FIVE’S A CROWD IN BUSTLING BARCELONA

The unofficial line-ups were perhaps the story of the day but the reconnaissance is so hard to sift through that conclusions are invariably meaningless. The right-hand side tends to pay when it’s a south-south-westerly so speed differentials are hard to gauge but what we can say with a huge degree of certainty is that no-one looks dead and buried and off the pace at this stage and everyone has a mitigating circumstance to consider.

What we saw on one particular line-up between NYYC American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was the Italian boat absolutely smoking upwind and take yardage for fun on every close engagement. Perhaps the glorious sail plan of the Italians – it really is a masterclass wardrobe of sails – was the deciding factor? But then on the run, the Americans came back hand over fist and looked like downwind dynamite, rapidly destroying the deltas and looking brilliant on every gybe. Conclusions? A mug’s game.

Then we saw INEOS Britannia, today with their tweaked race rudder back on and sailing some extraordinary pitch modes with the stern yanked up high, facing off against Alinghi Red Bull Racing and effectively bouncing the Swiss off as they split tacks. On the face it, the British shaded that encounter and then went off for some very interesting pre-start practice with two boards down to gauge the manoeuvrability in the start box.

The on-water recon team were hugely impressed with INEOS Britannia today, particularly in the early morning light airs where Britannia was sailing with a very different sail set-up: “at the beginning of the day under light wind conditions we were positively impressed by the boat’s performance with this mainsail of smaller sail area combined with the J1-1.”

Equally impressive, and something that really is their forte and calling card, was when Alinghi Red Bull Racing performed two stunning circles in the pre-start box before a timed run into the line. BoatOne is a stunningly agile piece of equipment with a real nimbleness that is going to cause a lot of problems come the starting gun of the Louis Vuitton Cup in September.

Barnabé Delarze, one of the super-fit cyclors onboard was asked directly whether they have a boat that can win: “That's the $1 million question, it's really hard to judge. We are the newest team but also have in history of doing well as a newcomer, and yeah now that we see all the boats out there everyone has very different boat, so yeah it's going to be super interesting and I don't think anyone has the answer.”

Orient Express Racing Team were also out on track this afternoon and looking more and more like the real deal with every passing session. It’s no secret that the team have been struggling with hydraulic connectors around the mast base and having a few spills but these are minor teething issues and Antoine Rucard, the boat captain commented on whether the systems were overloaded saying: “No the load looks okay, we just need to keep an eye on every connector and yeah for sure it’s the first few days that the system is under pressure, so we need to check the tightening of every connector.”

The French are very concentrated now and as a tight-knit, relatively small team, they are taking big strides every day now as Antione confirmed: “For sure it's quite different but we've got the biggest team around this boat right now so from my side it's even easier because all the team right now is focused on this AC75 and before it was quite tricky because we have half the team working on the AC75 and less people on the AC40 so right now every department have a good plan for the maintenance and the checks and everything so it's working pretty well from now.”

NYYC American Magic have been taking every opportunity in the past few weeks to get on the water, after today they are now not scheduled to sail until Monday so we could well see upgrades coming through next week. Andrew Campbell, the stalwart Trimmer and Flight Controller confirmed the focus for the day saying: “We are still kind of in that phase where we're trying to make sure that the sails are what we expect through the range, we're always trying new settings and most of our focus was in the aero world today.”

And he summed up the day with an interesting answer talking about the crosses and line-ups that this ultra-competitive team find themselves in continually, saying: “It was actually a lot better than most of us expected. It was meant to be well it may still be stormy that was meant to kind of disrupt it but we ended up with a beautiful sea breeze and kind of mid-teens at times. It wasn't as steady as a normal Barcelona day but we'll take it, it was really flat water too so you know you saw a lot of teams out there making the most of it and it's nice to be in the mix every once in a while with somebody else and it gives you a good look for a few seconds and gives you maybe a little understanding about how you're doing.”

