Recon Report – INEOS Britannia: INEOS Britannia put their second AC40 'Sienna' into LEQ12 mode today with a custom J2 headsail for an afternoon of race training around a short windward / leeward course in winds that ranged from 10 to 17 knots. Sienna was craned afloat this morning at 1105 ahead of a bang on time dock-out at 1330. Onboard were helmsmen Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott with trimmers / flight controllers Leigh Mc Millan and Bleddyn Mon. The team had sails – M1-1 mainsail and J2-LEQ12 hoisted by 1340 and were up and sailing less than ten minutes later in a building southerly breeze of around 10-12 knots.

After some free sailing / windward leeward laps the crew rolled into a series of five practice pre-start / starts / laps sequences. Tacks and gybes looked generally crisp and under control. Leeward gate roundings were mainly carried out on two boards. That said, there was still the occasional splashdown. Notable was how thin and flappy the headsail material looked during gybes and some other manoeuvres. Also noted were some occasional whiplike high-speed bear-away turns during the pre-start manoeuvring.

A stop at 1610 saw a crew swap with Ben Ainslie and Leigh McMillan coming off and Hannah Mills and Matt Beck (AC Youth Team) coming on in their place. After less than 10 minutes of free sailing, the boat came to a sudden stop in a downwind nosedive shortly after exiting a foiling gybe.

With the wind shifting to the left and becoming lighter and less stable the crew seemed to have some difficulty getting the boat back up and foiling. A tow up at 1650 was followed by a looping tow on two foils back to the harbour entrance. Sails were dropped at 1655 with the boat arriving back on the dock at 1730.

Another day of sailing with Sienna in LEQ12 mode has been scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday March 6.

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic rolled out AC40-8 ‘Magic’ at 10:50 this morning. The boat was craned in and moored at the dock at 11:10. Looks like ‘America’ was being fixed so only one boat sailing in today’s session. When alongside, sailors and engineers made some regular checking’s to be sure everything was in perfect condition before the sailing session. Magic had a LiDAR camera installed on the starboard side.

At 12:25 Magic docked out towed by the chase boat. At the entrance to the harbour, sails were hoisted, MC-2 for the mainsail and a J1 C-1 for the jib. When Magic finished hoisting the sails a breeze of around 6-8 knots TWD 190º just came in and she could manage to go out from port on her own. They started with a quick warm-up, sailing downwind and after 4 gybes they suddenly started sailing upwind, did 2 tacks and arrived to a spot were the chase boat had set 2 marks that were used for different exercises.

From here the sailing session was conducted as follows:

Stint 1 (13:05 to 14:35): The following exercises were executed:

- 2 x bear-aways on the mark from upwind to downwind on port tack.

- 1 x bear-away on the mark from upwind to downwind on starboard tack

- 3 x starts, getting into the box on port side and each of them with different strategies when sailing in the box and when approaching the start line by the pin end.

- 3 x starts getting into the box on starboard side and each of them with different strategies when sailing in the box and when approaching the start line by the pin end.

- Comment: In between starts 4 and 5 there was a debrief of about 15 minutes at the coach boat.

Stint 2 (14:35 to 15:35). Wind picked up to 12-16 knots TWD 190º, so the jib was replaced by a OD J3. Then after, they continued the session with the following exercises:

- 1 x start, getting into the box on port side. The strategy used sailing in the box was different to the ones done before. The approach to the start line was done by the pin end.

- 1 upwind with three tacks. In between they performed exercises with aggressive luffs and bear-aways.

- 1 downwind with three gybes. In between they performed exercises with aggressive luffs and bearing-aways with both foil arms down.

- 2 x mark rounding from downwind to upwind on port tack.

- 2 x mark rounding from downwind to upwind on starboard tack.

- 1 x start getting into the box on port side. The strategy used sailing in the box was different to the ones done before. The approach to the start line was done by the pin end.

- 1 upwind with three tacks. In between they performed exercises with aggressive luffs and bear-aways.

- 1 downwind with 2-3 gybes.

- Upwind with 2-3 tacks to sail back to port.

Dock in was completed at 16:00 h.

As a summary Magic today foiled for 120 minutes and performed an excellent and intense session with plenty of different manoeuvres that were almost all of them cleanly executed. Even though they could not have America today with them they managed to pull out an excellent and very valuable training session. Jose Piñana AC Recon

On-Water Recon Report – Orient Express Racing Team: Orient Express Racing Team craned their AC40 to the water at 07:45, that had been left with the mast up and out of the shed overnight. The team docked out at 09.45, forty-five minutes later than planned.

No specific reason could be identified for the delay. A one-design J2 and the LEQ12-MN-A mainsail were hoisted while heading out of the harbour at 09:51 and 10:00, respectively. The 0.90m easterly swell from the day before was still there, combined with a shifty and gusty north-westerly for the first part of the day.

Around 10:35 after a ten-minute downwind, this recon unit was asked to head back to the port to pick up a toolbox. Once we had handed in the toolbox, there was a battery replacement, and by the end of all that process, the wind had died completely. From 11:30 till 12:00 the team just waited for the wind.

At 12:05 the AC40 got on the tow and the French headed further offshore looking for wind. Once further out, a pretty stable south-westerly sea breeze of 7 to 10 knots of intensity was found. From 12:15 till 12:40 the team sailed upwind and downwind doing a few tacks and gybes and practiced bear-aways in manual flight control mode, with difficulties staying on the foils while manoeuvring the boat.

At 12:40 there was ten-minute break in which the one-design J2 got replaced by a one-design J1. During the last hour and twenty minutes, OERT practiced pre-start movements and manoeuvres in what seemed like a virtual pre-starting line and box, while being on manual flight-controlling mode. The main goal was to try to maintain a stable boat balance while changing course, in difficult swell conditions, combined with a wind intensity that did not provide much margin for mistakes to continue to fly consistently. At 14:00 the team decided to end the training and head back to the base.

Orient Express Racing Team entered the port at 14.15, lowered both sails, and docked at 14:27. After usual routine activities, the boat was craned out of the water at 14:50, indicating the end of the day. Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on OE Racing Team