America's Cup Rialto: August 3 - American Magic puts in solid day on the water
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/NZ 2 Aug 21:24 PDT
3 August 2020
American Magic - Waitemata Harbour - Auckland - America's Cup 36 - August 3, 2020 © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
America's Cup Rialto is a new series for the 36th America's Cup, and will publish each day an Americas's Cup boat sails - with images of the day. Usually there will be a morning report (NZT) based on when the boats have passed North Head - when there is usually the best photo opportunity.
Auckland turned on a bleak day with a cold SE wind and drizzling rain, giving way to blue skies and sunshine in the early afternoon.
American Magic looked to have settled into a routine - in the water by 0900hrs, Dock out at 1030hrs and back four or five hours later.
The wind direction is a bit unusual for Auckland, and is one more associated with a good gale which does a lot of damage. Defiant sailed straight down the harbour, past Bean Rock and headed straight for Motuihe Island at the eastern end of the Waitemata Harbour/Hauraki Gulf.
She tacked and headed behind Browns Island into the area favoured by Emirates Team New Zealand in the build up for the last America's Cup, known as "The Paddock".
It is not too long a drive to get to Eastern Beach to watch a training session in this area, but the misty conditions worked against this option.
Auckland's weather being what it is the morning murk gave way to blue skies and sunshine with a breeze that looked to be in the 12-14kts range.
We caught Defiant toward the end of the training session when she stopped between North Head and Mission Bay, made some changes and then did a final beat to Browns Island.
There wasn't the same degree of effort to get foiling that we saw last Thursday, but there was still a pushing of water to get to foiling speed, if that was what they were trying to do. Today Defiant popped quickly onto her foils and stayed in level trim. Lift-off took maybe a couple of seconds at the most - similar to ETNZ's Te Aihe.
NZL-60 arrives for new role
NZL-60, the 2000 America's Cup champion made a surprise appearance outside the Emirates Team New Zealand base early this morning.
She has been completely refurbished and will be on public display, in her current location. She joins Team New Zealand's other two America's Cup winners - ETNZ's AC50 and 2017 Americas Cup winner is secured to the wall of ETNZ's base. NZL-32, the 1995 America's Cup Champion is on permanent display a couple of hundred metres away in the National Maritime Museum.
Luna Rossa makes progress on base construction
Progress is being made at last on the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli base with what looks like a false floor being setup on the Hobson Wharf extension. Luna Rossa will have a container side, flexi roof marquee style base similar to that of American Magic, which has two marquees side by side on Wynyard Point.
Light winds in the 5-8kts range are forecast for tomorrow, and similarly for Wednesday, before the breeze kicks in on Thursday.
A point of interest will be whether either team trains in the light air, and also if ETNZ sticks with using their test boat Te Kahu, or we are treated to the sight of two AC75's sailing on the same stretch of water.
Update Due to light/non-existent wind, accompanied by a fantastic day, it appears that none of the teams will sail today in Auckland. Tomorrow (Wednesday) would appear to be similarly afflicted.