ROCK SOLID BOATONE STYLES OUT BARCELONA
In short, Alinghi Red Bull Racing looked bang-on-point today in Barcelona on a three-hour training run where the afternoon breeze, despite being persistently shifty, stayed in the region of 10-12 knots and allowed the sailors to dial in their pre-sets, concentrate on flight and start to open up the throttles on what is looking like an incredibly potent AC75 platform with a ton of soon-to-be and being realised potential.
What we saw today was stability on the foils and the bustle starting to work beautifully to end-plate effectively. Recon noted quited a large pre-bend in the mast and on the leeward foil almost invariably the outboard tip was clear of the water. Confidence is starting to build with the Swiss and with no external distractions and a superb shore team, the programme now is relentless. Right from the very start of today there were signs of clear intent with the team sailing out of the harbour with what appeared to be a new J4 jib, attaining flight almost immediately. Wonderful to see how fast this boat foils – could be devastating in the pre-starts.
The Swiss who have made it their business to learn fast and strategically through constant analysis of every aspect of performance, brought it together today on this, their ninth day of sailing the new generation AC75 that Naval Architect Arthur Rozand described in relation to BoatZero as: “It's not comparable because the boat is way better in all aspects...we still have a lot to gain and to understand but we are pretty happy with where we are.”
And rightly so, the gains are more than evident day after day and what the Alinghi Red Bull Racing family are building here is a mighty, no-stone-unturned challenge for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. On display today was super-low riding but with the bow beautifully held up, perhaps with the addition of more rudder rake or grip and some very sharp trimming and over-trimming at times to keep flying through the lulls from Bryan Mettraux and Yves Detrey.
The helming was smooth with low angle VMG gybes and much more commitment through the tacks from both Maxime Bachelin and Arnaud Psarofaghis, whipping the boat through but keeping the tacking angle tight. For certain the Swiss are beginning to both understand and trust the foil package which looks fast straight out of the box with superb detailing.
Speaking afterwards, Arthur Rozand who has been head-down for over two years in the design and is now working closer with the sailors and he gave a fascinating insight into the whole data science to sailor interface saying: “The first metric for any kind of boat is the VMG because at the end it’s what makes you win a race but then it's all the small details that will make the boat do a good VMG to an angle, speed, leeway or all those kind of things...I'm shifting to work a bit more with the sailors as before I was working mostly with the designers so now slowly shifting to the sailor side to help them to use the boat as we thought and if we find new ideas exploit it...analysis of what kind of angles they've been sailing at compared to what we were expecting and seeing if actually they don't match the prediction and if going to the prediction is actually the best choice or maybe they found something new that we didn't think about and we could exploit to make the boat faster.”
The constant collaboration and corroboration of these highly-sensor laden boats is going to be key to development over the course of the next four months before racing starts in earnest and designers like Arthur will be invaluable through that analysis: “You have good data coming back from the water to discuss between ourselves, between the sailors, and the designers, to be sure that the interpretation of the data is a good one so everyone is biased, but by discussion altogether we hope to end up with a good answer and the right one.”
How much faster can BoatOne go and how much can it be developed? Arthur wouldn’t be drawn saying: “I will not answer that!” However, it’s clear that whilst this is day nine, it’s still very much the start for the dynamic Alinghi Red Bull Racing. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: The Swiss rolled out their AC75 at 09:45 and craned it to the water at 10:20. After performing multiple routine checks, at 11:50 just ten minutes before the scheduled dock-out time, the team identified something out of order and was forced to crane the boat out and remove the mast. Immediately after, the mast was taken inside the shed for ten minutes. We could identify two shrouds being switched, from their respective original tack to the opposite one. Nevertheless, by 12:30 the mast was back on, and twenty minutes after the boat was again on the water.
The team finally docked out at 13:45. The M1-1 mainsail and a possible new or modified J4 were hoisted while heading out of the harbour at 13:55 and 14:07, respectively.
Unstable medium-wind conditions prevailed during today’s session, moving up and down in intensity and persistently turning right in direction, starting on 190 degrees at the beginning of the training and ending up all the way on 255 degrees.
At 14:20 the training started with a short downwind-upwind warm up. Fifteen minutes after, a first break took place in which the jib was lowered to perform some minor adjustments. Once re-hoisted, the training continued with two upwind-downwinds performing two tacks and gybes per leg.
When sailing in a straight line, three elements called our attention: (I) Leeward foil wing-tip out of the water almost all the time (II) Pitch angle with the bow pointing down almost all day long, both upwind and downwind and (III) A considerable amount of prebend on the mast, more than what we have seen on other AC75s in the past.
At 15:11 there was a short ten-minute break, and for the following half an hour the main focus were the manoeuvrers, performing five tacks and gybes per leg with a short time-gap in between one and the next one. Approximately, a 60% of the manoeuvrers were fully foiling, presenting more difficulties when the wind dropped in intensity.
From 15:45 till 16:00 there was a new break, in which many team members got onboard for de-briefing. Then the session continued.
Just before heading back to the base, the team practiced some boat handling exercises bearing-away and heading up from upwind closed-hauled course into downwind VMG course and back, on both tacks, multiple times.
Once closer to the port entrance, at 16:50 the team decided to put an end to the training and proceeded to lower both sails. Alinghi Red Bull Racing entered the harbour on the tow with no sails at 17.00 and docked in at 17:10. The boat was craned out thirty-five minutes later, indicating the end of the day. Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on Alinghi Red Bull Racing