Cup Spy March 12: Three continue testing in AC40s
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 14 Mar 01:26 PDT
14 March 2024
American Magic - AC40 - Day 100 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona © Job Vermeulen / America's Cup
Three teams sailed off Barcelona in in AC40s - with two teams training alone, and the third conducting what is presumed to be sail testing.
What happened in the Cup - March 12, 2024:
- INEOS Britannia - sailed their remaining AC40 Sienna in an early morning session.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing - no record of sailing today
- Emirates Team New Zealand - no record of sailing today
- American Magic - sailed their two AC40 with custom design sails and One Design Foils
- Orient Express Racing Team - sailed their single AC40
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - no record of sailing today
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 x 2 - Day 100 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
The rigs installed on both boats were swapped from last week. It looks like the team wanted to test a custom main sail (MC-5) against the one they had been testing on America last week (MC-4), so they installed rig and sail on Magic to test this other main sail on America against a fresh and reliable reference.
America still has the cameras we commented on last week, which are installed at the bottom of the side of the hull, a couple of meters forward from the foil arms.
The operations team and sailors made some regular checks in the Magic and America boats. Additional testing in the arms from Magic was done (up and down each arm several times). At around 12:45 h, all the crew members involved in the sailing session made a quick debrief, and at 12:55 h, they all docked out with the chase boats and both AC-40s.
At 13:20hrs both Magic and America had the mainsails already hoisted (MC-4 for Magic and MC-5 for America) at the entrance of the harbour, and as there was no wind yet they were towed by the chase boats out of the harbour where they paired the mains with a J1-5 jib for Magic and J1-C-1 jib for America.
From here, the sailing session was conducted as follows:
Phase 1 (13:55 h to 14:25 h): Wind conditions were about 4-6 kts from 135º. Boats had to be towed to start foiling in the beginning, but the wind increased quickly to 7-9 kts from 150º, and they could perform some speed test tacks upwind.
Phase 2 (14:25 h to 14.40 h): the coach boat set a virtual upwind-downwind course. While they were making speed tests, America and Magic performed a rabbit start and suddenly went into race mode, having a very nice upwind battle with around 8-9 tacks each until they arrived at the upwind gate and bore away after into a downwind. After three gybes they arrived to the downwind gate which was only rounded by America as Magic nosedived just after exiting their last gybe.
Phase 3 (14:40 h to 15:45 h): while Magic was checking all systems after the nosedive, Magic started doing some prestart manoeuvres, and in one of them, something went wrong as they went into a massive nose dive. It took them 15 minutes to verify that all systems were OK after the nosedive. Meanwhile Magic sailed in his own and performed some tacks and gybes.
When both were ready to continue sailing, they went for three prestarts. In all of them, Magic entered the line on the port side first, and then America came on the starboard tack to chase Magic. In all three starts, Magic went to the upwind part of the 'playground' (the starboard side of the line looking to the wind) and then bore away to enter the path to the line through some luffing and bearing battles with America.
The third start was the good one, and they raced for two laps on an upwind / downwind course. It was a great battle until the end of the second lap, finally won by Magic who seem to sail with a lower course in the downwind, what could make the difference.
Phase 4 (15.45 h to 16:30 h) They stopped at 15.45 hrs to perform a briefing and battery replacement. Wind was about 7-10 kts from 200º at that moment.
At 16:00 hrs, they started sailing again and continued the training with more prestarts. This time America entered the line on the port side first, and then after, Magic entered the start in starboard tack. They did three prestarts with different strategies set for practice.
Phase 5 (16:30hrs to 17:05hrs) Each boat sailed separately in the last 30 minutes. Magic went for a long downwind back to port, and America went first for a small upwind and then for a very active downwind with many gybes. Dock-in was completed at 17:15hrs for Magic and 17:30hrs for America.
In summary, America foiled for 155 minutes, performing around 96 manoeuvres: 85 % fully foiling, and Magic foiled for around 140 minutes, performing around 85 manoeuvres: 85 % fully foiling. Both did 6 prestarts and 2 upwind / downwind courses against each other.
Jose Piñana AC Recon
Crew: Co-Helms: America: Tom Slingsby / Paul Goodison; Magic: Lucas Calabrese / Harry Melges.
Flight Control Trimmers: America: Andrew Campbell / Michael Menninger; Magic: Riley Gibbs / Kyle Langford
Session Statistics: American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 x 2 - Day 100 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 16 degrees C - Sunny.
- Wind Strength: 4kts-10kts
- Wind Direction: 135-200 degrees
- Sea State: 0.6 - 1.1mtrs 130 degrees degrees
- Crane In: 1145|1100hrs Dock Out: 1300hrs
- Dock In: 1715|1730hrs Crane out: 1800|1815hrs
- Total Tacks: 51 (America) 46 (Magic) 85% Foiling
- Total Gybes: 45 (America) 40 (Magic) 85% Foiling
Orient Express Racing Team - AC40 - Day 11 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
OE Racing Team craned their AC40 to the water at 09:12hrs. It had been left with the mast up and out of the shed overnight. The team docked out at 14:45hrs, four hours and forty-five minutes later than expected due to lack of wind.
