Cup Spy August 15: American Magic trial new foil - Spy requests on Emirates TNZ's AC75
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 15 Aug 2023 21:48 PDT
16 August 2023
Emirates Team NZ - Day 33 - Barcelona - August, 15 2023 In light air mode with rudder immersion drag minimised © Job Vermeulen / America's Cup
Today was the first day back into testing mode for two of the five teams training for the 37th America's Cup, for which the Opening Ceremony will be held in a year and a week on August 22, 2024.
What happened in the Cup - August 15 2023:
- Emirates Team New Zealand sailed their AC75 in light winds - the team was on the water early in the day, ostensibly to check light air foiling performance. The AC37 Joint Recon team had several reconnaissance requests on various aspects of ETNZ's AC75, apparently aimed at understanding how the boat is set up and sailed. We have the responses in this report.
- American Magic sailed their AC40/LEQ with a new test wing foil (AM-LEQ-FW3) on the port foil arm. The previous test wing (AM-LEQ-FW2) was attached to the starboard foil arm. The session was curtailed after the funky breeze swung and the team were sailing into a head sea on one tack - making testing meaningless.
- Luna Rossa did not sail.
- INEOS Britannia did not sail.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing did not sail.
- No further news from the Orient Express Team (formerly K-Challenge).
- On August 12 the AC40 Management Group was announced comprising Emirates Team New Zealand, McConaghy Boats and Ancasta International Boat Sales - with Luca Rizzotti appointed as the Class Manager.
Commentary:
One of the teams asked the AC37 Recon Team several questions/points of interest about Emirates Team New Zealand. We have the photographic and video images of their responses at the bottom of this report.
Tuesday's sailing was conducted mostly in light winds, which Emirates Team NZ's recon team recorded at 3.9-5.2kts, which if accurate and there was no increase higher up, was well below a marginal foiling breeze. The Recon team believed ETNZ left early to catch some light air sailing.
One of the teams requested several videos and images of various features on Emirates Team NZ's AC75. We have picked up these items and the Recon Team responses - which are presented at the end of this report.
American Magic went back into test mode on their AC40, with a new (third) test wing foil on their port foil arm, and testing it against their previous (second) test wing foil.
Their intention was to gather data from both foils for performance evaluation however the conditions were against them with the inconsistent breeze. Eventually it swung to the point where the AC40 was trying to sail head on into the seaway, which is sub-optimal, to put it mildly.
The conditions forced several foil crashes during tacks and gybes, and eventually the session was curtailed.
We have a couple of images of the new foil. American Magic have only one more test foil allowed on their allocation of four.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 - August 15, 2023 - Barcelona
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
New underwater package for America and back to ticking off homework items.
As confirmed by the component declaration, NYAM launched today one brand new foil wing on port, one new version foil wing on starboard with a brand-new foil flap, and a new version foil arm stock on starboard.
The foil arm stock has now the trailing edge extended fairing at around the water piercing level like we've seen from day zero on ETNZ and the new port foil wing features fences at the flap ends close to the tips on the pressure side. Both foil arm stocks have now a single lower fence, same height both, and a "step-fence" all across the cord on the port one, and only half way across the cord on the starboard one with the fairing.
Roll out was 10:15hrs, dock out at 12:40hrs after a 20min wait and out of the port and sailing @13:15h with Tom, Paul, Riley and Andrew on-board. They hoisted a jib#0 as the wind was marginally light, 7-9kt 090º with a 1m South swell to make things a bit challenging. The whole day consisted of long tacks either upwind or downwind to check out the new gear and probably start collecting data to adjust the simulator engine.
The wind increased to 10kt initially, calling for a jib change to #1 at 13:51hrs, but later eased and veered progressively along the day up to 130 degrees so the South swell hit dead on the boat on port tack upwind and dead stern on starboard downwind.
This made life hard for the crew as we saw overall 15 hull splashes and foil drop-off ventilations.
They sailed in three periods, one of 18mins and two of 44mins, with 11 tacks and 15 gybes, half of the manoeuvrers being full touch down to a stop.
The boat never sailed settled as they were continuously testing the limits of every possible set-up on the boat, flying high vs low, heeled to windward vs flat, bow down trim vs flat and many combinations in between. With the light and veered breeze they could not take-off on port against the waves so they tacked several times in displacement mode to starboard to allow a take-off. The wind eased even more and at 15:50hrs they decided to come back to port on tow, docking in was at 16:21hrs.
We saw two porpoising events, one sailing the other on tow back to the port, and a scary submarine attempt on tow too, may be indicating that the flight control was not reacting correctly.
Lea Sitjà, Recon Unit NYAM.
Session Statistics: American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 - August 15, 2023 - Barcelona
- Weather: Sunny
- Wind Strength 6-9kts
- Wind Direction: 090 degrees-160 degrees
- Sea State:0.3m windchop and 1m swell
- Roll out: 1015hrs Dock Out: 1240hrs
- Dock In: 1621hrs
Emirates Team New Zealand AC40 - AC75 - August 15, 2023 - Barcelona
After three days of sailing on the AC40, today ETNZ was back onboard "Te Rehutai", with an early morning start being out of the shed at 08.30 am. The boat was craned to the water at 09:05 and the team docked out at 10.00, as planned. The M1 was hoisted at 10:10 and the J2 ten minutes after, inside the port. There were no sail changes today.
It seemed like the objective of the day was to sail and train in very light winds.
ETNZ had a short session of one hour and a half, mostly sailing in a straight line against their numbers, both upwind and downwind. Their sailing mode in gross terms continues to be the same. Flying as low as possible, with their bow pointing down, slightly heeled to windward, pumping the main all the time "windsurfing style" and maintaining very low rig tension.
After sailing for forty-five minutes, a new camera was placed on the port side of the boat close to the rail and to the bow.
The team did in total 9 tacks and 8 gybes, fully foiling on 6 and 3, respectively. Those non-foiling were mostly at the beginning of the day when the wind was under 4 knots of true wind speed measured at sea level.
At 11:45 the team stopped, and the chase boat came along. Apparently, something happened as we could notice non-usual movements in between the support chase boat and the AC75, with many support team members getting onboard. The potential issue or failure could not be identified as nothing in particular could be seen from the outside. Ten minutes after, the team decided to lower their sails and tow back home.
Sails were lowered at 12:00 and the boat was towed back being far away from the port. This is something ETNZ never does when things are running properly. At 12:20 the boat was back at the dock, it was craned out from the water at 12:52 and back in the shed at 13:20.
Sebastian Peri Brusa - Recon on ETNZ
Crew: (Co-Helms): Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke.
Session Statistics: Emirates Team New Zealand AC40 - AC75 - August 15, 2023 - Barcelona
- Weather: Sunshine, 30 degrees
- Wind Strength 4kts - 5.2kts.
- Wind Direction: 70 degrees - 110 degrees
- Sea State:.47mtr Flat
- Dockout: 1000hrs Dock In: 1252hrs
- Total Tacks: 9 - Fully foiling: 6; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 8 - Fully foiling: 3; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 1
Requested shots/video from the AC37 Joint Recon Team of Emirates Team New Zealand's AC75
Additional Images:
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.