Cup Spy August 19: Brits blow out mainsail..Olympic champ returns to Luna Rossa
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 20 Aug 2023 17:55 PDT
21 August 2023
INEOS Britannia - AC40 - Day 71 - August 19, 2023 - Barcelona © Ugo Fonolla / America's Cup
Two teams sailed on Saturday in the America's Cup buildup - we are now just 12 months and two days out from the start of the Challenger Selection Series
What happened in the Cup - August 19 2023:
- INEOS Britannia sailed out of Barcelona, enjoying a test session in steady winds at the bottom end of the foiling range, and in that rarity for Barcelona - a flat sea state. But 35 minutes into the session the port mainsail skin suffered a failure in the clew, the starboard skin remained attached to the mainsail hydraulic - which acts as a mainsheet on the AC foiling monohulls.
- Luna Rossa sailed their LEQ12, in a two hour session off their main base at Cagliari. They were joined by one of their co-helmsmen Ruggero Tita (31yrs) - the current Olympic champion in the Nacra 17 class - who returned after winning his third World Championship in the Olympic foiling catamaran and top-qualifier for Italy at the just concluded "Big Show" - the Allianz Sailing World Championships at The Hague. But what to do with their Olympic Rockstar? We discuss the Italian's dilemma in the Commentary.
- American Magic remained ashore in Barcelona - unless they sailed their AC40-OD
- Emirates Team NZ - seems to be still ashore - unless they too sailed their AC40-OD
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing also appeared to still be ashore - unless they too sailed their AC40-OD
- Orient Express Team - no further report beyond their launching of the AC40-OD. One would expect that they will start sailing with their crew from the SailGP circuit - and going up the AC40 and foiling monohull learning curve will be an interesting one to watch. Construction of their AC75 started in May 2023 - pointing to a launch date of March/April 2024.
Commentary:
There were no obvious answers at to why the British blew the clew out of one of their mainsail skins. So far we have seen two teams blow the clew out of jibs - but both were in fresh winds, off the back of a nosedive.
In the highlights video we can see the Brits mainsail being pumped/jerked via the traveller - maybe that was a contributing factors.
Remember too, that while the true winds might be under 10kts, the apparent wind speeds are probably in excess of 40kts, and in these conditions the sail is under maximum tension to get powered up, and in some video we can see the traveller being pumped - increasing the loads still further.
Regardless of reason, the effect was the same, the British had a training session curtailed 35 minutes after starting. They lost a rare day for speed testing in Barcelona, with enough breeze to get vital practice in a bottom of the range breeze - and in the absence of the usual Barcelona sea state.
"It ended our day early, which is very unfortunate," said Olympic Gold medalist in the 49er Skiff, Dylan Fletcher (GBR) - a co-helm with the British challenger. "I don't think we know exactly what's going on just yet," he said of the busted mainsail skin.
"It was a flatter day in Barcelona, and would have been a nice opportunity for us to do some more speed testing and investigate some maneuvers. Compared to Palma (their former training base) it's very, very different here. In terms of more, of the wavy days and less of the flat days. So it's quite different. I don't think we're going to experience many days, like today."
The TP52s were sailing near the same training area as the British Cup team. That prompted a question from AC37 Joint Recon Team member, Justin Chisholm as to how the TP52's up and downwind sailing angles compared to the LEQ12 sailed by the British.
"We got closer to them, and I thought we were sort of similarish to them upwind, maybe a little bit lower," said Fletcher. "We didn't line up with any downwind. But I suspect we may even be bit lower than them downwind in that light staff. They need nine knots or whatever, of breeze, to really be powered up. It looks tricky for them as well," he added.
All teams are in a process of speed testing as they work through various pieces of test kit, before making final design decision and calls on te best way to sail the foiling monohull in the Barcelona conditions. The teams don't talk a lot about the processes - and the Brits are different from most because they are running with a a three-way design team that is watching their performance in real time, on the chase boat, a second group ashore in Barcelona, and a third design group in the INEOS partnered Mercedes AMG facility in Brackley, England.
