Cup Spy Apr 3: USA capsizes offshore, Brits, Kiwis and Swiss have solid test days
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 3 Apr 2023 22:03 PDT
4 April 2023
American Magic - AC40 - Day 17 - April 3, 2023 - Pensacola Bay © Paul Todd/America's Cup
Four teams sailed on April 3 out of Auckland, the Med and Pensacola. INEOS Britannia got back into serious testing in T6 with its W foil. The Kiwis sailed their AC785 in a big breeze out of Auckland. USA capsized offshore, and moved back into the Bay. The Swiss sailed their AC40 out of Barcelona in lighter winds. Their dry tack/gybe stats were lower than the standard of others - but may have been a function of the lighter winds.
What happened in the Cup - April 3, 2023:
- Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their AC75 out of Auckland in an 18-22kts SW breeze - see AC Recon Report below and also www.sail-world.com/news/260354/Cup-Spy-Apr-3-Kiwis-test-in-big-breeze
- INEOS Britannia sailed their LEQ12 test boat out of Palma.
- American Magic sailed off Pensacola in their AC40 One Design
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailed out of Barcelona in their AC40 One Design.
- Luna Rossa did not sail, and last sailed their LEQ12 test boat on March 25. They are believed to be in an upgrade phase on the test boat.
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
American Magic - AC40 - Pensacola - February 4, 2023 - Day 44
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
America docked out at 0930 and was quickly towed offshore.
The mainsail MN1 and jib J2 were up in record time by 10:15.
Sailing began at 1022 as the team set off on long stints on one board. The sea state was challenging for the race boat and chase boats. America stuffed her bow or plowed through waves frequently.
The first stint lasted 26 min, and after touch down the crew began bailing several buckets of water out of the hull. Ten minutes into the second stint the yacht stuffed the bow again, then appeared to corkscrew into the water, then capsized.
The team had the yacht righted within two minutes and sailing again within ten minutes. The team sailed back towards the entrance to the pass and then called an end of sailing at 1155.
The recon team were notified about 45 minutes later that the plans had changed and sailing would continue in the bay*.
The team then sailed about another 45 minutes before calling an end to the day at 1351. America looked like it was on the edge the majority of the time offshore.
In shore sailing looked normal, with crisp maneuvers and high speeds. The sailing inshore also mostly consisted of long stints on one board. In all, America completed 21 maneuvers, 7 W/L's, sailed approximately 41nm (30 off/11 in shore), and had a total flying time of 72min.
Top speeds were approximately 34kts upwind and 40kts downwind (inshore).
Session Statistics - Pensacola - April 3, 2023 - American Magic - AC40 - Day 17
- Weather: Mostly cloudy 71° F
- Wind Strength 12kts-15kts
- Wind Direction: SW
- Sea State: 4ft close swell
- Roll out: 0845hrs Dock Out: 0930hrs
- Dock In: 1415hrs Crane out: 1430hrs
- Total Tacks: 12 - Fully foiling: 10; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 9 - Fully foiling: 8; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Paul Goodison, Tom Slingsby, Lucas Calabrese, Michael Menninger
Emirates Team NZ - AC75 - Auckland - April 3, 2023 - Day 7
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
Te Rehutai was rolled from her shed at 9.45, had the mast on its ball at 10.02 and in the water in the pen by 10.30. The Head boards were loaded while alongside the dock, she was eased from her berth and towed down the harbour to about 1nm NNW of Rough Rock [off North Head] where she dropped the tow and took Chase 1 along side.
At 11.43 the main sail was on the lock quickly followed by the #3 jib. At 12.16 Te Rehutai dropped the chase and set out about her testing schedule. Starting with a big run out towards Tiritiri Matangi, here she just legged out in front of us putting about 5 miles on the recon boat before we stopped and watched her come on the breeze and start working her way back towards Takapuna.
[S-W NZ: The issue of windward heel/cant can be seen in the two shots above. The top image shows the windward heel angle is relatively slight. The lower image shows the drag effect. With the AC75 in low flight mode to optimise the end-plate effect of the hull's interface between the rig and water, the keelson/bustle of the AC75 is in contact with the water, and creating some speed reducing drag. This situation is not rectified until the AC75 is trimmed to sail upright, or the AC75 is flown higher. If the situation is not rectified, the downside is that the degree of windward heel can increase, more of the keelson/bustle can be immersed. Note that the windward wingfoil, is still well clear of the water but could also become immersed further increasing drag, with a further speed reduction. It can be seen from the shot below where the standard supplied foil arms stop, and the black coloured, custom design wingfoils start, and it is apparent that the AC75 is being flown at optimum height for this legacy set of foils. Under V2 of the AC75 Class rule the foils can be 200mm deeper.]
Te Rehutai came off her foils about 12.40 in a big puff and looked to feather through it in displacement mode for approximately 5 minutes before getting foil borne at 12.45.
Catching up with her after this time in displacement mode for the last part of the beat up into Takapuna a large kink was observed in the forestay just above the head of the Jib. The yacht stopped sailing at 13.36 and did a power group rotation and was sailing again at 13.49. Here she followed a similar pattern with a 7-9 mile run out towards Shearer Rock [in a northerly direction] before hardening up and beating back in towards Takapuna.
With no marks set and the extreme speed meant getting close was very hard work, at times out wide the sea state had us down to under 20 knots boat speed to keep all onboard onboard.
At the end of the session we observed two laps of Rangitoto channel in flat water with breeze in the upper teens we had no hope of keeping up in a straight line and had to cut the corners to stay close.
