Cup Spy Feb 8 : Kiwi's start their AC Top Gun racing and testing 'fighter' school
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-world.com/nz 8 Feb 2023 16:01 PST
9 February 2023
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC40 - February 8, 2023 - 'The Paddock' - Eastern Beach, Auckland NZ © Adam Mustill / America's Cup
What happened in the Cup - Feb 8, 2023:
- Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their two AC40's on Wednesday, and are combining match racing, with speed testing and bringing new sailing team members up to speed. They will officially launch their two AC-40's at a ceremony on Thursday.
- INEOS Britannia capsized their test boat T6, capsized, twice, inverted and caught fire in a serious incident (See separate report)
- Luna Rossa last sailed on Sunday February, 5
- American Magic have decommissioned their AC75 and will not start training again until the beginning of March
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing last sailed out of Barcelona on February 1
- Orient Express Team (formerly French K-Challenge) - no update.
Emirates Team NZ - LEQ12 - Auckland - February 8, 2022 - Day 15
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their two AC40's on Wednesday, and are combining match racing, with speed testing and lifting sailing team skills, as their equivalent of Top Gun comes to the America's Cup, using the fast and very nimble paired AC-40's
The AC37 Joint Recon Team [Alastair Moore AC-Recon] reported on the day's session where the team's LEQ12 development boat appeared to be significantly faster than the AC-40 One Design:
Making the most of perfect sailing conditions, ETNZ rolled the AC40 and LEQ12 out, starting at about 10.45. Both race yachts were in the pen and loaded with sails by 11.30.
Ray Davies once again ran a full team briefing from the pen, Moore reported.
At 13.00, both yachts were towed out of the basin to hoist sails. The AC40 was the first boat to make it out past Bean Rock on her way to the Back Paddock. The LEQ12 got stuck in light airs with the #2 on and struggled to get going.
Once past Bean Rock, the breeze settled in above 10 knots, and she was off only to stop again to check/adjust the clew position on the Jib. Less than 10 minutes later, at 13.16, the #2 was changed out for #3.
A windward-leeward course of two nautical miles with gates top and bottom was set just North East of yesterday's. There were three practice starts, with the last leading into a two-lap race.
The AC40 looked to win every start but may have been early as we had no countdown but went off GPS time. The LEQ12 looked at times to be a handful to control, with several splash downs observed as well as one skid to leeward, (trying to power up too fast in a boat-on-boat situation?)
As with yesterday, once up and rumbling, the boys in the LEQ12 gradually hauled the AC40 in and passed them on the second beat.
After the race, there was a short stop with chase boats alongside. We now had a second pre-start leading into another 2-lap race.
Once again, the AC40 had a small lead off the start line, but by the bottom of the first run, the LEQ12 had caught them up.
After this race, there was another stop for about 15 minutes then there was a good uneven beat home in flat water.
The LEQ12 is visibly more twitchy than the AC40 and looks harder to keep in the groove, Moore opined.
The yachts stopped and dropped sails off North Head and were towed home to dock in at 17.55
Outteridge on his learning curve
“Today was pretty similar to what we had yesterday,” co-helmsman on the LEQ12, Nathan Outteridge said to the AC37 Recon Team dockside, after the sailing session.
“Sometimes it's pretty tricky getting out of the harbour. But once we get down to the Back Paddock (2021 AC Course E), we’re in a good training area down there. And you can see why the team’s named it the Back Paddock. There’s plenty of traffic-free room to do some line-ups, practice starts and some racing. It was an awesome day.”
“It’s good to now be thinking about racing. Obviously, to be in race practice this far out from the Match is a bit strange, because the America’s Cup is often a design race."
The switch to paired AC40 racing marks a big shift away from their approach in previous Cups, where they have pitched an AC50, AC72 and AC75 against a chase boat.
A review after the 2021 America's Cup win revealed a need to lift racing skills, in the foiling monohulls, requiring the AC equivalent of Top Gun, the best fighter pilot training course in the world, eulogised by 1986 block-buster of the same name, and its 2022 reprise.
Other teams, all of whom will have two AC-40's or similar, are expected to start their own Top Gun academies.
"We have this fantastic opportunity to have two AC 40s, and enough people in the sailing team that we can get out there and do little stints of racing, as well as speed testing to remind us what the priorities are when it comes to racing .
“It’s good to get all the data and software up and running. And for me learning how the team software works. It’s a bit different than what I'm used to. And it's been really cool to get into.”
