BRITISH AND SWISS BLAST IN BARCELONA AS MAGIC SUFFERS FOIL GREMLINS

Embodying the speed mantra, INEOS Britannia put in a sensational afternoon on the water in their weapons-grade ‘RB3’ that just exudes outright power. The recon teams were hitting 51 knots at times but still couldn’t catch her. This is a very potent design that promises even more performance as the team gradually wind it on to the max.

A small software glitch almost immediately out of the harbour caused an initial delay but once re-booted and sorted, the British were off on a thrilling tear of non-stop foiling for just over an hour. And it was all action with Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott getting dialled in almost immediately with straight-line, smooth sailing but today through the manoeuvres, they were pretty much on point.

Tacks were sharp, rapier-fast and utterly committed, maintaining speed through whilst dialled low to the surface and end-plating efficiently. Downwind the gybes were tightly angled for great VMG and barely missed a beat in terms of flat entry and flat exit. Impressive performance from the Flight Controllers, Bleddyn Mon and Leigh McMillan who also kept some neat trim on what looked like down-range sails throughout the day. The team covered a whopping 81.7 nautical miles in a session that lasted just under three hours of foiling time and, whisper it quietly, when the breeze gets up above 12 knots, this hyper-designed AC75 is an out-and-out rocket-ship.

Speaking afterwards, Giles Scott summed the day up saying:  “It was an amazing day, a lot of our competitors out there as well, the ‘Garbi’ sea-breeze kicked in beautifully, flat water, nice 10 to 14 ish knots all day, perfect for these yachts, really perfect. Our focus was really a continuation of the work up, after a little delay initially we had a really solid session with laps, just really trying to dial in straight-lines as well as working on some manoeuvre techniques and we had some cameras on the foils too - that was the focus of the day.”

Talking about the highly successful day in terms of tacks and gybes and asked whether the Simulator was something that was having a big effect on performance, Giles added: “I think it's fair to say our manoeuvres are still on the upward slope, we were getting better, and I think today was a lot cleaner than it has been previously. That being said there's still a long way for us to go there, we still feel there's good gains for us to squeeze out of the manoeuvres. With the simulator it’s something that we use a lot, and the similarities are certainly there, and a lot of the techniques before we go sailing, we run through on the simulator to hone those.”

From a tech perspective, INEOS Britannia are still running their legacy rudder having removed the new one as Giles said: “Just checking out a few things with that new rudder so we're on the legacy one and I'm sure in the coming days you'll see the other one back on there.” And in terms of sails, the team have been alternating between the M1 and M2 sails with Giles commenting: “The sail design has been going ever since the T6 programme and also we did one other key jib with the AC40 as well so there is the constant evolution there and this is obviously our first go AC37 full-size sail package and we've got the M1 and M2, there’s a lot of scope with the mains in terms of area, so as you're seeing with a lot of the other teams I'm sure everyone will have different area mainsails to go through.”

Brilliant performance from the British today, rock solid in flight and bristling with pace. This is a boat and a team that can go very deep in the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup and there’s a growing confidence emanating from the camp. Impressive.

NYYC American Magic were actually the first to dock-out this morning, leaving their MB92 base at 10.40am to catch the building breeze but with a clear intention, set out very early, to get into foil evaluation. Trying to find the ventilation point, the moment when the foils effectively ‘let go’ was in focus across a wide range of angles at down-speeds but it was this focus that eventually undid their day.

Starting with a long downwind to Badolana, just north of Barcelona, it was all-on with Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison driving the boat at pace into uncomfortable, but very necessary, performance profile areas. Double-board gybes with a variety of exit angles and speeds were the order of this part of the session and as the boat rose, dropped and crashed off the foils, it was a data analyst’s dream with plenty of correlations to be analysed in the computer tonight. An interesting aside was that whenever Patriot fell off the foils and usually rounded up, the speed that they could re-attain flight again in the 10-12 knot range was astonishing, with only a small speed build. Powerful boat is Patriot.

After a first look at pre-start practice which was pretty impressive on the new (supplied) race management software, the tech teams were back onboard Patriot applying effectively a vinyl sticking plaster to the hip of the troublesome starboard foil that had been internally upgraded on the maintenance day yesterday. It was a short-lived fix, a second application after just 20 minutes of foiling effectively caused the team to make a decision, and to preserve the asset, they called it a day. A solid three hours but the sailors clearly would have preferred more.

