CLOCKING UP THE MAGIC HOURS

Today it was a long afternoon in testing conditions with the anemometer barely registering above 10 knots as this persistent high sits over Barcelona, but they packed the day with plenty of manoeuvres, pre-starts and short course racing. The drive to keep pushing is so evident with this team and today it was Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison, sailing America, that really had the bit between their teeth and re-introduced their customary accuracy especially on the majority of pre-starts. The pair look very in tune with each other when they are ‘on-it’ but they can be prone to an off day, particularly (like yesterday) when they were playing with the outer limit of settings. Today it was all business and they looked rapid.

In the marginal breeze to start the session, it was a game of staying on the foils and America through accuracy of steering and real commitment through the tacks and gybes, did just that. Magic’s errors, small they were, were capitalised on and there were plenty of take-aways for the port pod of Harry Melges and Sara Stone that are forming a lovely on-water partnership. Interesting that NYYC American magic have persisted over the last few sessions with the same line-up and this consistency does seem to be really yielding results.

As the action moved to pre-starts, it was all about time-on-distance and the last 40 seconds into the line with the customary scallops to lose speed and time whilst desperately trying to avoid the hook. On balance the Slingsby/Goodison train had the better of the day but my goodness it was marginal in some and if they left a door open, Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges took it with both hands. Great sailing in the pre-starts was followed by close, honest, action on the two upwind/downwind races that they completed – both won by America but close-run affairs.

After sailing today the recon team caught up with Pietro Pinucci, one of the key Sail Designers for NYYC American Magic who has been analysing sail shape and finish from both onshore and out on the chase boats with the use of drones and all other available data capture. Talking about the difference between the MC-5 mainsail with its apparently smaller head configuration against the MC-4 which looks slightly quicker, Pietro commented: “It depends on how you look at the numbers. It can look from outside that it's like that, but I think they're closer than they seem to be, in fact they are not that much different that we think it's a huge performance gap between them but at the same time we are continuing to switch sails on the boats to assess that this is really the case.”

And switching to the clew fairings that look to the naked eye like they are inflated somewhat, Pietro commented: “In the inside the lower zone as it is defined, we are more free to play with what is called by the rules: ‘fairings,’ and those covers are just fairings for the outhaul system/clew system. It’s honestly nothing special really, and obviously we are trying them here because it is part of the building process for the big boat, the AC75, and obviously we need to be sure that we can accomplish a good finishing and a good product even at the 75 scale.”

Asked what milestones are left to achieve, how  close they are to perfection, Pietro added, with a smile: “Well you never feel close enough! We are improving designs every day, even if sails are already in construction and we are already trying to think ahead and we will think ahead and try to get the things better up to the last very moment because obviously we have some room to play for every sails we can do improve the cuts and we can try to improve every day so it's a continuous process, you never feel like you're reached the top and obviously you never feel comfortable where you are, you always want to push forward and you are never happy with what you have, you always want more.”

‘Always wanting more’ could easily be a great mantra for the NYYC American Magic, who keep the pedal to the metal day after day. Impressive team, performing at the very highest level at the moment. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: AC40-8 ‘Magic’ was craned in at 10:45 with AC40-5 'America' craned in 20 minutes later and dock out at 13:00. At 13:10 both boats started hoisting their mainsails: MC-4 for America and MC-5 for Magic and they paired them with J1 one-design jibs.

Some light breeze of about 6-8 knots TWD 140º was blowing at 13:20 when both boats started sailing. The sea was asymmetric to the wind, and it was quite messy. Tricky sailing day for the trimmers. The sailing session proceed as per the following stints:

Stint 1 (13:20 to 14:00): Just when they were starting sailing, America had to stop to make a few checks while Magic started sailing upwind and made four warm-up tacks while adjusting the trim for today’s tricky sea and wind conditions. After the fourth tack she met up with America and started sailing downwind through the starting line set by the chase boat in front of the Port Olímpic. When they had both arrived and rounded the pin mark, they both started a speed test upwind. Magic was looking quite fast (maybe because they had some time before to find the right trim). After the fourth tack they bore-away into a downwind and came back to the starting line in about five gybes. On the first gybe, Magic touched-down and America got some advantage. When they arrived at the starting line they proceeded with some manoeuvres around the line and also seemed like they were giving turns to get references about the timing to the start-line, that they should get during the pre-start.

Stint 2 (14:00 to 15:40): The wind in this stint was about 5-7 knots TWD 180º. Four pre-starts were completed with Magic entering the box first on port gybe and America after on starboard. Some nice battles were seen especially in the last 40 seconds in the approach to the starting line but I must add that they were not that aggressive as per the last days. America was on fire today, and was winning almost all the starts from this stint except the second one in which she lost foiling after a manoeuvre and didn’t manage to even cross the start line. Magic nailed that one. After the third and fourth start, they raced two upwind/downwind courses and it was America who took the lead in both from start to finish. After the second race they stopped for 20 minutes to change batteries and go up a code on the jibs to the J1.

Stint 3 (15:40 to 16:20): The wind at this stint was about 9-11 knots TWD 190º. America started sailing and did some pre-start exercises while waiting for Magic, who was still with the coach boat and seem to have some problems after changing the batteries. While waiting, America did a couple of pre-starts on her own and all kind of approach manoeuvres to the line. Then after did some reaching close to Magic with tacks and gybes. Magic seemed to have some problems on (we guess) her port side arm canting system that were not possible to be solved on the water. She had to sail back to port in displacement and with the crew on the windward side to get righting moment and keep the boat straight. America got back in port at 16:35 h and Magic 15 minutes after. Dock in was complete at 17:00.

As a summary, Magic and America foiled for approximately 105 and 155 minutes. They performed a big ratio of manoeuvres, 4 pre-starts (6 for America), 2 upwind-downwind course races and some speed tests together. Jose Piñana AC Recon