Cup Spy April 22: Two teams have solid sessions in top end conditions
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 22 Apr 21:39 AEST
22 April 2024
Emirates Team New Zealand- AC75 - Day 7 - April 22, 2024 - Auckland © Sam Thom/America's Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand started the new week with a courageous display of heavy air sailing in their new AC75, Taihoro.
They emerged with no apparent damage, despite pushing the AC75 at race pace in an offshore breeze that was recorded as gusting at over 30kts in several observation stations in the Predictwind system. This coverage includes a 25 minute video of Taihoro's sailing session.
What happened in the Cup - April 21-22, 2024:
- INEOS Britannia - continued with set up on their new AC75 in Barcelona. This was their second day in this process.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing - did not sail on Sunday, but had a successful light air sailing session on Saturday in their new AC75.
- Emirates Team New Zealand - sailed their AC75 in heavy air out of Auckland. They are expected to keep sailing until early May, resuming in Barcelona in early July.
- American Magic - sailed paired AC40s all last week. Their AC75 is one of two yet to be revealed, it arrived at the base on March 26. Today, Monday, they sailed both AC40s in LEQ12 (development) mode out of Barcelona in an increasing breeze, topping 22kts, and a sea state that was 100 degrees off-axis from the wind direction.
- Orient Express Racing Team - Their AC75 is the other yet to be revealed. It is to an Emirates Team NZ design.
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - The Italian team had an awkward start to their sailing program, on April 20, with the AC75 pulling up just a minute or two into the session. However on the following day the Italians had a good sailing session, and should continue with their commissioning this week.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Day 7 - April 22, 2024 - Auckland
Day 7 with ETNZ sailing Taihoro AC75 on the Hauraki Gulf. With the southwesterly breeze building and strengthening, the team opted for a delayed start to the sailing day to allow the majority of the squall systems to push through. Splashing the boat just after 13:00hrs, the team proceeded to work through some dock checks and headed out onto the harbour, towing towards the "Back Paddock" in hopes of some more manageable conditions.
Coming off the tow, the team set out hoisting a Main that Recon had not seen before. This main was smaller in overall area. Also hoisting the J5. With the wind blowing consistently over 20 knots, the team got the sailing session started at 15:10hrs, sailing upwind on port for a short time before performing a double board down bear away and then sailing downwind, using all the runway available, rounding up and coming to a stop near the southern shore of Waiheke Island at 15:22hrs.
With the sea state and breeze building, all team and recon chase boats struggled to keep pace with the yacht. Recon was working on following the boat as best as possible, keeping up with the middle of the sailing area and observing as necessary.
Starting sailing again at 15:48hrs, the team went into some more aggressive laps of the back paddock, starting to add some more maneuvers and pushing the boat through its paces in the upper range conditions.
You can see Justin Mitchell's extended play video below - 25 minutes - shot from Eastern Beach adjacent to the "Back Paddock".
From what AC37 Recon could observe, the team had good control over the yacht throughout maneuvers. However, they would often spend some time sailing fast with the hull touching the water when exiting gybes. Sailing three more full laps of the Back Paddock, the team continued to up the pressure they put on the boat, working on faster sailing modes and more loaded situations, eventually coming to a stop at the top end of the bay at 16:31hrs. With the light starting to fade, the team dropped sails and started the tow back to the dock, ending the session.
Recon had an interview with Nathan Outteridge to hear his thoughts on Taihoro and the day's sailing.
From: AC37 Joint Recon Team - Sam Thom and Connor Mashlan
Session Statistics: Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Boat 3 - Day 7 - April 22, 2024 - Auckland
- Weather: 17-20 degrees Rolling rain squalls
- Wind Strength: 20-25kts gusting 30kts
- Wind Direction: 245 degrees
- Sea State: 1.0mtrs
- Crane In: 1315hrs Dock Out: 1400hrshrs
- Dock In: 1725hrs Crane out: 1753hrs
American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 - Day 113 - April 22, 2024 - Barcelona
AC40-8 'Magic' was craned in at 10:30hrs and AC40-5 'America' craned in at 11:00hrs.
