Cup Spy May 3: Three teams work up their AC75s in Barcelona and Cagliari
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 8 May 23:20 AEST
5 May 2024
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 6 - May 4, 2024 - Barcelona © Job Vermeulen / America's Cup
Three teams sailed - two out of Barcelona - Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and INEOS Britannia. And, the other - Luna Rossa - sailed out of Cagliari. The Brits seemed to have a better day, hitting 40kts on one foiling leg.
What happened in the Cup - May 3, 2024:
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - sailed their AC75 from Cagliari
- INEOS Britannia - sailed their AC75 out of Barcelona
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing - sailed their AC75 out of Barcelona
- Emirates Team New Zealand - Are packing ahead of shipping their AC75 to Barcelona. They will resume sailing in Barcelona in early July.
- American Magic - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon Team. The AC75 is assumed to still be in the commissioning process.
- Orient Express Racing Team - Their AC75 is the other yet to be revealed. It is to an Emirates Team NZ design.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 10 - May 3, 2024 - Barcelona
ARBR rolled out their AC75 at 09:25 and craned it to the water at 10:02. The team docked out at 12:00 as planned, after usual hydraulic and electronic tests, and re-tying the spreaders ends to the shrouds.
The same mainsail as two days ago was selected for today´s session, combined with the new J4-1 that was officially declared yesterday and used last Wednesday for the first time.
In addition, new versions of both foil wings were declared, indicating that probably there were “hands-on” over the wings during the day-off.
When talking about the conditions, stable medium-strong winds from the SSW prevailed during today´s session, building in intensity through the day reaching up to 20 knots, providing an interesting training field.
This is the first time ARBR sees winds over 15 knots of intensity onboard their new AC75.
At 12:35 the team exit the harbor on the tow, with both sails already hoisted.
The training consisted of mostly sailing on a straight line, performing long upwind-downwind legs, pushing for maximum VMG. This combined with a few tacks and gybes per leg, respectively.
After the first down-up, at 13:15 the team stopped and lowered the J4-1 to adjust something on the jib halyard. Then it got re-hoisted, and the training continued.
The observations from Wednesday (pitch angle bow down, leeward wing tip out of the water surface almost all the time, and the considerable mast pre-bend), were sustained during the session.
On top of that, in these stronger wind conditions the boat seemed much more stable and reliable than the other day, especially when maneuvering, achieving fully foiling tacks on most of the occasions and a better gybing performance. Overall speaking, a pretty solid performance of ARBR for being just their 10th day with this new boat.
After a short break, at 13:55 the training continued with a new upwind, until the AC75 apparently hit a floating o semi-submerged object with the rudder that called the attention of the sailors who decided to stop for precaution.
Immediately after, the diver jumped into the water to check the rudder underneath, while two team members opened the aft hatch to inspect for potential damage. Finally on the interview, the port trimmer informed us that small amounts of water were found inside the hatch.
At that moment the team proceeded to lower both sails and head back to the base to assess the situation, on the tow, foiling.
Once back ashore, the boat was craned out and no damage was identified from the outside.
The team plans to train tomorrow, indicating that nothing serious was found.
Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on ARBR
Crew:Sailing: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Maxime Bachelin, Nicolas Charbonnier Nico Rolaz Bryan Mettraux
Power: Théry Schir, Florian Trub, Neils Theuninck
Session Statistics: Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 10 - May 3, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 122°. Sunny
- Wind Strength 15kts-19kts
- Wind Direction: 200°-205°
- Sea State: 1metre swell plus chop
- Crane In: 1000hrs Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1445hrs Crane out: 1520hrs
- Total Tacks: 9 - Fully foiling: 8; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 16 - Fully foiling: 11; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 4
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 5 - May 3, 2024 - Barcelona
INEOS Britannia team docked out today at 9:45hrs, hoisted the main sail M2-1 and towed RB3 to the same spot in front of Badalona harbour, like in previous sailing session. There they hoisted J2-1 jib.
Wind was blowing in about 5-7kts from 180º and there was a symmetric swell to the wind of about 1 to 1.5 m round and smooth.
They foiled for a total of 7 tacks (14 miles). In the first tack, they were barely foiling and spent some minutes checking systems before they began to foil.
After that, they continued sailing in a semi-foiling mode until they tacked. They sailed with the jib quite open and hardly pumped the mainsail to achieve take-off.
