Cup Spy July 27: American Magic goes past the point of no return
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 27 Jul 2023 17:04 PDT
28 July 2023
American Magic - LEQ12 - Day 46 - July 27, 2023 - Barcelona © Paul Todd/America's Cup
Two teams sailed on Thursday in the America's Cup development phase in Barcelona. The day was notable for a spectacular pitchpole capsize by one of American Magic's AC40's Magic. The other team, INEOS Britannia, trained alone in the AC40 but are expected to resume two boat testing next week.
What happened in the Cup - July 27, 2023:
- American Magic - again sailed both their AC40 hulls, in the same configuration as yesterday, with different test wings on each, with both carrying a One-Design wing foil on the port side foil arm and different development foils on the starboard foil arm. One of the AC40s - Magic - made a spectacular pitchpole towards the end of the session with the breeze hitting 18kts. The AC40 got too high on its foils, and the rudder elevator popped clear of the surface, triggering the pitchpole. There was no damage or injury.
- Emirates Team New Zealand did not sail.
- INEOS Britannia have set up in their new base in Barcelona, they sailed alone today, Thursday, and are expected to sail their AC40 against their test platform the LEQ12, T6.
- Luna Rossa - did not sail from either their Cagliari or Barcelona bases.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing did not sail. The team are moving into their new permanent base, in Port Vell.
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
Weather conditions at Barcelona July 27, 2023:
On the water the AC37 Recon teams reported a breeze of 7-20kts from 180-200 degrees (American Magic) At the real-time observation station at Port Olimpic, the real-time recordings (see image above) showed a breeze of 10kts gusting 12kts at 1200hrs - about the time that American Magic docked out. The wind fluctuated throughout the afternoon as a squall approached and hit - reaching 22kts at 1500hrs gusting 26kts.
The above image is of a six hour period and can be aligned with the dock out and dock in times recorded in the AC37 Recon report. We can't get a shot time for either the still images or video to better co-relate with the Port Olimpic wind information.
The difference between the two sets of reading can be cause by the different heights for reading - 9ft (2.75mtrs) for the AC37 Joint Recon crews and 12 metres - midway up the 23 metre AC75 rig for the readings taken at Port Olimpic.
Commentary:
The two boats tested side by side, in varying strength breeze, which picked up with the approach of a rain squall, as described below by Lea Sitjà, the AC37 Recon Program member assigned to American Magic.
For testing purposes, the lead helmsman - Tom Slingsby (Magic) and Paul Goodison (America) stayed with their same boat as yesterday, however the rest of the crews switched boats.
Today's post session interview was with Harry Melges scion of one of the worlds great sailing dynasties, whose patriarch, Buddy, and America's Cup winner passed away in mid-May. He's part of the Youth squad for American Magic - who are being inducted into the AC40 foiling/sailing world.
"I think there's nothing that quite compares to selling an AC 40 and being part of a Cup team. But I did a lot of Moths sailing and sailed, skiffs growing up -and that definitely helped me quite a bit. Sail shapes and stuff like that look quite natural. But some of the foiling attributes to this boat are definitely different," he explained.
He was giving nothing away when asked which of the two AC40s (and respective wing foils) were performing the best. "It seems like one foil does well, and the other does well, other times. So at this point, it's too early [to say]."
On board America, with Tom Slingsby as co-helm, Harry said they were seeing 18kts in the session.
The other boat - Magic - with Paul Goodision and Lucas Calabrese listed as co-helms capsized late in the session in a spectacular, but regulation nose high speed nosedive - performed by most teams so far this cycle, and on more one occasion by some.
"We haven't quite debriefed it yet," Melges said. "But my gut feeling is we're maybe flying a bit too high. And potentially the main sheet didn't get eased enough, and we started to heel to leeward during the bear away and the rudder came out of the water. And after that, we pitched poled very hard and capsized."
"It was no big deal - we had no major damage to the boat, which was really good. The batteries were quite low at that point, too. So we were coming to the end of our session."
Asked if there was any warning of an impending pitchpole Melges said there were "no warnings on the wheel other than visual warnings."
Then Harry lapsed into a Buddyism: "when you start to heel to leeward, and you feel like you're really high in the air - you should expect something bad is gonna happen."
It would appear from Recon image sequences that Harry's description of the incident was exactly what happened, with Magic flying very high, before starting the nose-dive. It would seem from an analysis of the images and data from the Recon team that the One-Design wing foil was in play with the development foil raised to windward on the starboard side.
There was no damage or injury aboard Magic as a result of the incident - which has been the case with all AC40 nosedives, except for the first in Auckland in rough water, when the bow broke away, prompting some structural redesign to cope with the twisting effect on the bow section during a nosedive and pitchpole, followed by a capsize.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 x 2 - Day 46 - July 27, 2023 - Barcelona
From Lea Sitjà of the AC37 Joint Recon program assigned to American Magic in Barcelona:
Beautiful two-boat line-up high-precision performance today, albeit finishing with a bang.
America and Magic [AC40] boats rolled out at 9:50hrs with the same AC40-Modified configuration as yesterday.
Docking out at 12:06h, out of the port and sailing by 12:28hrs with Luca, Paul, Riley and Andrew on America and Tom, Severin, Michael and Harry on Magic.
For once the sea was almost flat with a light wind of 7-8kt at 200° so they both hoisted #1 jibs. From the very beginning they lined-up close together and were sailing in absolute sync for the whole day. Tacks and gybes were not the goal today, nevertheless they were all dry and perfectly executed (8 gybes, 9 tacks).
It was a real pleasure to follow them sailing on long tacks either upwind or downwind locked in the groove, comparing speeds and angles while adjusting settings, techniques, boat trim and boat heel.
The sailing session consisted of three stints in which America showed better angles either upwind or downwind in both tacks, either windward or leeward of Magic and only on one occasion Magic gained on America upwind in the breeze on port tack.
The wind calmed to 3kts for a while interrupting the training session but steadily build up along the afternoon up to 20kt ahead of a brief rain squall, messing up a bit with the sea state and requiring #2jib and later #3jib to be used.
By 15:30hrs, and with the strong wind, three buoys were laid for some two-boat pre-starting drills that never materialized as Magic capsized in spectacular fashion bearing away fully powered up (check Harry’s interview with some of the details).
She had to be towed back to port, apparently with no consequences. America sailed on her own for 11 more minutes and still managed to synchronize dock in with Magic at 16:39hrs.
Lea Sitjà.
Session Statistics: American Magic - LEQ12 x 2 - Day 46 - July 27, 2023 - Barcelona
- Weather: Sunny
- Wind Strength: 7-20kts
- Wind Direction: 180° - 200°
- Sea State: 4
- Crane In: 0945hrs Dock Out: 1206hrs
- Dock In: 1639hrs Crane out: 1735hrs
- Total Tacks: 9 - Fully foiling: 9; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 8 - Fully foiling: 8; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Magic: Paul Goodison, Lucas Calabrese, Riley Gibbs, Andrew Campbell; America: Tom Slingsby, Harry Melges, Michael Menninger/Severin Gramm
Additional Images:
This commentary was written and compiled from video, still images and statistical content extracted from the AC37">www.americascup.com/en/news/1481_THE-JOINT-RECONNAISSANCE-PROGRAMME-NEW-FOR-AC37-IN-BARCELONA">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.