Speaking afterwards, Paul Goodison, helmsman on the port side, summed up the day saying: “We had fantastic weather forecast today, so the plan was to get out early and try and meet the building breeze which we managed to. The breeze came up nicely throughout the afternoon and we got a little bit of sailing in, unfortunately a little bit stop/start, we had few issues with the port foil and we tried to do a bit of a bodge job on the water to repair it. It held for a little while and then came off and at the end of day we figured it wasn't worth the risk of doing any more damage to the boat so we called it a little bit earlier unfortunately today...We had a piece replaced so it's just a kind of different piece in that area and it unfortunately didn't quite hold as we expected today, so we go back to the drawing board and come up with a new one for the next day.”

Talking about the foil profiles which are ever so slightly nuanced side-to-side, Paul added: “The foils are very similar, they have their own little intricacies that we're just trying to figure out if the tools are showing us the same differences we’re showing on the water, so just experimenting a little bit and looking at things in more detail.”

Sharing the same stretch of water, Barcelona is a busy racetrack at the moment, was Alinghi Red Bull Racing who put on another stellar training performance as the team bed-in the co-ordination and nail the manoeuvres – and all at pace. What we are starting to see with the Swiss is a lot of concentration on pitch and today was no different with the team playing with aggressive stern ride height that at times looked unstable and shaky and certainly out of the norm of what we are seeing elsewhere.

The now-standard ‘S’ bend moves were thrown in before the team headed into some pre-start and lap practice where, as usual, it was efficiency all-over with solid flat bear-aways, stable flight upwind, a little low downwind through the gybes as they played with angles but great mark roundings – crisp and clean. A solid four-and-a-half hours on the water and their 14^th day of sailing in the new AC75, a milestone surely?

Speaking afterwards, Pietro Sibello, one of a very small band of elite Olympic and America’s Cup coaches, summed up the day saying: “We've been lucky, very lucky this week with the conditions, nice south-west between 12 knots and 14-15 knots, really flat water here in Barcelona this week so was just glamour sailing and today we just went brilliantly. In these days we want to sail the most we can and we're doing a mix of performance, boat handling, racing so it’s just been amazing.”

Talking about the ‘S’ bend manoeuvre so favoured by the coaches as it demands so much from all the sailors onboard, Pietro said: “It’s a lot about the co-ordination and boat handling for the crew, it’s a new boat for us and the righting moment is a bit different, the platform is lighter, the foils are different so we're looking to get the right co-ordination and understanding how to do the best manoeuvres and also of course the designers are really keen to check data.”

Keeping the natural, youthful enthusiasm grounded in continual learning, Pietro gave a coach’s answer when asked where the team needed to do more ‘homework’ saying: “We are still learning the boat, it's not a long time that we started sailing but we're super happy about how it's going, also the whole team is doing an amazing job to have such a boat that is reliable as well, so we have the possibility to check all the areas and learn all around at the moment.”

The Swiss look very good on the water and more assured every day. That first day of racing can’t come soon enough for this well-drilled team. 

Also spotted out today in the glamour conditions were the French Orient Express Racing Team sailing their AC40 - and sailing very well. Quentin Delapierre and Kevin Peponnet will be taking plenty of mental notes off the water as they have an unique perspective on the hard-charging AC75s. Theirs won’t be long now and then we’ll have a full house. Barcelona is warming up nicely for the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report: INEOS Britannia: The British rolled out RB3 at 10:00 today and crane in at 10:40 with dock-out at 12:30. We observed that LiDAR cameras were installed just behind the trimmers – the third time these have been observed – alongside jib cameras, located on deck at the bow.

Mainsail MN2 was hoisted and paired to a J5 jib at the entrance of the harbour at around 12:50. The sea state was looking really flat today and a breeze of about 10-12 knots was blowing from a TWD 180º @13:00, when they started sailing upwind on starboard side but after 500 metres they stopped for an unidentified issue. They tried to start sailing two times more, but they had to stop and it was not until 14:40 that they managed to solve the issue. According to Giles Scott, the issue was about a software tweak.

When finally sailing INEOS Britannia completed five upwind and downwind legs, alternating long straight runs with some intense manoeuvring exercises, totalling 81.7 nautical miles sailed in 2 h 50 min (foiling time) with 27 tacks (80% totally foiling), 31 gybes (90% totally foiling), 5 luffs (4 starboard, 1 port) and 5 bear-aways (2 starboard, 3 port) completed.

After the issue at the beginning, they only stopped one time more to replace the batteries and the cyclors (10-15 minutes) at 15:50, that is 2 h 50 minutes since they left the harbour but 1 h 30 min since when they really started sailing.

