Cup Spy Nov 18: INEOS gets foiling.. American Magic has another impressive session
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 18 Nov 2022 18:25 PST
18 November 2022
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - November 18, 2022 - Majorca © Ugo Fonolla / America's cup
What happened in the Cup - November 17/18, 2022:
- American Magic was back on the water in Pensacola with the breeze in the 7-10kts range, and had another good session in flat water.
- INEOS Britannia tow tested their LEQ12 off Majorca three weeks after launch. The first sail is expected in a week.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing is back in the shed for an upgrade - not expected to emerge until the end of November.
- Emirates Team New Zealand did not sail - probably because of strong winds and rain in Auckland.
- Luna Rossa dropped the mast off their LEQ12, while rigged and before launching on Sunday - just over a week ago and is expected to be out for a "few weeks".
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Majorca - November 18, 2022
Three weeks after being launched INEOS Britannia commenced tow testing on their LEQ12 test boat.
The test tows were conducted without the mast fitted.
Observers reported that outside the port the wind was light – no more than eight knots from the north west – but there was also a significant swell of about a metre and a half outside the port which was left over from several days of strong winds in the Bay of Palma recently.
Onboard were helmsmen Giles Scott and Ben Cornish, flight controllers/trimmers Luke Parkinson and Bleddyn Mon – as well as T6 boat captain Chris Schirmer.
Double Olympic Gold medalist in the Finn class, Gilles Scott spoke after the session.
"It's good to get the boat out the shed get it out onto the water, to do some foiling," Scott said after the four hour session. "It's a real positive day for the team. There's been a lot of hard work going into, into getting T6 up and running. Today is a good step in the direction we want to push it along."
"It was really a shakedown testing day for us - just a systems check of a lot of different areas - chase boat comms, data links, and some of the systems on the yacht as well."
Observers said there were four runs with the LEQ 12 foiling. Foiling speeds and take-offs were in the 16-18kt range. There was some downtime with technicians going below decks.
"Certainly no complaints from any of the sailors on board once we were once we were up and in control of the yacht," Scott said after the session. "No real surprises there, from from our side."
"There's an awful lot of debugging going on," he added. "We had some of the hydro guys, electronic guys and a lot of the guys that are that are all dialled into the yacht ashore and also back at Brackley looking looking into various parts of the yacht."
Scott would not be drawn on how long the two testing phase would last - with team CEO, Sir Ben Ainslie making it clear that a lot of calibration work would be done under tow, before the team started sailing.
"Tow testing is is a focal part of the early early section of the testing with T6," Scott explained. "It's really about what the designers want out of the boat, which is some, nice steady data - and with the towing that we'll be doing with this yacht, we'll hopefully be able to provide that for them. It's the first big ticket ticket item that we're after," he added.
The session ended after an hour of downtime, during which several support crew disappeared down the front hatch, and the session ended with a long tow home, with the LEQ12 arriving back at the base at 1545hrs.
Session Statistics - Majorca - November 18, 2022 - INEOS Britannia - LEQ12
- Wind Strength 8ktskts(AM) <5kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NNW(AM) NNW (PM)
- Sea State: 1.5metre swell (AM) 0.5metre swell (PM)
- Roll out: 1010hrs Dock Out: 1134hrs
- Dock In: 1545hrs Crane out: 1600hrs
- Total Tacks: 0 - Fully foiling: 0; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 0 - Fully foiling: 0; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Gilles Scott (helm), Ben Cornish (helm), Luke Parkinson, Bleddyn Mon, Chris Schirmer (T6 Boat Captain)
American Magic - AC75 Version 2 - Pensacola - November 17, 2022
American Magic put in a sailing session of over four hours on Pensacola Bay, Florida - clocking up 70nm, without incident.
Patriot, American Magic's upgraded AC75 sailed in a light air configuration, with Tokyo2020 Olympic representative in the Nacra 17, Riley Gibbs on the helm.
The start of the session was delayed waiting for the northerly wind to overcome the morning seabreeze, and only two of the ten foiling sessions were initiated with a chase boat tow to get Patriot onto its foils. The other eight were self-launched.
They covered about 70nm in the session sailing in light winds of 7-10kts and near flat water - ideal data collection conditions. Patriot was foiling for periods ranging from 5 minutes to 20 minutes and wrapping up with a massive 24 minute foiling session at the end of the practice session.
Boat speeds achieved were in the range of up to 30kts upwind and 40kts downwind - which is a multiple of 3x or 4x windspeed, which is very good for the conditions, however with the length of the foiling episodes, apparent wind would be able to really develop - maybe giving the higher than expected speeds. The speeds are not relayed from the AC75, but are gauged from the AC37 Recon Boat pacing the AC75.
The crew hoisted two J1 jibs, the largest allowed, doing 90 minutes on the first and over two hours on the second.
Their dry tack/gybe percentage was very high for the wind strength, staying fully foiling for 18 of 22 tacks gybes, and only landing twice, the rest were "touch and go"
Session Statistics - Pensacola, Fl - November 18, 2022 - American Magic - AC75 Version 2
- Wind Strength 7-10kts (AM) 10kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: N(AM) N (PM)
- Sea State: <1ft (AM) <1ft (PM)
- Roll out: 0951hrs Dock Out: 1100hrs
- Dock In: 1630hrs Crane out: 1700hrs
- Total Tacks: 12 - Fully foiling: 11; Touch & Go:0; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 10 - Fully foiling: 7; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 1
Crew: Riley Gibbs, Paul Goodison, Lucas Calibrese, Andrew Campbell. Power Team: John Croom, Coulton Hall
Additional Images:
This commentary was written and compiled from video, still images and statistical content extracted from the AC37 Joint Recon program and other material available to Sail-World NZ including photo files, and other on the water coverage from the 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021 America's Cups.