SWISS ROCKETSHIP
All around the Alinghi Red Bull Racing camp there’s an air of intensity with the team noticeably turning up the dial on every aspect of their campaign. With the new AC40 in the shed being assembled and the obvious anticipation around that, plus some Persico 69Fs that will be used presumably for Youth & Women’s selection as other teams are doing in this cycle, the Swiss are, pardon the pun, on a roll.
What the intensity shoreside is translating into, on the water in BoatZero, is a heightened confidence to push harder and the team were out early to catch the morning breeze of 12-15 knots and really put the hammer down. Speeds were well into the mid-40s and there was a composure in flight and handling that will have the team’s coaches, as well as the analyst brigades, more than pleased.
Dock out was just after 9am and what greeted the sailors as they towed out south to the windier area in front of the airport was a short, sharp chop and pretty much top-end breeze for the AC75. Perfect conditions to really have BoatZero flying and what was highly noticeable was the co-ordination between helms, flight controllers and sail control – far better than we’ve seen to date. Big improvements all round and the Swiss looked more than comfortable in the upper ranges that this first generation AC75 was over-built for. The Recon Unit noticed that on balance, the team looked more assured and comfortable on the American Magic anhedral foil which hangs off the port foil arm through manoeuvres and it will be interesting to see what foil configuration the Alinghi Red Bull Racing design office plump for when the new boat arrives next year.
Arnaud Psarofaghis, one of the new breed of next-gen ambassadors for the high octane 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona gave a fascinating interview post the session and asked about the stability at rocket speeds he said: “I think the faster you go, the boat gets more and more stable so when you are at the mid 44-45 knots the boat seems to be really locked in and it's quite ‘enjoyable’ to sail the boat at this speed. It's more in the transition zone between the upwind and downwind (where we) just get used to the boa,t and it's the first few times that we have sailed in this breeze, so the first bear away we always take a bit of care there, but it's been really good, so we just need to push more and more.”
Clearly that mantra of pushing “more and more” is feeding around the team and Arnaud was joined in the starboard helm position towards the end of the session by Maxime Bachelin, one of the young rising stars of what Alinghi Red Bull Racing call the ‘Driving Group.’ Maxime was pretty quickly up to speed and the recon unit were impressed with his speed and willingness to dive into foiling manoeuvres.
A big day in terms of distance covered with some 60 nautical miles logged for the analyst teams sucking the data to feed back into the simulations in the design office and with a drone in the sky looking at sail shapes, all round it was a highly productive, near five-hour session in sunny, almost spring-like, Barcelona.
The Swiss rocketship took off today. All credit to the sailing team.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out at 07:15, craned in the AC75 and carried out standard systems tests at the dock, including foil arms, mast rotation and communications. The team's AC40, now unwrapped, was pulled out of its tent and taken into the shed to be worked on while the AC75 would be out sailing.
The wind was lighter today, making the sailing area under the city unsuitable, therefore the yacht was towed towards the sailing area by the airport. The waves were conflicting with residuary north-east swell, creating a sharp chop, but calmed down by midday. The team spent almost five hours on the water, again covering over 60 Nautical Miles and seeing speeds of 45 knots.
Over three upwind/downwind and reaching stints, the team attempted a total of 37 foiling tacks and gybes, as well as roundings and bear-aways (no physical marks were used). The team are still slightly consistent with tacking/gybing from port to starboard, than from starboard to port. This is due to the difference in foils on either side, with the American Magic legacy foil seeming more comfortable when manoeuvring.
The wind slowly decreased by midday, at which point the J3 was dropped for the J2. Alinghi Red Bull Racing utilised these lighter conditions of the final stint to switch starboard helm, Arnaud Psarofaghis, for the youngest member of the driving team, Maxime Bachelin. Maxime sailed the yacht well and attempted a few foiling manoeuvres, improving with time behind the wheel.
An end to the session was called after another intense day of long sailing stints; the sails were dropped outside the Southern Freeport entrance and the yacht was towed back to base.
Onboard Today
Sailing Team: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Lucien Cujean, Maxime Bachelin, Pietro Sibello, Nicolas Charbonnier
Flight Control: Bryan Mettraux / Yves Detrey
Power Group: Nicolas Rolaz / Arthur Cevey
Conditions: NW 12-15kn @ 10:00, NW 9-11kn @ 12:00, NW 6-8kn @ 13:10. TWD was NW as forecast. Wind was lighter under the city, as the breeze flowed around Barcelona, with the best sailing area by the airport. 8℃, Sunny (AM). 10℃, Sunny (PM).
Sails Used:
M1 (M1-1R): 4 hours 45 minutes
J2 (J2-1L): 1 hour 15 minutes
J3 (J3-1R): 1 hour 45 minutes
Total Tacks: 18 – 0 foil-to-foil, 10 touch & go, 8 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 19 – 1 foil-to-foil, 10 touch & go, 8 touchdowns
Recon Notes:
10:10 – 11:00 Sailing (3 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Tack – Touch Down, 5 Gybes - Touch & Go, 2 Gybes - Touch Down)
11:05 – 11:35 Sailing (6 Tacks - Touch & Go, 1 Gybe - Fully Foiling, 3 Gybes - Touch & Go , 5 Gybes - Touch Down)
12:00 – 13:05 Sailing (1 Tack - Touch & Go, 7 Tacks – Touch Down, 2 Gybes - Touch & Go , 1 Gybe - Touch Down)
Take off Speed: 19 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Dock-Out: 0910 Dock-In: 1355