Sail-World.com : America's Cup: Confessions of a Wingman
America's Cup: Confessions of a Wingman
|
Glenn Ashby describes his job as wing trimmer on Emirates Team NZ's AC72 as a bit like driving a truck.
The multiple A-Cat world champion, Olympic Silver medalist, and former Tornado cat world champion, is talking a really big truck with a 32-speed gearbox as it traveling up and down a series of hills and turns.
The driver, he says, must always think ahead, two or three moves ahead. And that’s what he does on board the AC72.
Glenn’s changing gears (adjusting the wing trim) almost constantly. Either driving a truck and trimming the wingsheet, or with the hydraulics, so there’s never a time when he’s not thinking, looking for the breeze ahead and changes in wind patterns – thinking about the next gear change to achieve best performance.
The wing is set up differently for different modes – upwind a low fast mode or high, slower mode for instance. Racing downwind, the wing set up has a huge influence on the boat’s performance and must be used accurately with the front sails, making for dozens of small adjustments throughout the leg.
'Anticipating the next gear change and executing it well, is where big gains can be made over your opponent,' says the former Australian sailmaker.
'Dean Barker, James Dagg, Ray Davies and I work closely on boat speed – effectively managing the speed and angle of the boat. It’s a team effort for best round-the-track speed and we all need to be on the same page.'
'It’s like sailing a double-handed dinghy in a way – the forward hand controls the mainsheet and the helm steers and they work together to extract maximum speed. It’s a bit like that on the AC72, but with a lot more buttons and strings to play with.
'To be effective we have to have good communication so we each know instinctively what the other is thinking. That’s one of the reasons time on the water is extremely valuable.'
Glenn recalls the first time they got up on the foils downwind. 'I’ll never forget looking through the tramp at the daggerboard going through the water – and knowing it was supporting the entire boat and the crew at close to 40 knots.
'It had been something that we had been working on for a very long time and to see it at AC72 scale was pretty awesome and a great feeling.'
'Part of me was saying ‘that’s not right’ and the other part was saying ‘this is exactly how it’s supposed to be. By getting rid of a lot of the drag the hulls are effectively just going along for the ride and something to sit on!.'
He admits to having more than a passing thought then about 'knowing if the foil goes bang or we have a hydraulic failure it would be very easy to capsize the boat.'
He says the team is pushing boundaries of foil and hull technologies to places where they have 'never been pushed before. It took a massive effort by a lot of people to get the boat up and foiling stably – a massive full team effort.'
'Now as a sailing team, we must continue to learn how to sail the boat to its full potential and keep pushing ourselves and the boundaries to the limits. A lot of the time we’re pushing into the unknown, but that’s what makes what we are doing so special. Hopefully the path we have chosen is the correct one.'
 | The Members’ Stand aboard NZL5 Emirates Team New Zealand, with Glenn Ashby (left) in white sunglasses, skipper Dean barker on the wheel, and tactician, Ray Davies (right) and Luc du Bois (Performance Analyst) plus a couple of grinders to provide the grunt. - Chris Cameron-ETNZ© Click Here to view large photo |
by www.ENTZBlog.com
Click on the FB Like link to post this story to your FB wall
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=107542
2:35 AM Sat 16 Mar 2013GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
Click for further information on
2013 America's Cup
2011 Emirates Team New Zealand news
Related News Stories:
MORE STORIES ...
|
|
|
Our Advertisers are committed to our sport, please support them!
This site and its contents are © Copyright TetraMedia Pty. Ltd and/or the original author, photographer etc. All Rights Reserved.
Photographs are copyright by law. If you wish to use or buy a photograph you must contact the photographer directly (there is a hyperlink in most cases to their website, or do a Google search.) with your request.
Please do not contact
Sail-World.com
as we cannot give permission for use of other photographer’s images.
Only if the photographer named on the image is Sail-world.com, Powerboat-world.com, Marinebusiness-world.com or NZBoating-World.com.
Contact us
.
Ph: +61 2 8006 1873
or complete our
feedback form
Contact us
.
View our Privacy Policy.
[ Go Home]
[ Banner Advertising Specification]
[Bot Archive ]
Customised news feeds -Marine Industry companies, Clubs and Associations have their own customised version of our news feed on their website.
Look_here_to_see_examples
|
CLD
| | |
