MILESTONE DAY FOR THE AC75 NEXT GENERATION

For the Swiss, this was the crescendo, defining moment of the campaign to date. After the razzmatazz of the reveal, the coming-together at the boat launch on Tuesday and the first tow testing and sail fitting on Wednesday, Friday 19^th was the designated day to go flying – and what a moment. Arnaud Psarofaghis described it beautifully saying: “We had a few system checks before we actually could do the proper sailing for the first time we say ‘Okay let's try and see if we can build speed’ - it came actually pretty quick, and we just saw the boat speed coming up and we say with Bryan (Mettraux) just give it a go and sheet on and the boat came out, so it was really impressive and I think we can learn even more to make it happen earlier, but today was a fantastic day... the first feeling was above expectation to be honest and we're looking forward to the next sailing days.”

A scruffy first gybe but very much foil-to-foil, albeit with tentative course corrections was the beginning of a great session where confidence in the platform built and the bear-aways saw Alinghi Red Bull Racing light the after-burners and take-off. Arnaud described the feeling onboard saying: “The first manoeuvre is always tricky, probably not the best gybe ever but I mean it was as we expected we did train a lot in the simulator as well, so the boat behaved pretty well so I think now the game is on.”

Almost four hours on the water with plenty of stops for technical checks, this was a solid commissioning day and the team are eyeing the weekend to push on harder and start to build resilience in the systems. Boat Captain Jack Taylor was dangled over the side by his ankles before the tow-in to save a drainage flap but other than that, the Swiss seemed happy with their day. Having spent long hours in the team simulator sailing the boat in the virtual world, Arnaud expressed the ease at which they adapted to BoatOne as they nickname it: “The two worlds matched up pretty nicely, we have the muscle memory of the team so to jump in on the boat is almost pretty easy for us so because we spent so many hours (in the simulator) but now it’s a real boat and we need to be gentle but try to push her even harder.” Great to see, the new Bull is up and running.

Over in Cagliari with a windy mistral breeze blowing into the Bay of Angels, the original plan for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli had just been to set the sails and check systems but the sailors simply couldn’t resist a little tug on the sheets to go flying for the first time. It was only a few minutes but the smiles after were real. The team are eyeing a better forecast on Saturday to start laying down some miles and getting the manoeuvres in on this highly technical but stunningly beautiful AC75.

Max Sirena was delighted with the day saying: “Today is actually day zero, finally we hoisted the sails, in reality the plan was only to hoist the sails and check the geometry but then once you're there you want to try to sheet in. I think it’s great, I think it's good to go out hoist the sails, get the jib sheet and mainsheet on and pop up on the foil. Unfortunately for day one it was a little bit too windy, so we decided to stop after a little bit of an upwind so I think it's quite emotional because it’s a new boat and it was looking pretty cool. I'm happy for the boys, I'm happy for the guys, the shore team, the designer and everyone involved in the process, I think is a pretty big boost for them and tomorrow morning hopefully we’re going to go out there in better condition and we're going to sheet on and do a few manoeuvres.”

Asked about the influence of the team’s bespoke LEQ12 into this new AC75, Max responded: “You can tell there is a lot of the LEQ in this boat and I think once we are put on the new foils it is going to be a game changer compared to these ‘dinosaurs’ (the foils) we're using at the moment, so I think if we are able to stick with our plan and we are able to tick off the boxes of everything we have on the list, we're going to arrive in Barcelona all ready to roll on, so I'm quite happy to be honest.”

Casting his eye over the other two launches, Max commented: “I think it's too early, everyone obviously is coming up with the different ideas, different plan, probably between the three of us touching the water, us and the Kiwis are probably more in the same ballpark. The Swiss took a little bit of a different route on the deck especially, I think our shape is not that different but you can tell they tried to do something different compared to the others...I think at the end, this is going to be the generation three of the boats so I am expecting to see a more even performance type of boat so I think little details they're going to make the difference, and obviously the sailing team.”

