Cup Spy: Four teams expected to sail this week - American Magic and Luna Rossa join in.
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 11 Oct 2022 01:17 PDT
8 October 2022
American Magic step their rig on Patriot (AC75 Class) - Pensacola - October 2022 © Paul Todd / America's Cup
Four America's Cup teams are expected to be sailing this week, with American Magic and Luna Rossa preparing to launch and start sailing.
The teams will sail from four different venues using three different types of boat.
Emirates Team New Zealand and Alinghi Red Bull Racing have been sailing for several weeks.
Following today's revelations three different test configurations will be used by the teams, with Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand opting for a different approach to the Challengers, and opting to stay with their AC40 - as a test boat/LEQ12, instead of building a specialist 38fter test boat. (Required to be between 6-12 metres in overall length.)
Alinghi Red Bull Racing
The Swiss have been sailing the AC75 Version 1, purchased from Emirates Team New Zealand. They will be the next to receive an AC40, and because of their earlier entry they are third on the AC40 receive list.
On Monday they sailed - but only to check out the fit of a mainsail. M2 is a new sail designed by Alinghi RBR, or one that they have acquired from another team.
Emirates Team New Zealand
The Kiwis sailed Tuesday in their AC40. It is not yet known if they tried any new components, however we will have more on that latter. Today was a good sailing day with a nice seabreeze, bright sunshine and the Kiwi summer is arriving, albeit with some days better than others.
There were no speed records today with Andy Maloney reporting speeds of around 30kts upwind and in the mid to high 30's downwind. The team posted an interesting video on the operation of the AC40 - with Nathan Outteridge explaining the various controls, functions and buttons.
Emirates Team New Zealand are expected to stay with the AC40, taking one or both out of class to be used as a test platform, and will be the only team to take that approach.
Session Statistics - Hauraki Gulf - October 10, 2022 - Emirates Team NZ - AC40 One Design
- Wind Strength (AM) 5-8kts (PM): 9-15kts
- Wind Direction: N (AM) – S (PM)
- Sea State: Moderate
- Crane in: 0730 Dock Out: 1000
- Dock In: 1345 Crane out: 1515
- Total Tacks: 35 - 31 Fully foiling. Total Gybes 26 - 21 Fully foiling
American Magic
The New York Yacht Club team are preparing to take up where they left off with their AC75 Version 1 being taken out of the shed in Pensacola, with the mast being stepped for a rigging check, before being lowered. They are expected to be sailing in a day or so.
It is not clear what configuration in which they will be sailing - with the wing foils which they last used in the Prada Cup in Auckland, or if they are running different wing foils on either side - indicating that they are doing comparative testing against two wing designs.
It is expected that they will be working over the systems which were hastily reassembled after they capsize in Auckland, and which never quite clicked when they raced Luna Rossa in the Semi-Final losing 4-0.
American Magic are the only team from the 2021 America's Cup who are sailing their Version 1 AC75. It will be remembered that despite their disappointing results in the Prada Cup Semi-Final that Patriot was the only AC75 to beat Emirates Team NZ in the America's Cup World Series.
They also achieved the fastest speed in the 2021 America's Cup Regattas, during a moment of marginal control, when Patriot hit 53.31kts. American Magic's helmsman for that series, Dean Barker, is now working as a coach for Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and his place behind the when has been taken by British Olympic Gold Medalist, Paul Goodison. Tom Slingsby, the 2012 Olympic Gold medalist in the Laser class, and twice SailGP Season Final winner will join Goodison in the afterguard.
Luna Rossa
The five-time America's Cup Challengers announced today they they will launch their "prototype" in Cagliari, Sardinia on Thursday, October 13 at 1330hrs.
One assumes they are running an LEQ12, and that will be viewed with much interest, as it should show any new direction taken by their design team, following the departure of Chief Designer Martin Fischer to join INEOS Britannia. The launch event will be carried live on Facebook and Youtube.
Luna Rossa team was born in 1997 when Argentine yacht designer German Frers proposed to entrepreneur Patrizio Bertelli to challenge for the 30th America's Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2000. Since then, the team has taken part in five editions of the America's Cup, winning the Challenger selection regattas twice - the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000 and the PRADA Cup in 2021 - and competing in the final in 2007 and 2013.
In the 36th America's Cup presented by PRADA final match against the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli achieved the best score ever by an Italian challenger in the history of the America's Cup. Luna Rossa will represent the yacht club Circolo della Vela Sicilia once again in its challenge for the 37th edition of America's Cup to be held in Barcelona, Spain in September and October 2024.
INEOS Britannia
The British team announced a week or so ago that they too were going to launch an LEQ12, from their new base in Mallorca, however there has been no update provided.
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