Cup Spy May 1: Kiwis call it quits - AC75 sails for last time in Auckland. Brits sail in Barcelona
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 1 May 01:07 PDT
1 May 2024
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Day 14 - April 30, 2024 - Auckland © Sam Thom / America's Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand has concluded their first sailing bloc, on May Day in Auckland.
The British team sailed their AC75 for the first time, hitting 30kts upwind, but with some foiling issues which seemed to trigger an end to their day. The Swiss team also sailed today, and appear to be coming to grips with their radical AC75.
What happened in the Cup - May 1, 2024:
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon Team - assumed the Italians did not sail.
- INEOS Britannia - The British sailed for the first time today. It was the team's first sail in an AC75 in three years, and understandably with a new AC75, they took it cautiously. They did get foiling on both tacks, and hit 30kts upwind. However the session came to an end after 1700hrs. Several of the team have SailGP commitments in Bermuda this weekend.
- Alinghi Red Bull Racing - Sailed today and appeared to be under control and making progress, with no issues reported by the AC37 Joint Recon Team.
- Emirates Team New Zealand - The America's Cup champions got away to an early start, in the face of a forecast of a freshening breeze, and finished sailing just before midday. Had their final day sailing in Auckland in their AC75, which is now being packed for Barcelona, and will leave at the end of May. They will resume sailing in Barcelona in early July. Both AC40s are still in Auckland, and it is expected that they will sail again in Auckland. Several of the team have SailGP commitments in Bermuda this weekend.
- American Magic - No report from the AC37 Joint Recon Team. Some of the team have SailGP commitments in Bermuda this weekend.
- Orient Express Racing Team - The team will be sailing in SailGP Bermuda, this weekend. Their AC75 is the other yet to be revealed. It is to an Emirates Team NZ design.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Commentary:
Co-helmsman Nathan Outteridge confirmed that the 14 day bloc had finished, and the team would begin the packout for Barcelona. They are expected to leave on a kiwifruit ship for Barcelona, by ship - a 30 day voyage - arriving in Barcelona, weather and canals permitting in early July.
"I don't think it could have gone a whole lot better," Otteridge told the AC37 Joint Recon Team after today's sail.
"We've had, 14 days on the water in less than three weeks. That's a good ratio for commissioning a new boat.
"We've seen some really long days, going far out [into the Hauraki Gulf] searching for waves, and some shorter days where we were clipping through things way quicker.
"So the team has done a fantastic job over this last period to commission the boat, see the boat through the wind range, and test the boat to its limits. It's holding up really well. So the next phase is getting to Barcelona and sailing it over there."
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Day 14 - May 1, 2024 - Auckland
Day 14 of sailing Taihoro AC75, and the last day of sailing for the boat in New Zealand waters. Docking out at 9:00am after a now run-of-the-mill rigging process, the team towed out of the harbour and stopped off Narrow Neck Beach to hoist sails. Hoisting the M1 and J2 to start the day in a light westerly wind.
Getting started sailing at 09:35, the team attempted to pop without assistance, but this was unsuccessful, so they hooked up to Chase 1, and during a short spell got sailing and headed downwind out of the harbour, sailing out into the middle of the gulf. During this sailing period, the team could be seen making some adjustments to a system at the base of the rig and spending time straight-line testing. A few maneuvers later and now heading back upwind, the team touched down exiting a tack and then came to a stop at 10:13. A quick break, and they were sailing again at 10:22 in a now building westerly wind.
Completing some longer windward-leeward laps off the Northern bays and into the gulf, the team was now sailing very fast in the uprange conditions. Seeming at times to be quite overpowered on the M1 and J2 combination. Recon observed the team sailing upwind with more leeward heel than normal. Stopping sailing at 10:41, the team changed to the M2 and J4, which seemed a more appropriate combination for the breeze conditions. Swapping some grinders during this stop. Getting sailing again, they completed 2 more fast windward-leeward laps with a range of maneuvers and some roundups with both boards down before sailing back into the harbour and all the way up and came to a stop off the base. Stopping sailing for the day at 11:30.
