Cup Spy Mar 28: Swiss achieve a benchmark, Kiwis hit the mid-forties in AC75
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 29 Mar 17:26 PDT
28 March 2023
AC40 OD - Alinghi Red Bull Racing - March 28, 2023 - Barcelona - Day 12 © Alex Carabi / America's Cup
Three teams sailed on Tuesday March 28 - with Emirates Team NZ working up their AC75 in Auckland, and hitting 45kts plus. Alinghi Red Bull Racing got their dry tack/gybe percentage up to a benchmark 80%, which is comparable with the top teams.
What happened in the Cup - March 28, 2023:
- American Magic did not sail their AC-40 One Design off Pensacola, but did sail yesterday.
- Luna Rossa did not sail their LEQ12 from Cagliari, and last sailed on March 25.
- Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their AC75, hitting 45kts plus as they continue their work-up, having had Sunday and Monday off.
- INEOS Britannia sailed their LEQ12, for the fourth time since it was relaunched on March 21.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailed their AC-40 out of Barcelona, hitting a good percentage .
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC40 - Barcelona - March 28, 2023 - Day 4
From the AC37 Joint Recon team:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC40 at 10:35am, a later start than usual due to the best wind forecast for later in the afternoon.
The shore crew prepared the yacht for sailing ahead of 14:00pm Dock Out. The One Design M1 Mainsail and J2 Jib were hoisted in the port, before the yacht was towed and released at the port entrance.
The wind started from the South and slowly ticked to SSW as the strength gradually increased. A residual 1m+ swell almost perpendicular to the wind direction peaked in the morning and slowly died throughout the day.
Sailing commenced at 14:25pm on a 1nm upwind/downwind course. A big focus was put on starts and maneuvers, including JK mark roundings and double tacks/gybes before mark roundings.
The team put in 45 solid maneuvers in the first stint with the J2 jib, which was then dropped in exchange for the J3. The team had a slight delay as they struggled with halyard issues, but after safely feeding the line back through the rigging with a crew member up the mast, they were able to resume sailing. The second stint saw an impressive 49 foiling maneuvers in the increased breeze.
This was Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s most consistent day with respect to foiling maneuvers, with over 80% of tacks a gybes performed foil-to-foil.
[In these reports, generally, we only calculate a dry tack/gybe percentage for teams sailing AC40 One Designs - as this provides a reasonably accurate basis - with factors such as different foils, crew numbers, hull shapes etc all factored out in the AC40 One Design configuration.]
The team spent almost four and a half hours on the water, sailing over 40 Nautical Miles and completing a total of 94 maneuvers.
Session Statistics - Barcelona - March 28, 2023 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC40 - Day 12
- Wind Strength: 10-13kts
- Wind Direction: SSW
- Weather: Sunny 13°C Mostly cloudy
- Sea State: 1mtr
- Roll out: 1100hrs Dock Out: 1400hrs
- Dock In: 1820hrs Crane out: 1840hrs
- Total Tacks: 50; Fully foiling: 40; Touch & Go: 9; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 44; Fully foiling: 37; Touch & Go: 7; Touch Down: 0
- Dry Tack/Gybe percentage: 82%
Crew: Arnaud Psarofaghis , Maxime Bachelin , Nicolas Charbonnier, Yves Detrey , Lucien Cujean , Nicolas Rolaz , Bryan Mettraux. Starting Crew: Starboard: Arnaud P + Lucien C , Port: Maxime B + Nico R , Pietro Sibello on Chase
Emirates Team NZ - LEQ12 - Auckland - March 28, 2022 - Day 12
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team [Alastair Moore AC-Recon]:
Te Rehutai left the shed at 10.35am, had her rig stepped by 10.51am and was floating in the pen at 11.07am.
The rigging process looks to be becoming more efficient. At 12.06pm the yacht was towed from her berth out to the end of the old tank farm where she was pointed head too the breeze to bend on sails.
