Top level sport never stands still, and in sports where technical development is at a premium, getting a fresh perspective is vital. With this in mind, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team today took the opportunity to mix things up by changing what had become fairly established crew and helm positions.
INEOS Britannia have been doing this recently with their T6 LEQ12 prototype out in Palma and today it was the Italian’s who rang in the changes to get a new perspective. Francesco Bruni and Ruggera Tita swapped sides whilst the four trimmers rotated and swapped places, analysing different crew weights and the effect on the foils and overall trim. This was a day of severe foil testing through all the modes and manoeuvres and the thought dockside was back to whether the additional crew-weight affords more pressure on the foil wings as they flex to the mean at speed.
As top-class athletes, the crew adapted supremely with superb flight, perfect pops up from displacement to the foils and decent manoeuvres. The numbers show 19 tacks in total with 10 foil-to-foil meaning a 57% success rate, and 16 gybes with 10 foil-to-foil, equalling a 63% success rate. Shoreside, Francesco Bruni expanded saying: It was a very good day with a classic ‘Mistrali’ in Cagliari between 7-15 knots, so very nice conditions. We had some straight lining, some manoeuvres, and we tried to split the day between testing and manoeuvring…we tried also some reaching, trying to really push the foils as much as we could today. It was a little bit of a mix of a lot of goals, and it was a very good day for the team.”
And when pressed about the crew changes, Bruni added: “We changed positions of the crew, we had different foil trimmers and we also switched the position of the helmsman so we learned a lot today from doing that…switching positions is always very hard because you are used to the buttons in positions on the wheel and it takes a little bit of time to get used to that, and also the foil trimmers were also in a different position today so I think part of the reasons for the mistakes today was moving to the different positions but there is always a lot of learning going through that so I think the positives overcome the negatives.”
Luna Rossa continued its impressive showing in these test days out on a flat Bay of Angels, covering some 69 nautical miles and adding some 108 minutes of flight time to the tally - and what really strikes is the sheer stability of flight that they consistently manage to achieve whilst airborne. The Flight Controllers onboard on both sides were close to perfect today on the long reaching runs that were clearly executed to extract the maximum data from the platform for the design team. Sail control was pin-sharp precise with accurate and co-ordinated traveller controller (despite the crew changes) and Luna Rossa do seem to have very good flattening options for the lower part of the mainsail as the breeze increases.
Top flight time was 27 minutes and top speeds were estimated to exceed 40 knots at times. A glamour day for the Italians for sure and a serious marker of intent for the rest of the month.
On Water Recon Unit Notes: The day at the LR base (Ichnusa Dock) started relaxed with roll-out at 9:30, usual checks followed and after waiting for the latest forecast update, the team decided to postpone the dock out to 13:00 when the LEQ12 was finally towed out in the Gulf finding the expected dream forecast.
The LEQ12 sailed in- and offshore covering 69 nm with gorgeous conditions: flat waters and steady pressure. The crew pushed the LEQ12 on race pace almost, following a severe training schedule ticking boxes: 35 manoeuvres, running modes and test straight line sailing. With more breeze, manoeuvres looked slicker and faster executed with different successful rates between SB and PS tack. Twice has an ‘unusual’ flight (broaching) been observed with the LEQ12 almost fully exiting the waterline and splashing back down hull borne, seconds later it took off again. Between some legs, a short break of 10 minutes followed with personnel polishing and changing all Go-Pros. Crew wise there was some switching from SB to PS between sail trimmers/ foil controllers and helms. On two occasions while heading downwind, the LEQ12 has been observed with both boards down and lifting the windward up again while heading back up. Out of two headsails loaded on the chase-cat, the J2 has been up used throughout the whole session. The LEQ12 had a total flight time of approximately 108 minutes reaching top speeds of slightly above 40 knots on fast modes.