MAGIC SIGN-OFF AS SWISS CONTINUE COMMISSIONING

For Alinghi Red Bull Racing, the commissioning process goes on and whilst BoatOne has admirable take-off qualities in the light with its full-span foils and lighter overall build weight, the team were struggling through the tacks and gybes to keep that flight. The bow-down tendency was again ever-present, and the tight-rope walk of end-plating for best aero effect against keeping the bow from shipping over waves and spray was very much in evidence. Early days for sure and with the Flight Controllers perhaps controlling both trim and ride height, the team are very much learning all over again on this new generation AC75.

A series of touchdown tacks and gybes in the early part of this four-and-a-half-hour session on a sunny but still Spring-like day in Barcelona, eventually gave way to foiling success in the manoeuvres as the wind rose to above 12 knots. A change down from the rather beautifully detailed J2-1 with its lighter weight patches forward, to the J3-1 brought more success for the team as they powered down the Barceloneta beachfront, executing rapid one-board bear-aways and neat gybes. Unfortunately just after 2pm, quite a distance from the harbour down near Badalona, the call was made on the day with what was later described by cyclor Augustin Maillefer as an issue with the mainsail traveller.

Augustin described eloquently just how different BoatOne is, saying: “It feels different, many things are different, a bit of everything. In a way it's the same and at the same time it's like very different - many small things and I would say the most impressive is that actually now with lower speeds we’re able to take off, so that's a very nice thing to have success and take-off with low wind.”

Talking about being a cyclor for what is undoubtedly the hardest job at the Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup, Augustin described his ‘daily office’ saying: “Not much there, we don't have a sofa (!), it's not very comfortable, it's very small so when the boat is shaking, you're shaking as well inside of your small bubble, so really except the bike there is not much, we have enough information to of course participate to the boat to be able to deliver during manoeuvres, gybes, even straight-lines or whatever is needed, we have what we need to deliver but don't imagine it’s a fancy thing!”

Joining Alinghi Red Bull Racing today out on the designated racecourse area was NYYC American Magic in their final day of their two-boat race training programme. At dock-in this evening, both AC40s went down to Badalona where the Youth & Women’s teams will be based going forward, joining the Athena Pathway team who are already training from the dedicated base and will be joined by the Swedish Artemis Challenge in due course.

Out on the water, it was once again a repeat of what we’ve become very accustomed to with NYYC American Magic – another high intensity training day full of very close races, interesting pre-start tactics including the displacement wait until about a minute before the start when both boats pop onto the foils and then fight like banshees for position.

We were treated to two desperately close races, one that featured a comeback of epic proportions from Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison who just never know when they are beaten, even a near-capsize after a kamikaze gybe after a port entry couldn't stop them, and a second race where the finishing delta was just a few seconds and a few feet. All credit to Lucas Calabrese and Riley Gibbs who have really pushed the ‘A Team’ hard over the last few days. Full race reports below.

Terry Hutchinson, the Director of Sailing operations at NYYC American Magic spoke to the recon team after sailing and is clearly pleased with how the sailing team has developed over the recent weeks, saying: “We’ve had a really productive two months, this training block has been focused on racing development and our sailing team development and understanding moves and countermoves and working on the choreography on the boat between the helmsman and the trimmers and flight control and yeah in that regards it's been about as productive a training session as we could have possibly had. Barcelona has delivered champagne sailing really since February...the conditions through the first quarter of the year have been spectacular.”

Asked if he has a clear picture on the final line-ups in the key positions for the AC75, Terry gave an honest answer, saying: “As we go into the AC75, we will always put what we believe is the most competitive team on the water, America's been sailing pretty consistently over the last eight weeks with Tom Slingsby and Michael Menninger on the starboard side and Paul Goodson and Andrew Campbell on the port side and they're experienced sailors, they're successful sailors, and so as we go forward I think we're in a very good spot there, but we’ve also got great sailors like Lucas Calabrese, Harry Melges and Riley Gibbs so those guys keep knocking on the door and the crew of America have to continue to race well to have that spot.”

Looking around the Port Vell and wider to Cagliari and Auckland, Terry gave his assessment on the three teams who have launched so far, saying: “You give all three of those teams very high marks for their execution and their efficiency from the time they took delivery of their boats to the time that they rolled out and they were sailing their boats. Emirates Team New Zealand as always set the standard with that and I think as we go through our process, we have a process internally that we’ll work through with ‘Boat3’ and it will be what we've defined it to be, and each team has followed that process but all the teams here are very good and so what we've seen isn't really unexpected. All three of those teams have great platforms and you can see straight away that they're hitting their stride very quickly and so for American Magic, we have we have a couple days off here from a sailing side of the operation and let the sailors have a little downtime and a little chill and then when ‘Boat3’ comes out of the shed here will get back into it.”

The coming days will be very interesting with all eyes on the base for the first reveal ahead of the upcoming launch and commissioning sail. Also good today to see Orient Express Racing Team out sailing on the beautiful waters of Barcelona. The Louis Vuitton 37^th America’s Cup is very much alive and kicking. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing's second sailing day of the week saw the Swiss team make the most of a Barcelona Spring day that delivered un-sailable light winds until after mid-day but then developed into a solid sea breeze that built to peaks of 16 knots by the late afternoon.