Asked for an idea of how the on-board communication works - aiming for specific numbers or just trying different angles, Fletcher explained that "we get our targets from our performance team, and we "investigate" those. Sometimes the sailors will have ideas that we'll be trying, or maybe the sailmakers. There's a range of things that we've discussed before we go out, and then we're experimenting and just checking that we're going in the right direction."
The teams also follow their own usually different processes for the post session debrief. Some are very keen to get the sailors together with the design teams, while the data and day is still fresh in their minds.
"It depends on the day in terms of how long the debrief lasts, but ultimately we're discussing what happened that day, and the most interesting topics, looking for anything we need to learn from, or maybe any issues that we picked up.
"There's a debrief happening every day, as you'd expect. And then sometimes the sailors may go into a separate one and spend a little bit more time on on our specific areas," he added.
In Cagliari, another Tokyo2020 Gold medalist, Ruggero Tita was back from successfully defending his Nacra 17 world championship at the Allianz Sailing World Championships in The Hague.
First question on AC37 Joint Recon team member Michele Melis' list zoomed in on one of the popular talking points around mechatronics, and the options for linking controls - such as "linking any trim control from the main to the jib, so they're simultaneously trimmed? Do you have some such protocols?"
Tita batted that one away, given the interviewees are not under any obligation to answer design or performance questions. "It's possible," he responded.
He was a little more forthcoming with a question about leeway that the Cup foilers are making.
"I think leeway is a big topic, and is something we are investigating from the last [Cup] period and for sure will play a big role in the Cup."
Asked if he hoped to be co-helming the AC75 race boat, Tita replied: "Who knows it's one of my dreams."
"And of course, we will have some some races in between and I will try to be here on the service of the team."
Whether he gets a crack on the helm in one of those series, or any yet to be announced Practice, Tita will be a talking point over the coming months.
Of course, the elephant in the room is that everything going as planned, Ruggero Tita and crew Caterina Banti should be representing Italy in the Nacra 17 class at the 2024 Olympic Regatta 175nm along the Mediterranean coast, from Barcelona. The Nacra 17 event finishes on August 7, 2024 and the America's Cup Opening Ceremony is on August 22, with the Challenger racing expected to start a day or two later.
In the last Cup Kiwi 49er sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, sailed both in the Olympics and the America's Cup with a five month plus gap between the two regattas. By contrast, Tita's projected schedule has just a couple of weeks between the two major events. Burling and Tuke finished on equal points with Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell (GBR), in Tokyo2020 - but the Brits won the Gold medal after the tiebreaker was applied.
On the upside, Tita will come in race sharp from the highly competitive 2024 Olympic regatta - being sailed at Marseille - a few miles along the Mediterranean coast, and probably with a Gold medal around his neck. It will be interesting to see how Ruggero and Luna Rossa address that dilemma - not forgetting the time off required for Olympic class training (typically two - three months) ahead of the event.
But given his currency of form, and Olympic class success, Ruggero Tita is a nice problem to have.
Weather conditions at Barcelona August 19, 2023:
Unusual weather conditions at Barcelona with a breeze of 8kts gusting 10kts, according to the weather station at Port Olimpic. At sea level the AC37 Recon Teams had it a a little lighter at 7-8kts from the East - but most significantly seas were recorded as being flat.
Surprisingly in the light wind the Brits managed to blow the clew out of a mainsail skin - the flat seas meant there was no shock loading.
In Cagliari, Luna Rossa again got ideal testing conditions with a 11-13kt breeze from 175° (S) with a wind chop and half metre off-axis SE swell.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - Day 82 - August 18, 2023 - Cagliari
The Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (LRPP) rolled out their LEQ12 prototype at 12:30hrs, proceeding with the mast stepping procedure and craning the yacht in by 12:40hrs from their main base at Cagliari, Sardinia.
The boat configuration remained unchanged compared to Day 81 with Wing Foil #2 on the port Foil arm and Wing Foil #03 on the starboard arm as confirmed by latest declaration.
