America's Cup - Yachting World in the big breeze with Land Rover BAR

by Matthew Sheahan on 17 Jul 2015 Yachting World Editor, Matthew Sheahan writes of his day out with British America's Cup Challenger, Land Rover BAR sailing their test AC45 in 20-25kts of wind in the Solent

Fast, unforgiving and potentially dangerous, I knew the risks when it came to the new generation of foiling Cup boats but even so, just preparing to go afloat with Ben Ainslie Racing (BAR) was a wake up call as to how far the game has moved on.

Fortunately in recent years I’ve become used to wearing a wetsuit when I go sailing, but getting dressed in a buoyancy aid that includes body armour, strapping a large diver’s knife to my arm and checking the fit of a helmet that has a flip down, Top Gun style sun visor before being asked whether I had ever used an oxygen breather, provided some clues that I had stepped a long way outside of the normal world of performance sailing.

For me, today was about joining the team for a day’s routine training as they took another step towards the ultimate goal, the America’s Cup. It was also about getting ready for the Portsmouth AC World Series event on 24-26 July while the weather was going to ensure that everyone was pushed to their limits.

Aside from the dress code there were several points in Ben Williams’ (the team’s safety officer), briefing that brought things into a sharper focus.

“If there’s an incident there are two likely scenarios. You’ll either fall off the back of the boat into clear air, or you’ll go forwards and could be trapped underneath the trampoline if the boat capsizes,” he said.

:

“In the first case, even with the body armour, you’ll be winded after hitting the water – we’ve practiced and it can hurt. But apart from this, if you’re OK I want you to raise your arm and clench your fist. I’ll be looking for six helmets in the water and when I see this you’ll be low priority while I search for the others. Stay calm and eventually someone will come for you.”

I knew I could do that, but didn’t want to dwell on the idea of what hitting the water at speed could do beyond winding me.

“If you’re trapped under the tramp, try pushing it up to get your head above the water to get some air. I’ll be diving underneath to get you, but you may have to hang on for a bit. When I reach you I may push this oxygen breather into your mouth – just breathe normally. To get out I might have to cut your buoyancy aid off you. Don’t try to swim, just let me drag you out.”

If there was any upside to Williams’ chilling yet comprehensive briefing it was that he rattled through it leaving little time for reflections, but just enough for me to confirm I had understood. But there was something else on my mind.

Aside from the serious nature of these new foiling cats, the 25+ knots of breeze outside had showed no signs of dropping with a forecast for conditions to remain much the same for the day. My guess was that this was the top end for these machines, yet I had not yet been stood down and despite some friendly early morning chatter with various team members I hadn’t dared to ask what the most breeze they had sailed in was for fear of their answers confirming my suspicions.

The T1 training boat that they were using for these trials was the modified AC45 that the team has been sailing since last year and a boat they know well. Although she’s mostly the same as the original AC45s that were used for the last ACWS she’s fitted with new l section foils and some fancy powered control systems that allow the dagger boards to be canted inboard and out as well as raked fore and aft in order to mimic the boats that will be used in 2017 come the Cup. As a result, the first generation test boat is a few hundred kilos heavier and therefore slower than the AC45F boats that will be racing in the AC World Series events between now and the Cup.

Outside the harbour as we passed Spitsand fort just off Southsea, I was dressed and ready aboard one of the two 10m Scorpion chase RIBs as Ben and his five man crew settled down on a fetch across the Solent. Travelling at 18 knots on a fetch the boat was up on its foils as the crew settled into position. It was already wet as the waves broke over the side of the RIB and it was easily as windy as forecast. But while the cat was clearly travelling quickly, she looked more balanced than I had expected, riding effortlessly above the churned up surface of the white capped Solent chop.

:

Perhaps it wasn’t such a punchy call by the team to continue with plans to take me aboard during the day’s training. Perhaps, as is so often the case, I had over thought the issue while under estimating the crew’s skill, confidence and familiarity with their new sophisticated machine. With the likes of Ainslie, Paul Campbell-James, Nick Hutton, David ‘Freddie’ Carr and Andy McClean in the crew you couldn’t be in better hands.

And then all hell broke loose.


Read the rest of this excellent blog click here