Forgetting that the 2021 America’s Cup was 3-3 after six races, some commentators are expecting the racing in the 2024 America’s Cup to be closer than was seen in the 2021 edition. But in almost all instances the 2021 Cup racing was determined at the start, or what happened immediately afterward, if the trailing boat was able to split tacks and get into clear air, while retaining some tactical advantage.
“The pre start all comes down to how big that starting box is and how windy it is, “ Outteridge says. “Today we've had quite breezy conditions. And with breezy conditions, the start box feels small [because the AC-40/AC75 cover the ground more quickly, and run out of space].
“We weren't too far off doing circles in the pre start because it gets a bit crammed in there. And I think ultimately, the boats will be more evenly matched [in design]. “And it'll come down to the starts. And as we saw in the final of the last America's Cup. Whoever won the start generally won the race. It was pretty hard to pass another boat.
“So our focus is on the racing hence the focus on the starting and why we are starting race practice so far out from the AC. That’s why we're here got two boats in this campaign. We’re really trying to raise everyone's skills and get sharper. Our campaign flips between racing mode and development mode.
“It's fun as a sailor and a racer to be in racing mode at the moment.”
Sail and rig development
Much of the development with the paired AC-40’s looks likely to involve sail and rig development, and getting accuracy in the cross-over between jibs. In the AC-40’s and AC75 for that matter. As consequence of being caught with an oversize headsail, is that the mainsail gets inverted, which increases drag and affects potential boatspeed. If the wind drops and the jib is too small for the conditions, it seems that the trimmers can compensate by grunting up the comparatively more powerful double skinned mainsail.
“That's the beauty of development sails isn't it?” Outteridge explains. “By using multiple iterations of sails, you try and work out you want to sails
“It’s no secret, that you want to be flatter when it's windier, and deeper when it's lighter. And a lot of our sailing so far has been, you know, middle to upper end.
“We're really looking to try and get the two boats on the water in the light of race, to see you know, how our sound design programmes are going.
“Also there's benefits of having an auto pilot keeping the boat really nice and locked in versus manual flight control and having two boats that are identical except for how you actually sail them.
“It's fascinating for us. We’ve learned lots from that process. And now it's pretty insightful to go back and review the data, and try and work out how you can improve.”
It remains to be seen if ETNZ can replicate the same level of AC75 rig turbulence, in the AC-40's, and how this affects the offensive and defensive match racing playbook in the bigger raceboats.
The Outteridge Rule
Outteridge sat out the last America’s Cup on the commentary bench, caught by a tight residency rule, and without the option of being part of a dream team on an Australian entry in the 2021 America’s Cup. However a subtle nationality rule change allowed Outteridge to sail for New Zealand in 2024. He also has a home in Auckland and is married to a NZer.
By dint of those circumstances, Outteridge is now listed as a co-helmsman alongside his long-time 49er training partner and rival, Peter Burling. On Day 2 of the 2017 Challenger Final, Outteridge as helmsman of the Swedish based Artemis Racing team, came with an ace of edging New Zealand out of the Cup.
As a result of that fortuitous combination of circumstances, Outteridge says that Team New Zealand is a new team for him.
“I really started out like it's [ETNZ] a new team for me but comparing it to teams I have been within the past that the team is so organised. It's such a good structure here.
“Everyone in the team has a good idea on what we're trying to achieve, and a good understanding of what their competition are up to. So it's going to come down to how good the tools are. How well the on water testing programme has gone to make the right decisions, in the next couple of months, when you have to push play on, committing to building all this stuff.
“From my perspective, the team has done a fantastic job since the last Cup finished and getting ready preparing for the next defence.”
However outside of their collective America's Cup experience, the Kiwi team lacks a recognised top international match racing helmsman, and that fact - as much as anything reveals the reasoning for their early start.
Session Statistics - Emirates Team NZ - LEQ12 - Auckland - February 7, 2022 - Day 15
- Weather: 40% cloud 24°C
- Wind Strength 14-18kts
- Wind Direction: SW with 20° swings
- Sea State: Flat with some windchop, slack tide.
- Roll out: 1117hrs Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1555hrs Crane out: 1635hrs
- Total Tacks: 37 - Fully foiling: 32; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 29 - Fully foiling: 27; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
Crew: (LEQ12) Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling (AC40) Liv Mackay, Leonard Takahashi, Josh Junior (Co-helms)
(LEQ12 Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke) (AC40 Sam Meech, Marcus Hansen) (Flight control/trimmers)