In the next two tacks, the boat appeared somewhat unstable while flying. They experimented with different heights, and the keel was not consistently parallel to the sea surface, showing a tendency for the bow to dip towards the water. Also, the foil from leeward was sometimes touching the sea surface.
It felt like they were maybe just trying to feel the controls and the boat reactions as it seemed they were not sailing as fast as they could. They stopped and apparently, they just modified the angle from the sheet attached to the jib clew. The wind also increased to a solid 6 to 9 kts from 180º.
From here they started sailing faster, stable, and cleaner (hull not touching much the water) and even for the first time they went for some seconds into reaching where immediately we saw speeds of solid 40+knots, but they quickly come back to the upwind course.
From the seven tacks done today two were in displacement mode, three touch and go and two fully foiling.
No downwind tests were done, and the sailing session was called early as they dropped sails at 13:00hrs. Before getting back into the base they performed some take off tests in towing mode at different speeds and accelerations.
Dock in was done at 14:10 h.
Crew - Sailing:
Crew - Power:
From: AC37 Joint Recon Team -
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 5 - May 3, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 19° Partly cloudy
- Wind Strength: 5-10kts
- Wind Direction: 180° -190 °
- Sea State: 1 - 1.6mtrs
- Crane In: 0740hrs Dock Out: 0945hrs
- Dock In: 1410hrs Crane out: 1450hrs
- Total Tacks: 2 Touch & Go: 2
- Total Gybes: 0
Luna Rossa - AC75 - Day 7 - May 3, 2024 - Cagliari
Luna Rossa Prad Pirelli (LRPP) team rolled out their B3 AC75 at 11:00hrs, preceded by their new mast MT03. While stepping it, the team run some load checks and rig tuning employing the usual RAM cylinder with one cyclor generating power to trim the jib cunno.
Another update was the new starboard foil wing: very flat spline form, slender pointy bulb, one flap along total span including winglets, spray fences on arm stock and a larger volume on arm thinning towards trailing edge. On the dock, the team run through the usual checks before docking out 13:55hrs. The forecast was upper range, 15-17kts with gusts up to 23kts from 305° closer by the harbour.
The team then towed B3 for a while downwind at speeds of 25kts varying starboard cant angles in the choppy seastate further offshore. Then the mainsail M1-7, with a newly added window, was hoisted and paired to the legacy J4 jib. Once all set, a self take off was observed on starboard tack before quickly tacking to port, slightly unbalanced, for a first test of the new wing.
Compared to when foiling on the legacy appendage, B3 looked more heeled to windward and bow down pitched loading the piercing foil while endplating the hull. Considering the upper limit pressure and the significant chop it was challenging to keep up with B3, which seemed to reach speeds of 42-45kn upwind according to RU onboard GPS.
As the yacht suddenly decelerated, perhaps some communications issues were encountered as new helmets were passed on board to afterguards. At 15:05hrs the second phase began on port tack by self take off leaning to windward and easily finding stability foilborne. Then B3 tacked and bore away for a longer straightline downwind run.
As Recon Unit (RU) caught up with B3, an unsuccessful gybe exiting on the new wing was observed ending up hullborne and back on towline for electronic and hydraulic shore crew checks. After this break, B3 performed another first easy looking self take off on port tack with 15-16kn boat speed on 80°. The yacht bore away and sailed downwind where lower ride heights and more stability in the chop were noticed compared to foiling on the older wing.
In terms of boat speed, B3 again outrun easily the RU chaseboat suggesting speeds above 43kts. As the yacht trimmed up on two boards, another impressive upwind straight-line run was observed while occasionally heeling to windward on the gusts depowering main. At 16:10, the yachts gradually decelerated to lower sails and the team docked at 17:25hrs
From: AC37 Joint Recon Team Michele Melis .
Crew - Sailing:
Crew - Power:
Luna Rossa - AC75 - Day 7 - May 3, 2024 - Cagliari
- Weather: 20° Sunny
- Wind Strength: 15-17kts
- Wind Direction: 290°-305°
- Sea State: 0.5mtrs
- Crane In: 1210hrs Dock Out: 1355hrs
- Dock In: 1725hrs Crane out: 1800hrs
- Total Tacks: 2 Fully Foiling: 1 Touch & Go: 1 Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 1 Fully Foiling: 0 Touch & Go: 0 Touch Down: 2
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.