SWISS SOLO ON OVERCAST AND SWELL DAY IN BARCELONA
Rain clouds and overcast, bruised skies made for a tricky afternoon for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who were the only Challenger team to venture out of the Port Vell, so keen are they to keep on improving and recover from the catastrophic mast failure of just last week. The heavily patched-up BoatOne with its visible deck scars from that incident had a delayed dock-out and re-set the re-built M2-1 mainsail skins that had been damaged in the incident.
The Swiss have bounced back well from the mast failure and with every armchair admiral in the world opining on the cause, the team are staying tight-lipped. When presented with the observation that it looked like a lot of mainsheet and cunningham load that were the determining factors in the break, Bryan Mettraux, the trimmer onboard that day, cooly responded: “It’s not what we think happened.” Interesting. And he continued: “I think the team is still working on that but we have a good idea of what happened and we’re moving forward now with BoatOne.”
The 1pm dock-out saw the team re-launch the M2-1 but it was a stop-start beginning to the session as the sailors checked it thoroughly with Bryan adding: “We had to pretty much to rebuild the M2, and we were just making sure that everything was working on the mainsheet system and outhaul system.”
Once set, the team put in a solid four hour session, training through to 5pm and working super-hard on the manoeuvres and take-off in the swell conditions that made it a tough afternoon for the Flight Controllers. Pitch and ride height were difficult to master and we saw a wide variety of cant angles to keep the boat low and fast upwind and high downwind. The bow-down tendency of BoatOne that introduces the bow bustle and keel-line features was much in evidence.
Talking about the tight-rope of flight and speed, Bryan commented: “It's the job of all the team to fly to the boat because it's really a matter of having a really nice balance with the sail, the cant, the way we trim the sail, or we drive the boat it really makes the difference for me (as a Flight Controller) so it's what we try to learn to have good communication about it and the right setting to make the boat fly nicely.”
Upwind in the swell, the tacks looked crisp with a return of 75% foil-to-foil over 31 tacks, the downwind ratio was slightly improved at 77% and Bryan commented: “It was pretty changing conditions so really interesting, we tried to improve our manoeuvres I think we did a good job on the tacks but still a lot to learn on the gybes, pretty hard to control the pitch on those big waves so that was really interesting.”
Solid afternoon for the Swiss who will be back at it on Friday and Saturday, keen for more challenging conditions and to keep on improving. Impressive team, pushing hard. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: The Swiss rolled out BoatOne at 8:30, stepped the mast and craned in the yacht at 0905. At the dock, the repair jobs on the damaged hull were visible. Routine checks were done before dock-out scheduled for 1200, then postponed to 1300. The newly repaired main M2-1 was hoisted and paired to the J1.1.
Just when the rain had stopped, the team towed out BoatOne which was quickly foilborne by self-take-off on port tack. Take off speeds were recorded between 16/17kn. Breeze was measured at 6 to 7.5 knots from 50°TWD combined with shorter and smaller swell compared to previous day with 1m @ 4 seconds period from 80 degrees.
The yacht had two short stints which were interrupted by what seemed to be some adjustments on the mainsheet system and lower batten.
Challenging conditions for the yacht to exit dry on every manoeuvre during the first part of the day, especially on the less favourite tack considering the swell offset. The team went for a series of tacks heading offshore and improving its foil-to-foil rate with the distance from shore as the breeze increased.
At 1450, the pressure was measured 85° TWD with 7 to 9 knots. After a quick break, BoatOne self-took-off on port tack and headed straight downwind for a series of gybes, majority of which were foil-to-foil. As the yacht decelerated after trimming up, the breeze had increased further to 8.5 to 10 knots from 80° TWD, and the J1.1 was lowered to hoist the J2.1. Cyclors and batteries were swapped during this break.
Another stint of straight-lines with occasional manoeuvres followed as the breeze built further to 13 knots and the call was made to take the J2.1 down and hoist the J3.1. Once hoisted, a final upwind leg and long downwind legs were sailed with a significant numbers of manoeuvres. Sails were lowered and the day was called with 92 minutes of foilborne sailing, 31 tacks, 22 gybes. Michele Melis - AC Recon.