Fisher's View- The best seat in the house!

by Bob Fisher on 13 Mar 2010 Imagine sitting behind Jenson Button in his McLaren as he laps the Bahrain circuit during this weekend’s Formula 1 Grand Prix; it’s the same as being behind Ben Ainslie as 18th man on TeamOrigin in a match with Bertrand Pace and the Aleph team. Maybe the corners don’t come up at more than 300 kph, but it sure as hell feels like it.

Sailing the Emirates Team New Zealand boats is an adrenaline running experience and to do it with a team that is determined to shake off a disappointment has an added appeal. In their its previous match, with the Kiwis, the British team went through a disastrous moment of misery when a last minute wind shift at the end of the run led to an overload on the crew and an enforced retirement. That experience had to be put behind the Brits and a positive score recorded.

The 18th man, who is not allowed to take any part in sailing the boat, takes up a position at the back of the boat, just forward of the communications gantry (which holds an array of antennae) and holds on tight. The motion of a Version 5 ACC boat is not unalike to that of a bucking bronco, and when manoeuvring the boat feels as though the hull is swinging from under one.

If this is not unsettling, the noise most certainly is. It comes with the full sound effects. These boats are highly stressed carbon fibre drums that amplify the strains imposed by the sheets and running backstays. At times it sounds as though the entire hull structure is about to collapse. There is little noise as sheets or runners are ground in, except the heavy breathing of the winch grinders, but when they are eased and the loaded sheets are straining to go round the stationary winch drums, the din is appalling.

A few manoeuvres are performed before the starting procedure is begun. The navigator wants to identify the two ends of the starting line and 'ping' their position into his computer so that he can supply the critical information to the skipper and tactician as the boats jockey for the start. He has also accurately pinpointed the three buoys that are the turning marks – the windward mark and the two leeward gate buoys.

Prior to the pre-start – the five minutes of intense activity when the boats are manoeuvred into position to attempt to gain the merest advantage as the race begins – there is continuous interchange among the afterguard. Changes in wind and tidal currents are discussed and patterns noted and a strategy formed. This can, of course, change within the critical five minutes.

TeamOrigin was some way upwind of the starting line with less than a minute to go to the five-minute gun, but with input from navigator, Ian Moore, tactician Iain Percy and strategist Andrew Simpson, skipper Ainslie was just a second short of the exact spot to enter the starting area when the gun fired. He drove the boat deep to leeward on port tack, but it was soon apparent that he could not pass clear ahead of Aleph, which had entered from the committee boat end of the line on starboard tack with right of way.

Ainslie made the early decision to round up head to wind as Aleph went high to claim her rights. The two boats hung in the breeze and a gap developed between them. Ainslie tacked to port and bore away hard to clear the stern of Aleph, but before he could do so, Aleph, also on port tack swung her stern across the British boat’s line and a minor collision occurred. 'Y' flags, asking for a jury decision, came from both boats and after a short time a yellow flag was raised by the umpires denoting that Aleph had been penalised.

It was back to business for Ainslie and the crew – they were after the windward end of the start line, closer to the committee boat than Aleph, and made it. There were 15 tacks for each boat on the opening leg; each time Aleph, on port, closed with TeamOrigin, Ainslie would be called by Percy to tack dead ahead of his rival thereby pouring disturbed wind on his sails and gain vital metres. It was pretty to watch, but not if you were French.

At the windward mark TeamOrigin was 100 metres in front and with time on his side, Percy could call for a gybe set – a difficult manoeuvre – to take the fullest advantage of the wind direction. But care had to be exercised as the boat lurched around the mark, tossing myself and the 'observer' hard against the side of the boat. Aleph, however, did close on the run, brining up some breeze from astern and it was all on again on the second beat to windward.
This time, Percy was able to use the shifting wind to TeamOrigin’s advantage rather than simply sitting hard on his opponent. He admitted afterwards how difficult it had been to ignore the wind and concentrate on Aleph’s position – 'you want to tack when the wind heads,' he said, 'not when it lifts.' This time he was able to follow the dictates of his head.

Once more, on the downwind leg, Aleph brought up the breeze to close the gap slightly and Ainslie’s only worry was that if Pace could get an overlap he might use it to offload the penalty he was carrying. Team Origin made one short gybe to cross the line and the gun fired while Aleph still had to perform her penalty turn. What had been a close race dissolved into a margin of 2:11.

This was not so much a seat in the stalls, but one in the Louis Vuitton orchestra pit without the necessity to play even the triangle.