After a brief attempt to self start in super soft air she was taken in tow and brought down to compass dolphin where she dropped her tow and did several laps of the inner harbour waiting for the building SW breeze to fill in further to her East. At 13.34 after a short pause she was up and ripping again heading for the back paddock.
The recon team did their best to keep up in flat water and 10-12kts of wind our boat was trimmed up and throttles on the floor showing a best speed on the GPS of 45.2kts, without cutting the corners of their gybes we could not have stayed with them.
Off Maraetai she stopped and took Chase 1 alongside At 13.49pm the J1 was dropped and by 13.58pm the J3 was on its lock.
Chase 2 had set a top and bottom gate with a course length of approximately 1.5 NM.
We positioned ourselves at the bottom gate and observed one pre start and full windward reward practice. The breeze dropped on the yacht's approach to the bottom gate needing two extra quick gybes to only just pull off a two board down rounding.
One more lap of the course was observed before Te Rehutai turned towards the bottom end at warp speed. We later tracked back up the harbour with them on the tight lay through back up the harbour. She dropped sails off the old tank farm (Wynyard Point or where the old British base/current ETNZ base is located) and was back alongside by 16.31pm
Session Statistics - Emirates Team NZ - LEQ12 - Auckland - March 28, 2022 - Day 12
- Weather: 25°C 20% cloud cover, Sunny
- Wind Strength: 6kts building to 16kts
- Wind Direction: SW
- Sea State: Slight
- Roll out: 1107hrs Dock Out: 1206hrs
- Dock In: 1630hrs Crane out: 1720hrs
- Total Tacks: 12 - Fully foiling: 10; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 16 - Fully foiling: 14; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 1
Crew: (LEQ12) Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke (AC40) Josh Junior, Liv Mackay, Sam Meech, Marcus Hansen
INEOS Britannia - AC40 - Mallorca - March 28, 2023 - Day 28
Top sailing journalist, Justin Chisholm was on the water and made various observations on the British boat:
INEOS Britannia’s fortieth day of on-the-water training and testing in Palma, Mallorca began with early morning clear skies for the on-time 0930hrs roll out of the team’s T6 LEQ12 test boat.
Other than the removal of the vertically mounted sensor on the boat’s inverted gull-wing/w-shaped starboard foil nothing else appeared to have changed.
With temperatures ramping up quickly, by the dock out time at 1245, hopes we’re high for some classic Palma mid-teens southerly sea breeze conditions. With the boat outside the harbour by 1300hrs, the crew of helmsmen Giles Scott and Dylan Fletcher and trimmers/flight controllers Luke Parkinson and Bleddyn Mon went straight into a 10 minute period of no sails tow testing.
With the breeze quickly building from 7kts to 11ks but with a flat sea state, the mainsail and J3 were up by 1340 and the boat was off the side row at 1355hrs for an hour of short interval take off and landings. Then it was into some longer runs (30 minutes plus) as the crew completed multiple laps of Palma Bay.
A stop at 1506 saw the team change from the J3 to the J2 as the breeze had moderated to 9 knots. More fast laps of the bay followed over the next three hours during which the boat’s performance on the new starboard foil was noticeable more skittish, with it regularly kicking up a brief high splash as the bulb broke the surface.
On one upwind occasion the boat had a big splash down - presumably caused by the crew ‘finding the edge’ on that foil. The day came to an end at around 1730hrs with sails down by 1800hrs and dock in happening at 1815hrs.
Session Statistics - Mallorca - March 28, 2023 - INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 28
- Weather: Sunny 15°C
- Wind Strength 9-12kts Slight chop
- Wind Direction: 180°
- Roll out: 0957hrs Dock Out: 1150hrs
- Dock In: 1800hrs Crane out: 1830hrs
- Total Tacks: 9 - Fully foiling: 8 Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 6 - Fully foiling: 4; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down:
Crew: Giles Scott, Dylan Fletcher, Luke Parkinson, Bleddyn Mon
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.