Phillippe Presti, Team Coach for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli gave a slightly different answer to what the team are taking out of these close-quarters line-ups saying:  “We're looking at our performance and how we can improve from our standard, it's pretty practically impossible to measure performance in the setup we have today and we're not allowed to line up so we don't, and then the wind is super shifty and we don't know what our opposition have as gear and development so frankly we’re just looking on our development, how we can improve day by day and that's our main focus.”

Phillippe also gave a very interesting answer to the question that is hanging over the Luna Rossa management like the sword of Damocles at the moment – who will be the driver line-up come raceday? “We’re super lucky having talented people in the squad. Last time we were relatively short in term of drivers, and we were lucky nobody got hurt because it could have been a real problem. This time we've got a fantastic drivers, four of them, Olympic Champions, World Champions and America’s Cup winners so we try to take the most of it and you know I think it's healthy to try different stuff. Last time we were the only one having two drivers, everyone was watching us and saying: ‘what are they doing,’ but I think you learn from experience of the other drivers, and I think it's very healthy at the moment and I think we’ll continue like that for a little bit.” 

Stunning day in Barcelona and a really valuable one for all five teams. The pecking order is starting to form but the variables are huge and we really won’t know who’s who or what’s what until those first races of the Louis Vuitton Cup at the end of August. Take your pick – anyone of five could come out on top and that’s a thrilling scenario. (Magnus Wheatley)

On-Water Recon Report – INEOS Britannia: INEOS Britannia rolled out their AC75 at 10:30, with the R01 rudder back on, after five days in the shed. The two cameras on top of both foil wings remained from yesterday, as well as the multiple LiDAR and Go-Pro cameras on different parts of the deck - Today’s daylight was ideal to obtain detailed pictures of the hydro flow organiser fenders, as well as of the discontinuous foil flaps on the trailing edge towards the wingtips. Britannia was craned to the water at 11:12 and the team docked-out at 12:30 as planned.

The MN2-1 of narrow top section was selected for today’s session, combined with the J1-1 to start. Both sails were hoisted just before heading out of the harbour.

South-south-westerly winds dominated the day, building through the day from 6 to 16 knots of intensity and slightly shifting right in direction, combined with mostly flat water conditions.

The training started with a long downwind-upwind-downwind sailing mostly in a straight line, trying different foiling heights and pitch angles, changing quite often in a dynamic way, to test the R01 rudder. Furthermore, at the beginning of the day under light wind conditions we were positively impressed by the boat’s performance with this mainsail of smaller sail area combined with the J1-1.

At 13:40 there was a twenty-five-minute break in which the J3-1 came up to replace the J1-1 in a building breeze.

The session continued at 14:05 with two additional long upwind-downwind legs, flying higher on the stern than usual and with a very aggressive bow-down pitch angle.

On top of that, on the first downwind, Britannia performed some ‘S’ manoeuvres on starboard tack and some short but aggressive changes of course while sailing upwind on closed-hauled course.

At 14:50 there was a new fifteen-minute break in which the J3-1 was replaced by the J4-1 and the first of two cyclor-rotations occurred with Freddie Carr, Ben Cornish and Ryan Todhunter stepping in to replace three of their starting colleagues.

The training was resumed with a short upwind-downwind warm up and some boat handling movements with both arms down, before shifting the focus of the training into pre-start sequences and racing laps.

The first sequence got underway at 15:25. A total of six sequences were carried out, following up with a one-lap upwind-downwind on all stints except the fourth that was abandoned immediately after the start. Britannia varied the side entries, their movements inside the box, the starting position at the starting line, the direction of the top mark rounding, and performed three tacks and two gybes on average per leg. In addition, the gate mark roundings were altered from port and starboard.

The element that called our attention the most was amount of time spent with both arms down during the pre-start sequences, even at moments when normally teams aim for maximum speed, such as when doing the approach to enter the starting box.

Possibly this was just to test the boat’s behaviour and balance on the pre-starts with this rudder, when manoeuvring with both arms down and when needed to accelerate or decelerate.