Recon had an interview with Nathan Outteridge to discuss the day and his time with the boat so far.
Crew - Sailing: Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge, Blair Tuke, Andy Maloney
Crew - Power: Cam Webster, Louis Crosby, Marius Van Der Pol, Simon Van Velthooven, Marcus Hansen, Dougal Allen, Sam Meech
From: AC37 Joint Recon Team - Sam Thom and Connor Mashlan
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Day 14 - May 1, 2024 - Auckland
- Weather: 16-18° Patch cloud cover
- Wind Strength: 10-12kts building to 16-19kts
- Wind Direction: 270°
- Sea State:
- Crane In: 0815hrs Dock Out: 0900hrs
- Dock In: 1200hrs Crane out: 1245hrs
- Total Tacks: 0
- Total Gybes: 0
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 4 - May 1, 2024 - Barcelona
INEOS Britannia rolled out their AC75, RB3, at 07:30hrs. All the details from the foils mentioned by recon Justin Busuttil on the previous recon session (26-Apr) were observed.
The mast was stepped at 08:00hrs, with small aero fairings mounted to all the vertical and diagonal shrouds (as in previous session). The yacht was then craned in at 08:25hrs.
Aero systems were tested with the manpower given by the cyclers from all pods. Mast rotation was tested at different speeds.
Four jibs were carried onto chase boats: J1-1, J2-1, J3-1 and J5-1. The M1-1 mainsail was craned onto the deck from RB3, and the team prepared to dock out. The team was delayed further as last-minute checks.
The team docked out at 12:00hrs, with the following crew onboard RB3 (from forward to after): Starboard: Ben Ainslie, Neil Hunter, Luke Parkinson, Bleddyn Mon. Port: Giles Scott, Matt Gotrel, Ben Cornish, Leigh McMillan.
Once out from the harbour they towed in RB3 for 7 nautical miles in a 50° E course from speeds that went progressively from 18kts when full up foiling until early 30kts. The boat looked stable and the skeg in parallel to the sea level when towing. A wind of 8-9kts was blowing at that moment from 190° and the sea state was almost flat.
When they arrived in front to Badalona harbour RB3 release the towing line, head up to the wind foiling in her own and land with the hull into displacement mode. The M1-1 main sail was hoisted in around 25 minutes and after connecting all aero systems to the main, the J3-1 jib sail was hoisted around 20 minutes after.
Technicians from the INEOS Britannia team were double checking all systems before getting back into the chase boat and at 14:10hrs RB3 started sailing in port side on displacement mode, checking all systems were working fine. They tacked and checked also all systems from starboard side and when they were completely sure all was working, they started sailing into a 80-90° course and slowly trimming the sails so RB3 started foiling for first time in her starboard tack. We observed that when started to foil the boat naturally wanted to pitch forward so the bulb from the bow (hull) was touching the sea water until that was corrected by the flight controller through the rudder rake (we guess). Once the crew managed to have the boat in equilibrium with all the skeg out and in parallel to the sea level the boat started accelerating. The boat was progressively winning speed until they got into stable + 30kts sailing upwind. Wind at that time was 8-12kts from 190°. They went back into displacement mode and tacked.
When sailing in portside we observed exactly the same process than before: when taking off the ‘nose’ naturally trend to pitch down and they had to correct that from the rudder rake (we guess). This time went faster to equilibrate the pitch of the boat.
We mention that in both tacks a cycler had to get over the foil arm and touch something on the foil that seem to be stacked?
After around five minutes sailing in port tack they stopped for some checks. They opened the bow hatch and some technicians jumped onboard. After 30 minutes of checks they continued sailing in port tack in an upwind course. After a long 10 minutes tack they bore away into a downwind but the boat heeled to windward too much. They luffed and stopped. Wind has increased to 16kts and the wave had also increased. They decided to swap the J3-1 for a J5-1.
INEOS Britannia team had some problems to hoist the J5-1. It was the first time this jib was being hoisted so they need it some time to adjust all the settings.