The session took place on a sea state that began flat but morphed into a moderate chop with some slightly offset swell of around 0.5 metres. The Swiss AC75 was rolled out at 0933 to be rigged and launched by 1002, followed by two and a half hours of testing and set-up on the dock before the boat set out at 1230. Once in the harbour basin, the M1-1 mainsail and J2-1 headsail were hoisted by 1250 before the boat left the harbour on a bow tow at 1302.

The tow was almost immediately dropped, and the crew began their first flight just three minutes later in around 7-8 knots of breeze (with we believe a celebrity guest in one of the cyclor positions). This flight lasted 10 minutes before it ended in a touchdown tack.

The second flight lasted a similar time and saw a bear away and foiling gybe before ending in a touchdown turnup followed by a displacement tack. The next flight (around 20 minutes) was mostly upwind and saw seven touchdown tacks in 7-9 knots of breeze. A 10-minute break was followed by another 20-minute flight (mostly downwind) with three touchdown gybes and two foiling gybes. A 10-minute break was followed by another flight (10 minutes) with the breeze now up to 11-12 knots that featured four foiling gybes, one foiling tack, and one touch and go tack, before a stop at 1525 to change down to the J3-1 headsail as the southerly wind ramped up to 13-15 knots.

The following 15-minute flight saw the crew practising high speed one-board bear aways and round ups and included a touchdown tack and four foiling gybes. This run came to an end at 1406 off Badalona, when – after a short break – sails were dropped, and the boat was put on a foiling bow tow back to the harbour. The recon interview revealed that there was a reportedly minor issue with the mainsheet system.

The boat entered the harbour on foils at 1647 and was back on the dock at 1705. No sailing is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday April 25.

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: AC40-8 ‘Magic’ was craned in at 10:15 and AC40-5 'America' was craned in at 10:35. The recon team observed a team of three at the dock performing load tests in a bench test, for what we thought could be the shrouds for the new boat. Dock out was at 12:30 and ten minutes later they hoisted mainsails: MC-4 for ‘America’ and MC-2 for ‘Magic’,  paired with J1.5 custom jibs.

There was no wind blowing after hoisting the sails, so the team waited at the entrance of the harbour until 13:15 when a gust of 5-6 knots TWD 180º came in and America started sailing upwind but stopped soon after performing 2 tacks. Wind dropped and the team kept waiting until 14:00 when again a breeze of 5-7 knots TWD 180° came and after some time became more solid. From here the sailing session progressed as follows:

Stint 1 (14:00 to 14:50): 5-7 knots TWD 180º@14:00. America sailed upwind for 4 really long tacks, while Magic still was at the entrance of the harbour stopped. America suddenly bore-away while sailing upwind on port tack, to start sailing downwind. After 2 gybes, they managed to meet Magic who had started sailing. Both AC40s sailed downwind in speed-test mode until they found the starting line, that was set by one of the chase boats in front Port Olímpic. Magic stopped for some checks and America kept sailing performing many manoeuvres around the pre-start box. Due to the size and direction of the swell, manoeuvring with the AC40s was complicated as it was quite easy for the foils to break the surface.

Stint 2 (14:50 to 15:10): 6-8 knots TWD 180º@14:40. Two pre-start completed in this stint. In both, America was into the box before than Magic. In the first start America crossed the line leeward of Magic, both in the middle of the starting line. Magic was too close to America and finally got into the wind shadow, losing speed. After sailing for two tacks, they both came back to the starting line. In the second start, it was Magic who crossed the line to leeward of America but 2-3 seconds before the start her hull touched the water and lost some speed, not much, but enough for America to get over Magic and assume a dominant position. After two tacks they came back to the start line and stopped to change the J1.5 jibs for J2s.

Stint 3 (15:10 to 15:50): 10-14 knots TWD 190º@15:15. A complete race with two upwind/downwind laps was completed in this stint. America got in first into the pre-start box and immediately wanted to gybe from port to starboard where she almost capsized. She managed to get onto the foils just in time and started on port tack while Magic started on starboard. An intense battle on every leg ensued but the highlight was the rounding at the top mark of the second lap. Magic tacked just in front and very close to America and then America tried to attack from leeward when bearing away into the downwind and then after America attacked from windward to Magic, finally managing to beat her in the downwind. America won the race by a few meters. When finished, they stopped to replace batteries and change jibs J2 by jibs J3.

Stint 4 (15:50 to 16:40): 14-16 knots TWD 190º@16:20. Two pre-start were completed in this stint. In both, Magic was into the box before America in the pre-start. In the first start America started at the pin and Magic in the middle of the line. After two tacks they came back to the starting line. In the second pre-start they made the ‘waiting’ strategy that we’ve seen before with both boats waiting off the foils until the last 40 seconds and then lifting off on the foils and having a close battle until the starting line. America started close to the pin and Magic in the middle of the line. They continued into an upwind/downwind race that was won by America again by a very short gap.

This was the last sailing session with the AC40s for the senior American Magic Team, as after this race the team sailed to Badalona harbour where the AC40s will have their new base for the Youth and Women’s America’s Cup teams.

Dock in was completed at 17:20.

As a summary America foiled for 110 minutes and Magic around 90 minutes. They performed some speed tests, around 35 tacks and 35 gybes (America), 28 tacks and 28 gybes (Magic) and completed 5 prestart and 2 upwind/downwind course races. Jose Piñana AC Recon