In between stints two and three there was a batteries replacement and the mainsail’s clew cover was removed to make some slight adjustments under it. Before stint four, the second cyclors rotation of the day occurred.

After a one-lap upwind-downwind on the sixth stint, the British Team sailed back to the base and entered the harbour on the foils. Sails were lowered inside the port at 17:15 and the team docked at 17:30 with no breakdowns and lots of smiles around the members of the team, indicating a positive day on the water. Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on INEOS Britannia

On-Water Recon Report – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: The Swiss rolled out BoatOne at 9:30, the mast was stepped, and the yacht was craned in at 10:05. The updated wings were swapped between port and starboard, and on starboard the arm stock was smoothed out.  Besides the usual dock checks, a pump was used to introduce water onboard and store it below deck, then observed exiting by the foil arm joint 

Dock-out was scheduled for 12:00, and the M2-1 was paired to the J1-1 just inside the harbour. Behind the pier, the breeze was measured 5.5-7kn from 185°. For the first 15 minutes, the team tried for light air self-take-offs on both tacks, ending unsuccessful as never able to reach boat speeds above 15 knots.

BoatOne was then towed downwind to the set gate to practice some more light air take-offs and manoeuvres. The success rate for take offs and manoeuvres increased as the pressure filled in with 7-9 knots from 175°, the J1-1 was lowered to hoist the slightly smaller J2-1. Beside some additional warm-up manoeuvres in more building breeze, the team focussed on one-board bear aways and round-ups before decelerating again.

As the breeze increased further, the J2-1 was lowered to hoist the J3-1 while all four cyclors were swapped. In the following stint, the one and only pre-start of the day was practiced with BoatOne on port entry, trimming up to the right, sailing two full circles and starting on starboard tack after 2 minutes and 10 seconds. After the start, BoatOne sailed upwind & downwind legs occasionally exchanging tacks with the Italian challenger, which crossed ahead of BoatOne on most occasions.

Once in displacement again, the team faced an issue on its main track/sheeting system which required several technicians and quite some time to be fixed. Once cleared, the J3-1 was lowered to hoist the J4-1. After a self-take-off with the windward board half immersed, as seen in previous higher breeze days, BoatOne sailed straight-lines with occasional manoeuvres in the choppy sea state. Before coming to a stop, BoatOne engaged on an upwind with the British challenger which covered its course side forcing BoatOne to tack twice.

Sails were lowered at 16:50 and the day was called with 112 minutes of foilborne sailing, 33 tacks, 27 gybes Michele Melis AC Recon.

On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: NYYC American Magic clocked up another solid day of testing and boat handling practice with a three-and-a-half-hour session sailed in a southerly breeze that built steadily over the day from a five-knot zephyr to a full-throated 15 to 17 knots. Characteristically with such a southern breeze the sea state was quite benign with the chop building from light to moderate over the afternoon.

The American team rolled their latest generation AC75 Patriot out of the hangar at 1050 this morning and the shore crew had the boat rigged and launched by 1119. The team docked out at 1257 and had sails (M2-1 mainsail and J1-1 headsail) up just outside the harbour by 1312.

An initial plan to tow the boat out of the light (sub five knots) zone close to shore was abandoned and the crew found their own way into eight knots of new pressure and then quickly on to the foils as the breeze continued to build. A brief stop to fix an unknown issue in the starboard helmsman’s pod was followed by a fast downwind blast on starboard gybe before a stop 10 minutes later to change down to the J2-1 and to remove a newly fitted long ‘zip’ cover over the jib traveller system.

The following session included a windward / leeward opposite tack match up with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. The Italian boat pulled away steadily on the upwind section to establish a big lead, but things looked much more even on the downwind run with the Americans twice having to alter course to duck the Italians while on port.

When the American crew broke off from this encounter at the end of the run they switched to a solo session of high speed (30 knots plus) upwind bear-aways and round ups, followed by downwind roundups and bear-aways. This session concluded with a long fast (45 knots plus) downwind run on port, before a stop to change to the J3-1 with the breeze at 12-15 knots.

