Cup Spy Oct 26: Swiss continues confidence building in AC75
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 26 Oct 2023 14:44 PDT
27 October 2023
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 99 - Barcelona - October 26, 2023 © Paul Todd/America's Cup
The Swiss were the only team to sail their AC75, and completed a four hour session, in a flatter seaway of 0.7mtrs. They sailed in lighter winds and not surprisingly were able to achieve a high dry foiling percentage. They did racing exercises today, which is perhaps indicative of a rising confidence level in the Swiss team.
What happened in the Cup - October 26, 2023:
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing - sailed their AC75 for a four hour session, in a flatter seaway of 0.7mtrs. They sailed in light winds and not surprisingly were able to achieve a high dry foiling percentage. They did race practice today, which is perhaps indicative of a rising confidence level in the Swiss team.
- Emirates Team New Zealand - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon team. Emirates Team NZ have sailed their last session in Barcelona for 2023. The team now heads for Auckland, leaving the AC75, Te Rehutai, in Barcelona, and exporting an AC40 to Jeddah for next month's second Preliminary Regatta.
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon team
- INEOS Britannia - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon team. Their test boat T6 is still in the shed after the catastrophic destruction of their rudder and rudder assembly during a towing session.
- American Magic - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon team. The USA team sailed yesterday, testing wingfoils and cameras on one of the foils. They will start sailing the AC75 on November 6 according to yesterday's AC37 Joint Recon team report.
- Orient Express Racing Team - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon team
- All teams are shipping AC40s to Jeddah for the second Preliminary Events at the end of November. Organisers will obviously be monitoring the security and war situation in the surrounding territories, before giving the teams a green light to travel to the venue.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - October 26, 2023 - Barcelona - from Elia Miquel- ARBR Recon Unit
Alinghi Red Bull Racing team practised pre-starts and sailed around the marks in a race curse during a three hour session on the water.
ARBR team rolled out their AC75 at 9:00hrs. The yacht was craned in, and the usual pre-sailing checks were carried out, with engineers onboard testing and checking the hydraulics.
The team docked out at 11:00hrs, hoisting the M2-2 mainsail and the J3-3 headsail inside the port and being towed out by 11:28h for ten minutes heading to the North. The wind conditions outside were 4 to 5 knots from 230° and a more calmed sea state compared to all the past week, also some clouds all over the city and hazy on the horizon.
They waited for fifteen minutes for a bit more breeze and right after, they did a warm-up upwind-downwind rounding one mark placed 2NM away from El Forum.
At 12:31hrs, they comenced the first pre-start procedure using a mark as a pin and one of the Chase boats as a Committee boat. They simulated a Race Course consisting of two legs in 4 nautical miles.
They stopped for a break at 13:00hrs, and with 7 to 9 kts from 230° they continued with another pre-start procedure twenty minutes later.
They seemed to be sailing more confident with today's sea state after the rough sea state conditions of the past two weeks. They did plenty of deep angle manouvres in a very short range of time.
After crossing the finish line, they stopped for another break. Twenty minutes later, at 14:00hrs, they followed with the last pre-start procedure of the day having 10kts average from 240°.
They ended up the session by the port entrance after a long upwind leg completing 10 maneuvers, all of them fully foiling. At 14:30hrs, the team dropped the sails and towed the yacht back to the base, where they docked in by 14:55hrs.
The team covered a total of 46nm miles over three hours on the water, 90min were spent sailing with 78 manoeuvres performed, 94% fully foiling.
Session Statistics: Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - October 26, 2023 - Barcelona
- Weather: Partly cloudy 24°C
- Wind Strength 4-9kts
- Wind Direction: 200°
- Sea State: 0.7metres
- Crane In: 0850hrs Dock Out: 1100hrs
- Dock In: 1455hrs Crane out: 1600hrs
- Total Tacks: 42 - Fully foiling: 38; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 3
- Total Gybes: 36 - Fully foiling: 35; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 1
Crew: Maxime Bachelin, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Nicolas Charbonnier, Bryan Mettraux, Yves Detrey, Nicolas Rolaz, Arthur Cevey, Augustin Maillefer, Barnabé Delarze, Thery Schir
Weather Observations - Port Olimpic - 26 October, 2023
When reading the wind charts look at a sailing window between 1100hrs and 1455hrs
The breeze is recorded at Port Olimpic at a point 12 metres above water level, and adjacent to the America's Cup course.
The strength of the breeze today increased during the sailing period peaking at 15kts average gusting 20kts according to the Nowcasting at Port Olimpic. These are higher speeds than the recon team recorded.
According to wave buoy data, the seaway was running at a lower height of 0.7mtres, but increasing to 1.2 metres later in the afternoon/early evening.
The data from Olimpic Port needs to be read against the AC37 Joint Recon comments and readings taken much closer to the water surface - and also the team comments.
The last day for racing in the 2024 America's Cup is October 27, 2023 - this day in 12 months will be the penultimate on the 2024 America's Cup schedule which starts on October 12, 2024.
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