When they were ready to sail the wind shifted to 240° and was quite gusty in between 10 and 16+kts. The wave also increased a little bit more. RB-3 foiled for three long upwind tacks with the J5-1 jib in stable speeds of 30+ kn sailing upwind. They did 2 ‘touch and down’ tacks and then by the beginning of the third tack we could see the boat foiling suddenly quite high but under control. They stopped, had a quick briefing with the chase boat and stared dropping the sails at 17:15hrs. Around 17:35hrs the chase boat started towing the boat back to the base and dock in was done at 18:20h.
Crew - Sailing: Ben Ainslie, Giles Scott, Bleddyn Mon, Luke Parkinson, Leigh McMillan
From: AC37 Joint Recon Team - [Jose Piñana - AC Recon]
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 4 - May 1, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 17C° Partly cloudy
- Wind Strength: 8-16kts
- Wind Direction: 190-240°
- Sea State:
- Crane In: 0825hrs Dock Out: 1200hrs
- Dock In: 1820hrs Crane out: 1930hrs
- Total Tacks: 2
- Total Gybes: 0
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 9 - May 1, 2024 - Barcelona
ARBR rolled out their AC75 at 09:45hrs and craned it to the water at 10:20hrs.
After performing multiple routine checks, at 11:50hrs just ten minutes before the scheduled dock-out time, the team identified something out of order and was forced to crane the boat out and remove the mast. Immediately after, the mast was taken inside the shed for ten minutes.
We could identify two shrouds being switched, from their respective original tack to the opposite one.
Nevertheless, by 12:30hrs the mast was back on and twenty minutes after the boat was again on the water.
The team finally docked out at 13:45hrs. The M1-1 mainsail and a possible new or modified J4 were hoisted while heading out of the harbor at 13:55hrs and 14:07hrs, respectively.
Unstable medium-wind conditions prevailed during today´s session, moving up and down in intensity and persistently turning right in direction, starting on 190° at the beginning of the training and ending up all the way on 255°.
At 14:20hrs the training started with a short downwind-upwind warm up. Fifteen minutes after, a first break took place in which the jib was lowered to perform some minor adjustments. Once re-hoisted, the training continued with two upwind-downwinds performing two tacks and gybes per leg.
When sailing on a straight line, three elements called our attention:
- Leeward foil wing-tip out of the water almost all the time
- Pitch angle with the bow pointing down almost all day long, both upwind and downwind and
- A considerable amount of prebend on the mast, more than what we have seen on other AC75s in the past.
At 15:11hrs there was a short ten-minute break, and for the following half an hour the main focus were the maneuvers, performing five tacks and gybes per leg with a short time-gap in between one and the next one. Approximately, a 60% of the maneuvers were fully foiling, presenting more difficulties when the wind dropped in intensity.
From 15:45hrs till 16:00hrs there was a new break, in which many team members got onboard for de-briefing. Then the session continued.
Just before heading back to the base, the team practiced some boat handling exercises bearing-away and heading up from upwind closed-hauled course into downwind VMG course and back, on both tacks, multiple times.
Once closer to the port entrance, at 16:50hrs the team decided to put an end to the training and proceeded to lower both sails.
ARBR entered the harbor on the tow with no sails at 17.00hrs and docked at 17:10hrs. The boat was craned out thirty-five minutes later, indicating the end of the day.
Sebastian Peri Brusa – Recon on ARBR
Crew: Arnaud Psarofaghis (stb), Maxime Bachelin (port), Dean Barker, Bryan Mettraux, Nicolas Charbonnier, Yves Detrey and Multiple cyclors taking turns.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 9 - May 1, 2024 - Barcelona
- Weather: 20°C Partly cloudy
- Wind Strength 11-15kts
- Wind Direction: 195° - 225°
- Sea State: 0.6mtr
- Crane In: 1250hrs Dock Out: 1345hrs
- Dock In: 1700hrs Crane out: 1745hrs
- Total Tacks: 25 - Fully foiling: 15; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 7
- Total Gybes: 23 - Fully foiling: 13; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 6
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.