It's an early roll-out for the team on Saturday morning, in the hope of the mistral blowing itself out and leaving a pitch-perfect Bay of Angels for the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli first proper sail – that will be interesting.

Down in Auckland, it was all efficiency and smoothness again for Emirates Team New Zealand who completed their sixth day on ‘Taihoro’ and look already deep into the systems development and trim controls. The Kiwis have a relatively short time in Auckland before the boat is shipped to Barcelona so they are making the most of it whilst they can and today’s session was just shy of three hours in a building breeze. Perhaps the most interesting sailing is observed at the lower-end of the Beaufort scale where the fine trimming of the double-skinned mainsail can actually be seen with beautiful depth dropped in at will and then as target speed are hit and the power comes through, the flattening is immediate.

Taihoro looks to be a calm boat, easy to steer and highly responsive to pitch and mode. Today we saw windward heel being induced in the light – something we don’t see too often from the Kiwis, and the sailing angles were smooth, leaving the trimmers to do their work and keep flying. Impressive all round. Speaking afterwards, cyclor Cam Webster, a decorated rower and a great find in the power-delivery department described the day and what the new boat is like, saying: “The session was great today, it was a pretty shifty breeze, so we were just kind of on and off, it was definitely solid out there for the boys for the first group, we didn't manage to get the second group on but it was good...It's definitely different from the Watt Bike in the gym, you can't really compare it to anything you know it's a mixture of being thrown around like on a mountain bike and then sort of in a cage just smacking around in there, so it’s definitely novel and having a lot of fun doing it honestly.”

Back in Barcelona, NYYC American Magic closed out their week with another fine two-boat AC40 training session through the afternoon with the wind getting top-end for the boats by the conclusion.

Plenty of pre-start action and talking about the tactics into and out of the box, Michael Menninger, trimmer on ‘America’ gave his assessment saying: “We did three races today and the first and third races Magic were OCS and so a bit of a mistake on their part, in the second race we didn't do a great job just driving off the boundary and we got hooked and came off the foils and slow and so I mean yeah it's super critical where the two boats intersect off that boundary and if you get it right, it sets you up for the last starboard into the line and if you get it wrong you’re on the back foot and potentially in the water, which is worst case scenario.”

All eyes on the weekend now with Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli both confirmed to be sailing and the launch/reveal of INEOS Britannia’s new AC75 could be as early as Saturday. (Magnus Wheatley)

 On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing today became the first America's Cup syndicate to sail their latest generation AC75 on the waters off Barcelona – host city for the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup this summer / autumn.

After rolling out on time at 0800 the Swiss AC75 was rigged and launched by 0835 giving the myriad of technicians just under an hour and a half to set up and test the boat ahead of the 1000 dock out time. After hoisting and checking the legacy M1-1 mainsail, the crew put up a legacy J3-3 headsail before being bow towed out of the harbour at 1125.

The bow-tow was quickly dropped and the boat sailed slowly on port for a few minutes before making a displacement tack on to port that required some manual backing of the headsail to get the bow through head to wind . After a few minutes of system checking and with the breeze building from an initial 6-7 knots to 8-9 knots the crew sheeted on in earnest and coaxed the boat into the air for the first time under sail.

Observing from behind the boat it was very evident how much it floats predominantly on the bustle in the moments approaching take off. Take off speed was an estimated 20 knots. This first flight lasted only a minute before the windward board was dropped and the boat rounded up and stopped.

After some technical checks and a couple of slow displacement tacks the boat was airborne again – this time on starboard – after taking off at an estimated 18 knots. After sailing upwind for a few minutes at speeds around 30-32 knots the crew bore away and accelerated to speeds in the high thirties / early forties. The first gybe was not a smooth one and had some big course corrections, but it was a fully foiling manoeuvre.