A one-design J1 and the LEQ12-MN-A mainsail were hoisted while heading out of the harbor at 14:49 and 14:54, respectively.
A weak southerly breeze with an intensity of 5 to 11kts prevailed during today's session, combined with flat water conditions.
Just before heading out of the harbour, our chase boat engine failed and stopped. After multiple attempts to restart it, Chase 1 towed us back to the base.
Together with three shore team members, we worked on the problem for approximately one hour until we were able to restart it. However, it still failed to run reliably and consistently.
Once it became clear that the engine was not in a condition to resume our activities, we talked to the team, enforced technical regulation 10.5 (d), and allowed the photographer to go out on their primary and only chase boat for the remaining training period.
The session, as described by the photographer and one of their sailors, apparently consisted mainly of sailing a virtual course with virtual boundaries and marks, doing a few tacks and gybes on each leg, with a strong focus on the starting sequence and movements.
Once the photographer was back in contact with the AC40, approximately at 16:20 hrs, he found them sailing with the J2, which meant that at some point between 15:00 hrs and 16:20 hrs, there was a jib replacement.
Towards the end of the day, the wind decreased in intensity, and the One Design J1 replaced the J2. In addition, there was a battery replacement approximately at 17:00hrs
At 18:08hrs, the AC40 entered the port on the tow, with the OD J1 and the LEQ12-MN-A mainsail up. Sails were lowered right in front of the pier, and the team docked at 18:28hrs. The boat was craned out of the water at 18:45, indicating the end of the day.
Sebastian Peri Brusa - Recon on OE Racing Team
Crew: Quentin de la Pierre, Kevin Pepponet, Matthieu Vandame, Jason Saunders
Session Statistics: Orient Express Racing Team - AC40 - Day 11 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 16 degrees C. Mostly sunny
- Wind Strength 5-11kts
- Wind Direction: 160 degrees - 200 degrees
- Sea State: 0.6mtr
- Crane In: 0910hrs Dock Out: 1445hrs
- Dock In: 1830hrs Crane out: 1845hrs
- Total Tacks: No data available due to Recon Boat breakdown
- Total Gybes: No data available due to Recon Boat breakdown
INEOS Britannia - AC40-10 - B - Day 4 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
INEOS Britannia made a pre-dawn start today to take advantage of a forecast of solid early morning northerly breezes blowing from off Barcelona airport. The British team had its second AC40 'Sienna' - configured in LEQ12 mode by way of a custom J2 headsail - rigged and launched just before sun up, and the crew - helmsmen Giles Scott and Dylan Fletcher with trimmers/flight controllers Leigh McMillan and Luke Parkinson - left the dock a few minutes ahead of the scheduled time of 0730hrs. The boat left the harbour on a foiling tow to a rigging point three miles south close to the 'November' commercial shipping buoy, where the M1-1 OD mainsail and the J2 LEQ12 headsail were hoisted simultaneously by 0750hrs.
The boat was quickly on to its foils for a 40-minute flight that began with a 10-foiling gybe downwind run followed by a short upwind before a fast reach over to the waters close to the airport. A quick three minute stop was made at 0834hrs before the boat was up and foiling again for the second session of the day - which lasted an hour and 15 minutes.
Although the main part of this session was windward leeward free sailing, the crew also spent some time reaching at high speed. Virtually all manoeuvres appeared slick and accomplished with just two touch and go gybes to spoil the crew's perfect score. Notable on the gybes was a technique that involved 'backing' the mainsail briefly on the new windward side on the exit to the gybe.
Also observed later in the session was the boat being sailed in high / slow mode - almost to the point of stalling.
As forecast, the breeze began to ease back around 1000hrs, forcing a change to the J1-1 OD headsail. During this stop, Fletcher, McMillan, and Parkinson were swapped out for British AC Women's Team skipper Hannah Mills, along with British AC Youth Team sailors Matt Beck and Alex Hughes.
Sadly for them, the wind had dropped to below 7kts, meaning they were only able to get foiling briefly with just one foiling tack and gybe before time had to be called. After a long foiling tow back to the harbour, the boat arrived back on the dock at 1120hrs.
Crew: AC-2 (Sienna): Giles Scott, Dylan Fletcher/Hannah Mills, Luke Parkinson/Matt Beck, Alex Hughes
Session Statistics: INEOS Britannia - AC40-10 - B - Day 4 - March 12, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: Scattered Cloud. 8 degreesC.
- Wind Strength 9-17kts
- Wind Direction: 330 degrees
- Sea State: Up to 0.4mtr
- Crane In: 0635hrs Dock Out: 0726hrs
- Dock In: 1120hrs Crane Out: 1200hrs
- Total Tacks: 22 - Fully foiling: 22; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 31 - Fully foiling: 29; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
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, and 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.