The sailing height today was generally closer to the water than in previous days, holding in the downwinds a higher height from the upwinds. The tacks were seen executed also in lower height. They were sailing with the J5 in the lower range and more even at the beginning of the session when there was less wind: 10-12 knots. At the exit of the tacks the bow was touching the water surface by the beginning of the session, but later when the wind picked up (increased to 14 knots) it stopped happening. The gybes were done more flat-to-flat compared to the previous day and with great speed in the turn and a high success rate. Sails were dropped in front of the harbour at 17:10 and dock in at 17:40. Jose Luis Piñana – AC Recon

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic rolled out Patriot at 08:25 for their third sailing day this week, with the focus of the day being foil ventilation testing and racecourse practice. Patriot was craned in at 08:55 with the same appendages as previous days, minus a camera bulb removed from the outboard surface of the starboard foil arm stock. This was followed by hydraulics and FCS testing. Two rows of tell tales (6 on each row) were added in the fore and aft cyclor pods. Custom recumbent seats, specific to each cyclor, were observed carried into each cyclor pod. Batteries were also observed being carried into the midships centreline deck hatch, just aft of the mast base.

The team docked out at 10:40 and raised the MN2-1 mainsail and J3-1 jib under the breakwater, before setting sail at 11:23, with the local Garbi southerly thermal breeze measuring 8-11kn at the port entrance, building over the day with gusts of 15 knots measured on the racecourse by the early afternoon. The team started off with a downwind warmup to Badalona, before initiating foil ventilation testing and validation on a long starboard tack, then repeated on port tack. The flat sea state made for ideal foil testing conditions.

Following foil testing, Patriot was sailed downwind to the leeward gate of the set course, rounding with one board down before coming to a stop, as tech crew jumped onboard ahead of pre-start practice. The team sailed into the start box on port, then gybed onto the starting layline, arriving at the start-line 7 seconds late (assuming start on :00 GPS time). Racecourse practice was abandoned as tech crew jumped on board to inspect the inboard surface of the foil arm stocks, subsequently applying vinyl stickers over both the foil arm hips. After sailing a 20-minute stint, vinyl stickers were reapplied, before the team called it a day to avoid further damage and sailed upwind back to base.

A cyclor rotation was lined up, with the larger cyclors in the squad ready to jump on, but did not take place due to the early end to the day. Sails were dropped by 13:55 and the team docked in by 14:20. The team spent just under four hours on the water, of which 75 minutes were spent sailing. 25 manoeuvres were performed, 72% fully foiling. Justin Busuttil – NYYC American Magic Recon

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC75 at 09:30 and craned it to the water at 09:55, while two containers that had just arrived back from Jeddah were unloaded. A new piece of hardware was installed on the aft starboard side deck of the boat (a flat panel with a white top and wired back in to the aft gantry – use unknown - communications.) The team docked out at 12:00 as planned and the M2-1 was selected for today’s session, combined with the J3-1. Both sails were hoisted just before heading out of the port at 12:30.

Building medium winds from the SSW prevailed during the day, combined with flat-water conditions. The training started at 12:30 with a downwind-upwind warm up. Then there was a ten-minute break in which some of the team’s technicians got onboard. This pattern was identified every day during last two weeks, possibly indicating a daily routine in which ordinary hydraulic and electronic checks are executed after the first ten to fifteen minutes of sailing.

At 12:50 the session continued with three upwind and downwind legs, looking for maximum VMG. A more aggressive pitch angle to some extent was identified, with the stern flying noticeably higher and the bow pointing lower. However, the boat seemed harder to maintain stability on that axis, especially when sailing downwind, being forced to lift the bow up to reach the starting height position again.

At 13:25 there was a fifteen-minute break in which the J3-1 got replaced by the J3-3L, possibly to preserve its good condition, as manoeuvrers came next.

At 13:40 the training continued with one long upwind combined with a few tacks, and one downwind practicing ‘S’ manoeuvres, zigzagging from upwind closed hauled course into downwind VMG course, back and forth, multiple times on both tacks.

At 14:20 close to the harbour entrance, there was a new fifteen-minute break in which a full cyclors rotation occurred. The net cycling time of the first shift was seventy minutes. With the new set of cyclors further ‘S’ manoeuvres were carried out on both tacks, before heading to the race-course area where marks had been previously set.

After a ten-minute break, two two-lap upwind-downwind races were executed, entering the box on port tack, and altering the top and bottom mark roundings to port and starboard. Fully foiling manoeuvrers during the pre-starts and while racing were observed. In between races, an additional headsail change happened with the J4-1 replacing the J3-3L.

One the last upwind of the second race, Alinghi Red Bull Racing continued to sail back home towards the port, practicing some additional tacks.Today it was the first time in which a team entered the harbour sailing with their new AC75. Once inside, sails got dropped, and the team docked at 16:40. Thirty minutes later it got craned out of the water.

Another very positive day of training for the Swiss Team. Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on Alinghi Red Bull Racing