After sailing for another few minutes downwind on port, the boat came to a stop at 1207 for 40 minutes of more checks. The final flight of the day began at 1247 and included some upwind sailing on port before a touchdown tack, a bear away, a foiling gybe, and a two-board round-up, before the boat came to a halt at 1303. We later discovered that a hull flap on the starboard side had come loose, and a crew member was dangled by his feet to retrieve it.

Time was called at 1315 with the headsail coming down followed by the mainsail before a foiling tow back into the harbour at 1337 and a dock in time of 1350 – ten minutes ahead of the planned arrival. Another day of sailing has been scheduled for tomorrow Saturday April 20.

On Water Recon Report – Emirates Team New Zealand: Day 6 of sailing newly named AC75 "Taihoro" for ETNZ. Docking out at 11:30 after what seemed to be a normal rigging process, the team towed down the harbour and started out the northern channel before dropping off the tow and hoisting the M2 main and J2 Jib, in similar conditions to yesterday's sailing day. Opting for the J2 as recon observed the J1 staying on the dock. My understanding is that the J2 is a new cycle sail and the J1 is a legacy sail.

Starting sailing at 12:15, the team managed to sail up on the foils under their own power in very light breeze, heading on starboard back into the harbour and bearing away and completing a short loop in the harbour. Coming up on the wind on port, they started sailing out of the harbour through the northern channel; however, with the wind being very fickle, the team dropped off the foils. Hooking up the tow, the team made their way out of the northern channel past Rangitoto Lighthouse and dropped the tow as they found the north-westerly breeze off Milford Beach.

Now up and sailing, the team spent a long while sailing downwind on port gybe. Recon observed crew members out of sailing positions during this time having a look over sails and control systems from different angles on the yacht. During this sailing block, the team spent a lot of time looking at the main while on port tack. Coming to a stop at 12:46, both the onboard team and the team in Chase 1 could be observed looking over the main control systems and the Main skin on the port side, particularly the head section. Recon speculates that the team was having some control issues with the head section of the main on the port side. During this stop, the team changed down from the J2 to the J4 as the breeze was now increasing.

Starting sailing again at 13:08, they went straight into some very tight laps just off Milford Beach. Completing a range of manoeuvres in a relatively small space, spending time close up to the coast. During this time, Recon observed some asymmetry in the sail shape of the main head from tack to tack. During this time out of 2 tacks onto port, the team struggled to keep the boat foiling, needing to perform a full take-off to regain flight. Stopping this sailing block at 13:34, the team proceeded to drop the sails and start packing up for the day while still out of the northern channel in the area they had been sailing. As the mains came down, the team could be seen taking photos of the inside of the port skin. Packing up and heading back to the dock for the day.

On-Water Recon Report – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: On this day, the Italian team, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, rolled out their B3 AC75 around 9:50, first the mast with added fittings followed by the hull including the legacy appendages.

As forecasted, the northerly pressure was gusty and upper range during the whole day. After an hour, the boat was craned in at approx. 11:00. At the dock, the team conducted several tests, such as: spanner angles, FCS, rudder, and sail controls. As the main skins were loaded on deck, 4 cyclors and 4 sailors boarded the AC75 and the team docked out at 13:50. Once out of the harbour, the team conducted approx. 15 minutes of towing mostly reaching and downwind varying the speed between 20-25 knots before pointing upwind and stopping to hoist sails.

At 14:15, the pressure was measured from 335-340 TWA at 18-20kn with some chop. Then, a new main M1 was hoisted at 14:35, later paired to a new jib J3 at 14:55. The linkage of spanner with traveller has been placed below deck while the sheeting systems remained similar to its scaled LEQ12 version. The new J3 was hoisted and lowered twice while several technicians seemed to work on jib track and below deck. At 15:30, the offshore breeze dropped a bit, being measured 13-15kn from 345°; but quickly picked up again to 18-19knots, especially further inshore. With still some shore crew on board, the team proceeded two displacement stints on each tack raising the respective board.