When alongside, sailors and engineers made some regular checks to be sure everything was in perfect condition before the sailing session.
After a short briefing from all the team involved in the sailing session, they proceed with the dock out at 12:00hrs and ten minutes later they started hoisting their mainsails: MC-4 for America and MC-2 for Magic and they paired them with J2custom jibs.
A wind of about 9-11 kts from 240º was blowing at 12:20hrs after hoisting the sails. Waves were coming from a 138 degrees direction, off-axis by about 100 degrees to the wind. From here the sailing session progressed as explained in the following phases:
Phase 1: (1hr) Wind 9-11kts from 240º After some warmup sailing, they began an upwind/downwind race. The top mark was virtual and was set by one of the chase boats. The race was won by America who was taking distance in the upwind, but Magic managed to make a great come back in the downwind and get into the finish line quite close to America.
Phase 2 (45mins): Wind 12-16kts from 240º. Two prestarts were practiced. In the first one Magic was getting into the box before than America at the prestart and managed to win the pin position and gained an advantage over America for the two laps upwind/downwind race (axis set to 240 degrees) that continued. A great and very close fight was seen in those two laps that finished with the lead of Magic but just a few metres in front of America.
In the second prestart America was getting into the box before than America. In the last minute a super tough battle was seen in between them, and in the way to the line America (leeward to Magic) managed to push upwind to Magic until the point that she lost the foiling. America managed to bore away just before loosing the foiling and successfully cross the line on time. Magic went back to the foils quickly but lost some distance against America. They performed a couple of upwind tacks and after sailed back to the line and stopped to get the jibs replaced by J3 jibs as the wind kept increasing.
Phase 3 (35 mins): Wind 12-18 kts from 220º. Two prestart more were done in this phase. In the first one Magic enters the line before America and after a tough battle managed to win the pin spot in the start. America got into Magic wind shadow with low speed in the same moment of the start and tried to tack quickly but lost the foiling after the tack.
In the second start was America who came into the box first. At the start they both started crossing the line in port side, America close to the pin mark and Magic by the middle of the line. They raced (7 tacks) until a bit after the entrance of the harbour where they stopped 20 minutes for a debriefing and battery replacement.
Phase 4 (40 mins): 18-22kts from 220º. They went back sailing to the starting line. Two prestart were done in this phase. Magic came first into the box at the first prestart but was America who managed to win the pin and got a bit of advantage in front of Magic. One upwind/downwind race was sailed after the start which was won by America. They finished the race after rounding the bottom mark. America did a very efficient rounding sailing with both arms down and managed to minimize the time where both arms were down. Magic forced sailing very low with both arms down to be able to round the mark as it was not yet in the lay line, but before rounding lost quite a lot of speed and when round the mark almost capsized as lost the apparent wind in the manoeuvre.
In the next and last prestart of the day America got into the line first. It looks that as it was very windy both boats lost the foiling in purpose (before the last minute) and waited for the right timing until getting into the foils, accelerating and crossing the line. America started leeward to Magic and won this race. Magic lost the control at the end of the downwind, luffed and lost the foiling.
After this last race both boats sailed together back to port in six tacks approximately.
Dock in was done at 15:45hrs for the American Magic team.
As a summary Magic and America have foiled around 140 minutes. They performed some speed test, around 56 tacks and 46 gybes each boat and complete 6 prestart, 1 x 2 lap upwind-downwind course races, 3 x 1 lap upwind-downwind course race and 1 x upwind course race.
Report by: Jose Piñana AC Recon
Crew: Co-Helms: America: Paul Goodison, Tom Slingsby, Magic: Lucas Calabrese, Harry Melges.
Trimmers America: Andrew Campbell, Michael Menninger; Magic: Riley Gibbs, Kyle Langford.
Session Statistics: American Magic - AC40/LEQ12 - Day 105 - April 3, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 16 degreesC - Sunny.
- Wind Strength: 9kts-22kts
- Wind Direction: 220 degrees-240 degrees
- Sea State: 0.75 - 1.25mtrs 138 degrees
- Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1550hrs
- Total Tacks: 56 each - 85% dry foiling
- Total Gybes: 40 each - 85% dry foiling
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