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SailGP: First look aboard F50 sailing at speed on Bream Bay

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 28 Oct 2018 00:28 PDT 28 October 2018
F-50 First test Sail - The money shot - absolutely flying in what appears to be a 15kt breeze © Beau Outteridge

Foiling 50 remix - very short but spectacular video from SailGP of the first F50 sailing on Bream Bay, Northland.

Unfortunately half of the 26sec video is taken up with a Sail GP logo.

To make the most of the 13seconds of sailing watch it in regular speed then make sure you are in HD and then in Settings slow the speed down to .25 and draw the sailing portion/morsel out to a whole 26seconds in slow motion.

Make sure you have the video paused when setting it up and be ready on the space key/pause button on the slow-mo replay and check the shot list below the images

Or you can look through the images below taken from the video which reveal most of the detail (that we can spot) - and gives you an idea of what to look for in the video.

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Shot List when viewed in slow motion:

1. 0:00 - aerial shot showing three crew cockpits, daggerboard cases, and general layout of the F50.
2. 0:00 - wingsail and jib - the F50 (in in test mode at least) is being sailed with the smallest of the three AC50 jibs
3. 0:00 - flying a hull - a look from 45 degree angle at the daggerboards. The aft camera stalk is in the same place as the AC50, crew are semi-hiking, oblivious windage the same as several crews (except ETNZ) were in the 2017 America's Cup.
4. 0:01 - onboard as helmsman crosses showing ceramic drum wingsail sheet winch and single grinding position in the forward cockpit. Forward the daggerboard mechanism can be seen.
5. 0:01 - as in 2 above - wingsail and jib - the F50 (in in test mode at least) is being sailed with the smallest of the three AC50 jibs.
6. 0:01 - on board looking forward from helm - steering wheel appears to have a twist control grip, and buttons in hub; wingsail trimmer with ceramic winch; forward is flight controller with right hand on what looks to be a joystick control; forward again in forward cockpit are two crew on the pumps grinding the wingsail sheet; in the clear panel in the wingsail shows the instrumentation; there is no wingsail controls - the large rotator arm that was a feature of several of the AC50's is gone indicating that a complete hydraulic system is in place.
7. 0:02 - clear shot of the F-50 daggerboard mechanism moving.
8. 0:02 - forward looking same as 6 above, close up of crew head gear and communication system, which looks to be an all in one system and a step up from the AC50's (not that we ever really got this shot in AC35)
9. 0:03 - looking across trampoline at wingsail - again no evidence of wingsail controls (the "U" shaped control in the wingsail is a mystery). The wingsail control lines under the wingsail itself are also quite minimal. The whole very clean layout points to a lot of re-design work being done to reduce parasitic drag and increase the sailing speed. Notable is the reduced crossbeam foiling from the AC50 - more parasitic drag reduction.
10. 0:04 - Starboard rudder foil - maybe notable for the slim foil - aileron is obscured.
11. 0:04 - Port tack looking at wingsail - some indications of wingsail controls in forward panel
12. 0:05 - Look up wingsail - nothing significantly different from AC50 except that it looks a lot cleaner - more parasitic drag reduction
13. 0:06 - Sailing on Bream Bay - looks very clean with minimal spray off rudder foil
14. 0:08 - Sailing - crew all tiered down aft - drag!
15. 0:09 - Sailing - on board very clean layout is the keypoint.
16. 0:10 - Sailing - a glimpse of the instrumentation - it is showing the current wingsail settings so the whole crew can see.
17. 0:12 - Sailing - the money shot - absolutely flying in what appears to be a 15kt breeze

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