As the shore crew were collected by chase1, the first self-take-off was observed at 16:12 with 15-16 knots boatspeed on port tack. This run ended after approximately 3 minutes as the yacht flew too high causing the anhedral foil to ventilate bringing the boat off the foils and stopping. The yacht changed tack and the tow-line was passed for a tow-to-fly take-off. The yacht sailed another 2-minute upwind stint on starboard tack before decelerating and calling it a day considering the upper range pressure.

Sails were lowered and the team docked in by 17:30. [Michele Melis, AC Recon].

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: AC40-8 ‘Magic’ was craned in at 08:45 and AC40-5 'America' craned in at 09:00. We noticed that America was getting installed different screens in the trimmer pods, compared to what we think we have seen on the past days. After a short briefing, dock out was at11:00 and ten minutes later they started hoisting their mainsails: MC-4 for America and MC-2 for Magic, paired with J1.5 custom jib (America) and J2 custom jib (Magic). According to the interview after the sailing session with American Magic trimmer Michael Menninger the fact that they started with different sails was because they had an issue with the J1.5 so they hoisted the next biggest jib they had.

A light breeze of about 2-4 knots TWD 90º was blowing at 11:20 after hoisting the sails. The boats were towed out from the harbour and waited for 20 minutes until a breeze of about 4-7 knots TWD 130º came in.

Stint 1 (11:40 to 12:30): 4-7 knots TWD 130º@11:40. America started sailing first and sailed on long starboard upwind tack. It was a great moment because some hundred meters above we had Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s new AC75 foiling for first time. America tacked to port and sailed to find Magic that was coming behind, but they did not continue sailing together: Magic kept sailing upwind for five long tacks and America sailed downwind to the start line set by the team in from Port Olímpic, as always. Once there she stayed around the line practicing pre-start manoeuvres. As the wind was on the lower limit, Magic struggled sailing down to the starting line and when she managed to, she stayed around the line performing pre-start manoeuvres.

Stint 2 (12:30 to 13:20): 9-12 knots TWD 140º@12:30. A two lap upwind/downwind race was done in this stint. America was entering the line first on port side followed by Magic on starboard side. America crossed the start-line leeward to Magic (OCS) on port side. America led the race ahead of Magic until the end of the two laps. 6-7 tacks were done on the upwind and around 4 gybes on the downwind, both boats executing the manoeuvres with excellence. When finished America decided to change the jib to J2 but the wind increased to 12-16 knots TWD 190º@13:20 and after not even 10 minutes sailing America decided to change jib to J3, Magic also did the same.

Stint 3 (13:20 to 14:30): 12-16 knots TWD 190º@13:20 h. Two races more were done in this stint. The first one started with Magic getting first into the box at the pre-start and America behind. America failed a critical gybe and lost the timing of the start, crossing the line some seconds behind and to windward of Magic. They proceed with the two upwind/downwind laps with 7-8 tacks on the first upwinds and 3-4 gybes on the downwinds. For the third race the wind increased to 18-22 knots TWD 200º@14:00. A very tough battle between both AC40’s was seen in the last 30 seconds on the approach to the line with America winning the battle after taking out Magic from the line (OCS).

America led both laps but Magic was really close and it was impressive as the wind was pretty strong and a fail at any manoeuvre in this wind conditions has a big cost but both AC40’s nailed all the manoeuvres from the start to the end. About this third race a little mention on the bottom mark rounding, America decided to round it with both arms down and flying low, the hull touched a couple of times the water and through a lot of spray and lost speed. Magic came full-on and rounded it aggressively with just one foil arm down, they lost a bit control and got the foils almost out from the water surface taking big risk but paying off as they managed to cut some distance to America.

After the third race wind was quite strong and the team decided it was time to get back to port. Dock in was at 14:45.

As a summary Magic and America foiled for 120 minutes. They performed 56 tacks and 36 gybes and three complete 2 lap upwind-downwind course races. Jose Piñana - AC Recon