Routine checks followed and dockout was scheduled for 13:30hrs after having locked in the newest mainsail M1-2, which was then hoisted and paired to the J2-1 for the whole day.
The forecast offered seabreeze with 11-13kts from 175° True Wing Angle with a mostly flat seastate beside some light wind chop at the beginning.
Sails were hoisted by 13:45hrs and the LEQ12 was foilborne on portside tack after a light pull by Chase-2 providing the 40ft yacht with some initial speed.
The first foiling stint began with a series of tacks combined with straight lining, while running some upwind and reaching modes and especially end-plating the hull (flying close to the surface - forming and end plate between the rig and the water surface) when feasible.
After a couple of tacks the LEQ12 was observed bearing away and testing some gybes between some downwind modes on straight line before trimming up tacking and stopping for just a couple of minutes which saw some sailors in pulling some strings inside the mainsail clew.
The LEQ12 was back up foilborne for another quarter hour and maneuvering mostly upwind between some longer straight line sailing.
Then the LEQ12 came to a stop offshore of Sarroch. While the co-helms swapped some checks were conducted on the cameras embedded on the starboard foil arm stock.
The pressure seemed to be unchanged in terms of intensity and direction however swell from SE of approx .5mtr every 4secs seemed to be filling in proving a good offset between wind and waves. The sailing break was short, and after the usual light pull by Chase-2, the LEQ12 took off and headed downwind for an intensive series of gybes, endplating when possible. They tested with some two board time dropping the windward one, trimming up slightly and, when up, bearing away into mode again before gybing and trimming up by the harbour pier.
Sails were lowered by 15:25 and the day was called with approx. 84 minutes of foiling out of 114 minutes total, 13 tacks and 15 gybes.
[Michele Melis AC Recon].
Crew: (Co-Helms): Francesco Bruni, Jimmy Spithill, Andrea Tesei, Umberto Molineris
Session Statistics: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - August 19, 2023 - Cagliari
- Weather: Sunshine, 31°
- Wind Strength 11-13kts
- Wind Direction: 175°
- Sea State: Wind chop plus 0.5mtr swell from SE (135° or 40° off the wind axis)
- Dockout: 1330hrs Dock In: 1530hrs
- Total Tacks: 14 - Fully foiling: 12; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 15 - Fully foiling: 13; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 0
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 71 - August 19, 2023 - Barcelona
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team (Justin Chisholm)
A disappointing day to end the week for INEOS Britannia after a tear to the port mainsail skin on their LEQ12 T6 curtailed their sailing session after only 35 minutes of sailing.
After rolling out at 1100hrs and launching at 1140hrs, T6 left the dock at 1251hrs and by 1320hrs was out of the harbour mouth, and foiling on port tack, paralleling the containership breakwater - in seven knots of breeze on flat seas. After a 35 minute windward leeward lap that finished with a touch down gybe T6 was put on a bow tow for a 20-minute 25-knot foiling run along the coast in search of more wind.
Unfortunately, just as the crew – helmsmen Giles Scott and Dylan Fletcher with trimmers / flight controllers Luke Parkinson and Leigh McMillan (with Ben Cornish as fifth man) – were about to cut loose from the tow they noticed a tear near the clew of the port mainsail skin which left the damaged area flapping in the breeze.
With no repair possible on the water time was called on the session at 1430hrs as sails were dropped before a long foiling tow back to the harbour.
Dock in was at 1510hrs. No sailing is scheduled for Sunday and Monday with the next possible session being Tuesday August 22.
Session Statistics: INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 71 - August 7, 2023 - Barcelona
- Weather: Sunny 33°C
- Wind Strength 7-8kts
- Wind Direction:090°
- Sea State: Flat
- Crane In: 1140hrs Dock Out: 1251hrs
- Dock In: 1510hrs Crane out: 1540hrs
- Total Tacks: 3 - Fully foiling: 1; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 6 - Fully foiling: 4; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 2
Crew: Dylan Fletcher, Giles Scott, Luke Parkinson, Leigh McMillan, Ben Cornish (5th man)
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.