Cup Spy - June 28: Swiss improving click by click
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 1 Jul 2023 22:19 AEST
2 July 2023
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 73 - June 28, 2023 - Barcelona © Alex Carabi / America's Cup
What happened in the Cup - June 28 2023:
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailed from Barcelona in a 7-13kt breeze from SSW. The team performance was similar to the previous day - without the jib blowout.
- American Magic - sailed their AC40 in One Design and as such does not get officially recorded in the AC37 Joint Recon System (RFS). However in a few images of Alinghi Red Bull Racing we can see the AC40-8 exiting the marina with their mainsail hoisted.
- Emirates Team New Zealand is en route to Barcelona with a projected arrival date of the morning of July 3.
- Luna Rossa did not sail based on there being no report in RFS.
- INEOS Britannia is not sailing until August 1
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
Two teams - Alinghi Red Bull Racing, American Magic are currently sailing from bases in Barcelona. American Magic is based in their new base, and will remain in Barcelona until the end of the 2024 America's Cup. Alinghi Red Bull Racing are running from a temporary base in Barcelona.
The other three teams are en route to Barcelona - which is the only venue permitted for sailing from July 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023. American Magic has started sailing their new AC40. The last day permitted for sailing anywhere other than Barcelona is on Friday, June 30, 2023.
Sail-World NZ Commentary:
In the post session interview with the AC37 Joint Recon team, trimmer Bryan Mettruax was not giving much away.
"We we improve every day and today was the perfect condition. Nice breeze between 10 and 15kts. So it was a really nice day on the water," he replied in response to a question asserting that their dry tack/gybe percentage was 85% and 10% better than yesterday.
By our calculation the percentage for dry tacks is about 73%, and for gybes, being an easier maneuver, the percentage was 91%.
But at this stage - with over a year to go the start of the Challenger Selection Series - dry tack/gybe percentages don't mean too much and particularly when sailing a first generation AC75, with different wing foils on each foil arm. For sure the Swiss could go away from this day happy with hitting these numbers, and knowing they would have to improve to close to 100% in 12 months, in these conditions to be competitive.
Mettraux said their objective today was "to do some more laps. Beginning with a starting procedure and then a lap [windward leeward around a single buoy] and just try to be consistent and doing nice maneuvers, as well as making the boat fast all of the time."
As might be expected Mettraux said that the improvements by the Swiss had been gradual "just improving a click on every detail it makes the difference on on board These boats are really sensitive and when everyone doing his job, it can go fast and nice."
Teams can spend up to three hours between rolling out of the shed, and launch. The Brits are pedantic about their pre-session setup - reflecting their F1 design relationships. Ironically Alinghi has the same style of relationship with the Red Bull Racing Team.
Asked what their routine was each morning, Mettraux was to the point: " every morning, we make sure that everything is working the first thing then we have a few things to calibrate and if we have new stuff on board, we just test them before to go sailing."
Asked "how quick the mast rotation and traveller react to the controls? Is it easy to get a good feeling - is it just like holding a rope or so?"
Mettreaux responded: "It's pretty good. Everything is reacting quite fast. And it's the goal to have no lost time between the demand and the action."
Then followed a rather lengthy question about "a flight controller and what looks like a sail trimming controller. Are you juggling between the two of them? And what about the new controller? Like looks like a bike handlebar? Or does it work like a more like a motorbike throttle or both?"
Which elicited a short response: "Yeah, it's a controller that we use to fly the boat."
It turned out that the flight controller (visible in one of the cockpit images) which looks a little agricultural was supplied with the boat by Emirates Team New Zealand. It is quite different from the gameboy style used by ETNZ on their AC50 in Bermuda, and who knows what they used on Te Rehutai in the last America's Cup.
The flight control software used on the former Te Aihe, now rebadged as "Boat 1" by the Swiss, is not the software package used by Emirates Team New Zealand. The Swiss hare believed to have developed their own. Given the nuances in that hardware/software/device mix combined with differing foil wing characteristics from the two legacy foils the Swiss have purchased from American Magic and Emirates Team NZ, it is maybe not surprising that the Swiss have their good and bad days.
As always with wing foil control, there is always the question as to whether the teams are running on automated flight control (illegal for the Cup racing), or manual.
Theirs to know, ours to find out.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 73 - June 28, 2023 - Barcelona
From the AC37 Joint Recon team:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC75 at 08:45 and launched it shortly after. The shore crew worked with the sailors to calibrate mast rotation, traveller, forestay, and mainsail skin tracks. The J2-2L and J4-1R jibs were carried on chase boats, while the J1-2R was prepared on deck along with the M2-2L mainsail, ahead of 'Garbi' winds, which started from the south and gradually increased in strength, before shifting to the south-southwest later in the afternoon. The wind ranged from 10-15knots throughout the day, with a relatively flat sea state. Today the cyclors wore 'Inuteq Cooling Vests', while setting up the boat at the dock.
Sailing commenced at 12:25 from the port entrance, with the team practicing light wind starts and tacks, perhaps experimenting with take-off angles in light winds. The J1-2R was exchanged with the J2-2L, then resumed sailing and executed five fully-foiling gybes downwind towards the 2NM course (leeward gate + single windward mark). The next stints consisted of several pre-starts and laps of the course with brief pauses in between.
The team played with asymmetric cant angles with two boards down in the pre start, exploring the balance of stability and speed in this mode. In one of the stints, the team performed a JK manoeuvre at the leeward gate as well as a tack and bear-away around the windward mark. An improvement in bow down sailing was also noted, with less skimming of the bow on the water, and good cant angles reducing foil arm drag. The yacht was also seen to slip with not enough grip in some roundings, as can be seen at the end of the highlights video.
The team spent five and quarter hours on the water and covered over 53NM. Today’s performance stood out to the Recon Unit as their strongest sailing day so far, with records broken in multiple departments:
- 66 manoeuvres performed, most in a single day
- 91% Fully Foiling Gybes - highest in a day (79% Fully Foiling Tacks – second best day for tacks)
- 85% Fully Foiling Manoeuvres - Overall
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Session Statistics: Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 73 - June 28, 2023 - Barcelona
- Wind Strength: 7-13kts
- Wind Direction: SSW
- Weather: Mostly cloudy 28°C
- Sea State: Beaufort 3-4
- Crane In: 0910hrs Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1710hrs Crane Out: 1730hrs
- Total Tacks: 33; Fully foiling: 24; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 3
- Total Gybes: 33; Fully foiling: 30; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Maxime Bachelin, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Lucien Crujean, Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux, Barnabé Delarze, Florian Trüb, Arthur Cevey, Augustin Maillefer
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. Its format is intended to give Sail-World readers a snapshot of all teams' progress on a given day or period.