FAREWELL PATRIOT
It’s a fond farewell to Patriot, with the New York Yacht Club American Magic team concluding the weekend offshore before sailing her back to Pensacola to be greeted by patriotic red, white and blue flares to mark the end of her time as an America’s Cup workhorse. A graceful retirement awaits but it was one thoroughly entertaining final hurrah with the recon unit estimating that over 100 nautical miles was covered at blistering pace, so fast that in the seaway the recon RIB couldn’t keep up at times. Patriot was up and foiling for some 104 minutes, proving that there’s a lot of life still left in the tank and as a training and testing platform, she’s been sublime for the team at full scale.
Paul Goodison, skipper alongside Riley Gibbs today, had a tinge of sadness about the de-commissioning of Patriot saying: “Yesterday we had some full on noise with up to 25 knots (of wind) and over 50 knots in every bear-away to then going outside and having a seaway - probably the biggest we’ve sailed Patriot in today - so a lot of challenging conditions and it's been great to experience that with the team from top to bottom and just see how everybody in the team has pretty much risen to the challenge. We've had two fantastic days sailing to finish Patriot here in Pensacola.”
But it was a tricky day on the water, amplified by the sea state, and Goodison, one of the most technically brilliant sailors of the foiling generation gave an insight into what the team faced today when he said: “It’s just full on. When the waves are so big it's hard to keep the foil in the water and the hull out of the water just with the way the whole thing shapes up - obviously one tack’s a little bit easier than the other, on port we had real issues as soon as the hull touches down the foil’s out of the water or you have to accept a little bit of heel and then the boat’s out of whack and then to being on starboard the boat’s obviously a little bit more settled because you have a bit more margin to keep the bulb in the water and the hull out of the water so really tricky conditions but fantastic learning again.”
And the benefits of testing at full scale on a first generation AC75 are clear in Goodison’s mind and when asked about the gains they’ve made, he offered: “The biggest gains for sure have been the systems. The boat is a completely different yacht to what we raced in Auckland and the systems on board - you can see the bikes, but there's also heaps of other stuff inside the sails, underneath the boat that isn't, I guess, visual to everybody but the systems have been a massive improvement and we are able to develop a lot more sail shapes and sail the boat quite differently and obviously learning about how the power system in the boat works has been invaluable for us as a team.”
Patriot’s legacy will be to set the direction for the team’s designers and engineers who are now just a few weeks away from final sign-off before the new boat goes into build up in Newport, Rhode Island. Goodison was spot on when he said: “We have made fantastic use of the time here with Patriot and it's probably been a blessing in disguise to be honest to be able to sail this boat and learn all we have. It’s put us in great shape now for the design decisions that need to be made in the coming months for the raceboat.”
The team will be taking delivery of their AC40s in the coming weeks and Patriot will be dismantled carefully by the shore team to inspect everything. One of the most famous yachts in recent America’s Cup history, will be fondly remembered. Farewell Patriot. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: Patriot sailed offshore today in the biggest sea state yet (3-5ft swell with the occasional 6ft wave). The RIB's could not keep pace. The distance recorded on the tracker was 57nm, a reasonable estimate for the actual distance sailed would be close to double that, approximately 110nm. The wind and seas backed off in the early afternoon allowing the RIB's to keep up. Patriot sailed approximately 10 W/L legs. Five headsails were loaded into the support RIB, 3 were used. Sailing began at 11:07, completed 17 manoeuvres and ended sailing at 15:15. Patriot had a total flying time of 104 Minutes. Top speeds could not accurately be estimated. The day concluded with a patriotic display of red, white, and blue distress smoke signals being deployed off the stern while Patriot sailed all the way in the pass (for the first time). Sailing is not scheduled to resume until March 1, 2023.
Total Tacks: 13 – 8 foil-to-foil, 5 touchdowns
Total Gybes: 4 – 1 foil-to-foil, 3 touchdowns
Recon Notes: The sea state prevented any of the RIB's to closely follow the race yacht, although all of the tacks and gybes were counted, it was difficult to discern if they were full foil, touch and go, or touch down. Patriot touched down frequently but did not necessarily lose boat speed. Patriot was on foil a combined total of 104 minutes. Flight times ranged from 1 minute to 12 minutes (4, 1, 1, 6, 1, 8, 9, 2, 6, 5, 7, 9, 7, 2, 9, 12, 9, 2, 3 and 1 minutes respectively).
Take off speed: 18 knots at 90 degrees TWA (True Wind Angle)
Initial take off was self, 16 additional self-ups, 4 tow-ups
Onboard Today:
Helms: Paul Goodison / Riley Gibbs
Trimmers: Lucas Calbrese / Michael Menninger
Flight Control: Andrew Campbell
Power Group: John Croom / Madison Molitor/ Colten Hall / James Wright / Tim Hornsby
Conditions: 10:32 E 10-12k/ 11:06 E 10-12k/ 11:53 E 10-12k/ 13:11 E 8k/ 14:24 SE 8k. Wind speed measured 8ft above sea level using a handheld anemometer. Sunny 37 degrees (AM). Sunny 65 degrees (PM).
Sails Used:
M3 (AM-MN7): 4 hours 43 minutes
J2 (J1-6): 1 hour 50 minutes
J4 (J2-5): 37 minutes
J5 (J3-6): 1 hour 30 minutes
Dock-Out: 1000 Dock-In: 1520