Te Rehutai came to a stop at 14.27 just north of Northern leading, took Chase 1 along side and doused her sails before the tow back to base.
[Alastair Moore AC-Recon]
Session Statistics - Emirates Team NZ - AC75 - Auckland - April 3, 2023 - Day 7
- Weather: 18°C occasional showers
- Wind Strength: 12-22kts
- Wind Direction: SW
- Sea State: Slight/Moderate
- Roll out: 1050hrs Dock Out: 1120hrs
- Dock In: 1500hrs Crane out: 1542hrs
- Total Tacks: 18 - Fully foiling: 18; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 16 - Fully foiling: 16; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Sailing: Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke Power: Simon Van Velthooven, Marius Van Der Pol, Louis Sinclair, Louis Crosby, Hamish Bond, Marcus Hansen.
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 AC40 - Mallorca - April 3, 2023 - Day 30
Top sailing journalist, Justin Chisholm was on the water and made various observations on the British boat:
After four days in the boat shed since last week's foreshortened sailing session INEOS Britannia's silver T6 LEQ12 test boat looked to be firing on all cylinders this afternoon during an almost six hour testing session conducted in winds ranging between 8 to 15 knots.
When the boat was rolled out this morning the only noticeable difference was the absence of a pitot tube on the port foil bulb (the one on the starboard w-foil bulb had been removed prior to the last sailing sailing session).
After a more prolonged than usual mast setup procedure (95 minutes) the boat was launched at 1145 with dockout delayed by 30 minutes to 1300.
Sails – a new M2-2 mainsail and a J2 (possibly new) – were hoisted by shortly after 1400.
The America's Cup team is sharing the bay this week with the several hundred boats competing in the Princess Sofia Olympic classes regatta and today's session started with a flyby of the Laser race area, before the British crew – helmsmen Giles Scott and Dylan Fletcher (on his birthday), and trimmers/flight controllers Luke Parkinson and Iain Jensen – headed off into the open waters of the west side of the bay.
Although the morning had seen clear blue skies, in the afternoon the weather became cloudier with a number of heavy rain cells swirling closer to shore.
Clearly the focus was on data gathering with some prolonged straight line runs – particularly on the starboard w-foil. Especially later in the day the crew seemed determined to push this foil to its limits and there were several upwind splashdowns as the repeatedly 'found the edge'.
A noticeable vibration was noticed in the upper section of the mainsail leach – which appeared not to be fixable on the water. As skies cleared around 1700 the breeze faded quickly putting an end to the sailing session.
Sails were down by 1730 and after a foiling tow into the harbour the team docked in at 1800. The team is scheduled for another day of sailing tomorrow
Session Statistics - Mallorca - April 3, 2023 - INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 30
- Weather: Sunny 15° - 17° C
- Wind Strength 8-15kts Flat sea
- Wind Direction: 180° , 240° and then 150°
- Roll out: 1145hrs Dock Out: 1300hrs
- Dock In: 1800hrs Crane out: 1830hrs
- Total Tacks: 10 - Fully foiling: 6 Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 2
- Total Gybes: 8 - Fully foiling: 5 Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 3
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC40 - Barcelona - April 3, 2023 - Day 14
From the AC37 Joint Recon team:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC40 at 10:00, anticipating the better breeze forecasted for later in the day.
The team hoisted the M1 mainsail and J1 jib in the port and towed the yacht out, releasing the towline at the port entrance. The wind at the start of the sailing day was 8 knots, gusting 11 knots, with ground swell from the East, perpendicular to the wind direction.
The crew swapped from usual positions to sail on opposite sides for the day; Arnaud and Yves Detrey to Port, Maxime Bachelin and Nico Rolaz to Starboard. Crew swapped again in the day, with trimmers also switching sides mid stint.
Sailing commenced just before 2pm. Maxime Bachelin warmed up on starboard, sailing short lengths at different angles out towards the course. The course, set just off Barceloneta beach, consisted of a leeward gate (doubling as a start line) and a windward mark 1nm upwind.
The team spent the first half of the day sailing about the course, training pre starts and mark roundings.
They had a few struggles in the early part of the session, with sailing paused on two consecutive occasions for engineers to inspect below deck.
The J2 jib was brought out for an hour and with wind peaking at 12 knots, ARBR put in their best stint of the day sailing around the course .
The wind started to decrease, forcing the team to find better wind further offshore, despite the larger swell. They put together a decent hour and a half stint, finishing with a long downwind to the port.
The team spent almost five hours on the water, covering over 50NM, and reaching an estimated top speed of 38kn. They completed just over 60% of their maneuvers (foil-foil), from a total of 55 moves.
Session Statistics - Barcelona - April 3, 2023 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC40 - Day 14
- Wind Strength: 8-12kts
- Wind Direction: SSW
- Weather: Sunny 12°C
- Sea State: Beaufort 1
- Roll out: 1030hrs Dock Out: 1325hrs
- Dock In: 1830hrs Crane out: 1845hrs
- Total Tacks: 29; Fully foiling: 16; Touch & Go: 5; Touch Down: 8
- Total Gybes: 26; Fully foiling: 18; Touch & Go: 5; Touch Down: 3
Crew: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Maxime Bachelin, Nicolas Charbonnier, Yves Detrey , Lucien Cujean , Nicolas Rolaz , Bryan Mettraux. Starting Crew: Starboard: Maxime B + Yves D , Port: Arnaud P + Nico R , Pietro Sibello on Chase.
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.