Cup Spy Mar 29: ETNZ churn out the big miles. Brit's session cut short
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 29 Mar 19:21 PDT
30 March 2023
AC75 - Emirates Team New Zealand - Day 6 - March 29, 2023 - Auckland NZ © Adam Mustill / America's Cup
What happened in the Cup - March 29, 2023:
Two teams sailed on Wednesday, March 29. In Auckland, ETNZ had a big day, covering 120nm in a session which lasted just under four hours, for the sixth day of sailing their AC75. The Brits looked good early in the session, cut it short after a failure.
- American Magic last their AC-40 One Design off Pensacola on March 27
- Luna Rossa last sailed their LEQ12 from Cagliari, on Saturday March 25.
- Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their AC75, upgraded to Version 2, for the second consecutive day, covering 120nm in 3hrs 46min (based on the time the mainsail was hoisted) and recorded in the AC37 Joint Recon team report.
- INEOS Britannia sailed their LEQ12, for the second consecutive day, however the session was cut to 90minutes after an unexplained failure.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing did not sail, after sailing for the previous two days in the AC40-OD
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
Emirates Team NZ - AC75 - Auckland - March 29, 2022 - Day 6
The Kiwis went out for their fifth day of sailing in their AC75, which has been upgraded to Version 2 of the AC75 Class Rule.
Outwardly the changes are imperceptible - removal of running backstays are the most obvious change. So too are the five deck cut-outs, on each side for the sailing crew and cyclors. The span of wing foils and their depth has increased. The addition of a track for the self-tacking jib is a reaction to the new rule.
Interestingly the cyclors are in the two aftermost pits, instead of being in the forward end as they were onboard ETNZ's AC50 in the 2017 America's Cup. There would seem to be four cyclors on the Kiwi boat, meaning there is just four sailing crew for the 69ft boat.
The bow sprit which carried a Code Zero, on Version 1, turns into a wind instrument pole on the Version 2.
From the few minutes we have watched the revamped America's Cup Champion, there doesn't seem to be a lot of difference, although the team will be able to point towards better performance numbers.
"The boat's going really well which internally we're very happy with obviously no one knows what's going on inside the boat," explains coach Ray Davies. "But we're happy. It is kind of like a new boat for us."
Externally that is a statement of the unobvious - most of the enhancements aboard Te Rehutai are below decks - and off limits to spying eyes.
If the team is serious about sailing in a seastate, they should get it in the next seabreeze (NZ). However from what we have seen to date of the AC75 sailing out of Auckland and offshore in Pensacola, the AC75 seems to handle the seaway better than expected.
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team [Alastair Moore AC-Recon]:
The race yacht was out of the shed at 0926hrs and in the water in the pen by 1015hrs. Ray Davies gave us the heads up is was going to be a big day and the team did not disappoint with over 120 NM covered in less than 4 hours sailing time!
That is with a few stops for crew rotations and a jib change! The yacht was towed from her berth and taken down to the Rough rock area just off north head to plug in and hoist sails. The Jib was hoisted a solid 7 minutes before the main, with the yacht dropping her chase boat at 1142hrs to start the day's testing. She set off down the Motukorea channel at break neck speed heading for Chase 2 and her marks set 1nm windward/leeward off the eastern beaches.
Here I saw the jib come down at 1212hrs with no chase along side Nick Burrage was pulled to the top of the mast as the jib was hoisted up to him at the lock. Chase 1 alongside at 1231hrs to rotate crew, sailing by 1238hrs. Here we had three laps of a 1 NM windward leeward course in 14-18 kts of SW breeze and flat sea state.
At 1300hrs Chase 1 was back alongside with Chase 2 retrieving marks, at 13.10 they were sailing again this time on a huge run taking them west of Waiheke Island and between Rakino Island and the Noisies. By this time the yacht had put about 5nm on us so we slowed and headed toward Tiritiri Matangi with the yacht disappearing over the horizon toward Little Barrier island.
After doing our best to count gybes and then tacks quicker than we knew she was on top of us again beating into a strong 18 knot cold SWer heading towards Rangitoto light where she stopped at 1427hrs to have Chase 1 along side at 1431hrs. She was sailing again at 1438hrs beating for home and did one run up the harbour to tack off the squadron and head back out to Okahu Bay to meet up with chase boats and douse the sails. All team and kit back on the dock at the base by 1540hrs. Big day and I now feel a inch or two shorter.
Session Statistics - Emirates Team NZ - LEQ12 - Auckland - March 29, 2022 - Day 6
- Weather: 17°C 15% cloud cover, Sunny
- Wind Strength: 15-18kts
- Wind Direction: SW
- Sea State: Slight/Moderate
- Roll out: 1015hrs Dock Out: 1102hrs
- Dock In: 1540hrs Crane out: 1635hrs
- Total Tacks: 25 - Fully foiling: 25; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 14 - Fully foiling: 13; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
Sailing Crew: Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke, Power Crew:Simon Van Velthooven, Marius Van Der Pol, Louis Sinclair, Louis Crosby
INEOS Britannia - AC40 - Mallorca - March 29, 2023 - Day 29
Top sailing journalist, Justin Chisholm was on the water and made various observations on the British boat:
A training and testing day with the potential to be as fruitful as the the previous excellent session for INEOS Britannia was unfortunately cut painfully short by an unspecified technical issue with the British team's T6 LEQ12 test boat.
After rolling out at 1100 AM the team were launched and off the dock on schedule at 1300 for a side tow out of the harbour where the mainsail and a J2 headsail were hoisted by 1315. Notably the forward facing pitot tube on the starboard inverted gull wing/w-shaped foil had been removed. In a similar fashion to the previous day's sailing the first 15 minute session involved a series of takeoffs and landings, before a second 15 minutes session where the crew initially appeared to be sailing high slow angles upwind. Following a stop at 1400 a crew member was seen climbing down into the front hatch.
A rib came alongside at 1410 and soon after the sailors made the disappointing decision to drop sails and head for the harbour on a slow tow in.
The boat arrived the dock at 1530 when three sets of batteries were carried aboard and subsequently off again, before the boat was craned out at 16:10.
No specific information was given about what the technical issue was but there was no observable damage to the foils when the boat was craned out.
[S-W: In the dockside interview, after the training session, Shore Manager Jeff Causey, said that the session had ended prematurely after an issue with part of the upgrade completed a week ago. Subsequently T6 sailed for four full practice sessions. Causey said that at the time of the interview, they did not expect the issue to impact on the teams testing plans, and sailing.]
Session Statistics - Mallorca - March 29, 2023 - INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 29
- Weather: Sunny 15-20°C
- Wind Strength 6-10kts Slight chop
- Wind Direction: 150-180°
- Roll out: 1140hrs Dock Out: 1300hrs
- Dock In: 1530hrs Crane out: 1610hrs
- 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, Iain Jensen
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.