SWISS ACE THE BARCELONA CHOP
Overnight in Barcelona, it wasn’t looking good for a productive day on Tuesday, but with the wind-driven front passing over quicker than expected, the remnants were more than acceptable despite overcast conditions and a grey demeanour all over the immediate waterfront. Alinghi Red Bull Racing, keen to keep the training pressure on, docked-out before midday and made the absolute best of a diminishing breeze and a leftover sharp chop.
Looking light and nimble, which is very much the calling card of this AC75 over the muscular designs we see elsewhere, flight was easy – a cinch in fact – in just 7-10 knots of breeze that barely rose above that over the session. So easy does ‘BoatOne’ pop on to its long-span foils in the lighter conditions, from its aggressive full length bustle, that it must send shock-waves through the Port Vell and once in flight today, the team really had the boat dialled-in and extracted the maximum. There’s no doubt that there’s an element of learning anew with these third generation AC75s and the learning curve from BoatZero to BoatOne should not be underestimated. Muscle memory is certainly being re-trained and for the Flight Controllers, controlling the power and the boat’s tendencies is a whole new game. Today they did an outstanding job.
Upwind, BoatOne looked level and powerful, end-plating effectively and the tacks looked sharp with close angles and fast exit speeds. Moding was largely flat to leeward heeled, as is the trend at the moment, with only slight windward heel in the lulls that was quickly surrendered as soon as possible.
Downwind, the call was to ride high with the nose down and this looks an effective mode that the team are getting comfortable with. Gybes were at times a little too high on the exit but understandable in the light conditions – these will get tighter as the team begin to trust the lengthier foils and their characteristics.
Trim both upwind and down looked heavily on point with lovely micro adjustments, keeping the power just on enough with the M2-1 double-skinned mainsail working well. Worth noting too the trim on the foil cant system, particularly upwind in swell – a lot going on there and noticeable just how hard that whole system is working in flight.
Elliot Pilcher, one of the key Hydraulics Engineers for Alinghi Red Bull Racing spoke to the recon afterwards about the differences between ‘BoatZero’ and ‘BoatOne’ saying: “It's got similar DNA but there's been a few big changes that we've introduced that were in the pipeline for a while and then we launched them with BoatOne, and so far we're really happy with how the boat’s commissioned, today is a good example we've been able to go out and get through a really efficient day’s sailing without any issues, without holding up the guys so kind of straight into performance and development of the boat without too many teething problems."
Elliot’s on-water role is very much around monitoring and debriefing, getting the sailor’s viewpoint on how to improve the systems as he confirmed: “There's a ton of data to look at, obviously everything's coming live from the boat and these boats are just riddled with sensors so a lot of live data but also just looking at system health as well making sure trying to pick up on any potential issues, try to pick stuff up before it happens and then obviously working with the guys during the day to get their feedback after each session, after each few laps, and check in how the boat’s going and make sure everything is doing what it should.”
And be under no illusion at just how stressed and on the limit these boats are in flight as Elliot confirmed: “As soon as the boat gets going it's pretty full on, all the manoeuvres are pretty intense for the take-off, tacks, gybes, round-ups, bear-aways, all of them are pretty taxing on the boat, pretty taxing on the Power Group, the guys have got to dig deep to make sure everything is moving fast and getting back up to load, back up to target as soon as possible, so you can never really work them hard enough, for the guys the more you can push the more the Driving Group will take so the systems are always working flat out.”
Impressive day of training for the Swiss with 28 high quality manoeuvres and another down-range day of precise flight under their belt. More to come this week with some solid conditions looming. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing made the most of a better-than-expected weather scenario in Barcelona to clock up a highly productive two and a half hour training and commissioning session aboard the Swiss third-generation AC75.
The boat rolled out on time at 0900 and was rigged and launched by 0932 ahead of an on-time dock out at 1130. With conditions expected to be light in the wake of a windy front that passed over the region overnight, hopes of optimum sailing conditions were not high.
However, after trying a J4-1 headsail up the rig for the first time in the harbour, the team chose the J2-1 headsail and exited the harbour on a bow-tow at 1222 to find a solid easterly 8-10 knot breeze blowing – albeit with a nastily confused swell and chop sea state which made life in the chase boat fleet somewhat unpleasant.
The team managed four flights during the session:
1223-1240: Upwind
One brief touchdown and immediate take off and three foiling tacks.
Wind 120 8-11 knots
1256-1320: Downwind then upwind
One foiling gybe, one touch and go tack.
Wind 90-100 7-11 knots
1337-1357: Upwind
Seven foiling tacks, three touch and go tacks, two touchdown tacks.
Wind 060-070 7-7.5 knots
1413-1437: Short upwind then bear away into long downwind.
Eleven foiling gybes
Wind 090-100 8-8.5 knots
Sails were dropped near the harbour entrance by 1455 and the boat docked in around 1505.