A single pre-start practice start was followed by a second opposite tack match up with the Italians which saw obvious performance advantage to either boat.

With the wind now at 15-17 knots, the American crew looked set for another round of windward / leeward free sailing but, shortly after taking-off, the boat stopped again and cyclor Colton Hall was helped into the chase boat with what looked a cut to the leg.

The American boat sailed a short two-tack beat up to the harbour entrance where sails were dropped at 1615, with the boat docking in at 1628.

On-Water Recon Report – Orient Express Racing Team: Orient Express Racing Team craned in their AC75 at 11:15am this morning. Some orange markers that were set yesterday on the mast to control the cunningham tension (we guess) were today removed. Several checks from the onshore team on the aero and flight systems and controls (special focus on the mast rotation system was seen) were done before the dock-out, which was at 14:25.

A chase boat towed the boat out from the harbour, where they paired their M2-1 mainsail with a J4 jib. They finished hoisting the sails at 15:35 h, when a wind of around 12-15 knots was blowing with TWD 200º.

They started sailing and the boat start heeling quite a lot to windward in displacement mode. They stopped and some technicians jumped on board to check the mainsheet system. After 10 minutes and some verifications they re-started sailing and completed 3 upwinds and 3 downwinds with 6 gybes and 6 tacks in 53 minutes of effective foiling.

Their gybes and tacks are becoming more solid and also the boat was seen sailing quite locked-in on the pitch and roll angles, and sometimes a slight roll angle to leeward was seen upwind, especially on port tack.

No swap of batteries and no swap of cyclors was done today. Sails were dropped at 17:15 and dock-in was done at 17:40. Jose Luis Piñana – OERT AC Recon

On-Water Recon Report – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out their AC75, B3, at 11:05, and craned the yacht in at 11:25. Standard checks were carried out, but dock-out was delayed as further work was required, seemingly on the hydraulic aero control systems, with technicians in the cyclor and trimmer pods, as work was carried out at the mast base. The team docked out at 12:25 and towed the yacht north towards the Forum to find wind.

The new, lighter wind mainsail, MN0-2, and the J1-7 jib were hoisted, as the yacht was then put on a towline and tow started. Unable to complete a foiling gybe in the six knots recorded windspeed, tow-starts were repeated. Seeing INEOS Britannia foiling consistently in better breeze just a few hundred meters further offshore, the team headed for the same patch of wind and were able to string together 17 consecutive foiling manoeuvres. The J1 jib was exchanged for the J1.5-4 as the breeze filled in to about 10-11 knots.

The team began round-up and bear-away practice before joining American Magic for upwind and downwind split tacks and gybes. With the breeze still building up to 17 knots, the J1.5 jib was exchanged for the J3-7, ahead of racecourse practice. One lap of the course was sailed, before a quick stop to change batteries.

Following the second start, the team immediately engaged in split tacks with Alinghi Red Bull Racing, touching down on the bear-away before re-engaging in split gybes, as American Magic also got in the mix. ARBR shortly peeled off, as LRPP and AM continued split gybes downwind to Badalona, before rounding up for split tacks upwind. Marco Gradoni was replaced by Francesco Bruni on the port helm, as Paolo Simion and Luca Kirwan rotated out for Cesare Gabbia and Nicholas Brezzi. Enrico Voltolini and Bruno Rosetti remained on board.

The J3-7 was exchanged to the J2-7 for the final 35-minute stint, despite gusts recorded at 19 knots. An issue seemed to arise with the starboard foil before the team set off, with Andrea Tesei observed applying vinyl sticker to the inboard surface of the foil arm. Once resolved, the team engaged in more round-up and bear-away manoeuvres, as well as sailing with two boards down, before dropping sails at 17:00 to end the day.

The team docked in at 17:15, after five hours on the water and 150 minutes of active sailing. 59 manoeuvres were observed, of which just one gybe in the early light wind was a touchdown. Justin Busuttil - AC Recon