The Emirates Team New Zealand base on the World Trade Centre promontory to which the statue of Christopher Columbus points, was a busy place on Thursday with a double session planned, mixing up training with the AC75 in the early afternoon followed by a late session of AC40 blasting in one-design mode. Long day for the shore team who are some of the hardest working people in the America’s Cup, but Barcelona delivered perfect conditions and it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Out on the water just after midday, with blue skies, high temperatures, billiard-table flat water and a beautiful 7-10 knots of breeze, Te Rehutai, the much-modified Cup-winning boat from AC36, looked sensational and it was all in the detail of the team’s technique. Blair Tuke and Andy Maloney, two of the finest Flight Controllers in the business, had the AC75 trim on point, inducing immediate windward heel post tack and dialling the ride ever lower to the surface upwind with clever cant angles. Such was the windward heel upwind that the windward exposed foil was skimming the surface regularly whilst up aloft the mainsail trim was a study in crisp, clipped trim to keep the power full on.
Early long runs to establish the preferred mode were replaced by a hugely impressive second stint of tacks and gybes that were 100% executed foil-to-foil and over the three-hour session, the Kiwis barely put a foot wrong. Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge have clicked like a jigsaw puzzle and their pairing has been one of the most inspired in this cycle. Exit angles from the gybes were particularly impressive and smooth whilst the tack transitions looked seamless all afternoon. Every team will be poring over the recon footage. The clues are there. Emirates Team New Zealand are performing at a very high level.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing meanwhile, took the perfect Barcelona conditions to get a very entertaining two-boat AC40 session in, running with their first boat AC40-4 in LEQ12 mode whilst the newest boat AC40-7 stayed in pure one design mode. Both bots were on autopilot and the established pairing of Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin took control of the LEQ with its Tubercle foil whilst Nicolas Charbonnier and Phil Robertson shared helming duties on the one design moded AC40. Expectations were for the LEQ to show well in the conditions but in a series of very close races it was the one-design moded boat that had the best of it and proving that boat positioning and tactics matter in the AC40. Vilanova will prove that beyond any doubt.
Speaking afterwards Yves Detrey was buzzing saying: “It was a great day. I mean it's nice to sail in 12 knots, it's a perfect wind condition and sea state, it was perfect there for us to you know do a little bit of racing because that's what we're trying to do to build for Vilanova…we had our two boats out and it was also a good opportunity to check performance and see how we're doing.” Yves was on the LEQ12 moded AC40 this afternoon and when asked about what looked like a slight performance deficit, he commented: “I think you know it's a bit marginal is it depends a little bit on the conditions and again we are left to go through the data altogether and speak about it…so it's discussion we are going to have tonight for sure.”
All eyes are now on Vilanova and Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be keen to convert a very solid winter of testing and training into performance where it matters. With the team’s planned holiday, they missed the first pre-event racing last week but with another session planned in the coming days, they will for sure be taking part in that before concentrating fully on preparations for the first Preliminary Regatta. Yves Detrey thinks that the learning curve is still going to be steep for the young Swiss team and will be eyeing sailing technique from the other teams: “For sure we are going to see some differences on the first event like any other series. When you show up to an event you have your convictions and then you believe that you are faster, and you have your setups and then and you narrow that down once you are sailing with the others so for sure for the first event, we're going to see some differences.”
Another team really gearing up for Vilanova is New York Yacht Club American Magic who put in a super solid day of testing again in their two modified AC40s as they continue their extensive upgrade programme with their foil packages. America carrying Foil Wing 03, the latest iteration, and Magic on the upgraded Foil Wing 01 both running on their port side foil arms respectively made for plenty of starboard tack evaluation with little to choose between the two in a straight-line. America, if anything appeared to shade it on the longer runs and then when the team started doing manoeuvre practice, it was almost a foil-to-foil demonstration that prompted the recon team to call their execution ‘majestic’ over 24 tacks and gybes
Speaking afterwards, Paul Goodison, always great in interview gave a thorough account of the day saying: “It looked like there was going to be a lighter forecast early on and then with a nice build later and some of conflicting reports but our forecaster got it spot on today so it's fantastic to get out there and get through the whole range of starting up in that 8 to 10 and then started going up to the 14 and some J3 conditions at the end it was a fantastic day on the water…very similar to the previous day, obviously we're foil testing pretty hard on starboard tack comparing Foil Wing 01 and Foil Wing 03 and then a little bit of aero tests as well and just some manoeuvre stuff so it's been a good day.”
With Vilanova on the near horizon, Paul commented on the team’s approach saying that they will continue this week with the foil testing before switching to one design: “At the moment where we're still sailing in LEQ mode, not in the one design mode so our focus is really more on the full development this week. Next week we'll try and put a couple of days in the one design mode to sharpen up a little bit for the for the first event but really the primary focus is developing the fastest race boat we can so we have a really nice AC75 when it comes around to racing for the real thing.”
And talking about their tactical approach having impressed hugely in the first pre-event last week, Paul added: “We did a couple of fleet races the other week against the other team so that kind of sparked a little bit of the conversation about how we approach it but really our primary focus is on developing the fastest boat for the America’s Cup so we are hard into the development stage with a full testing and the aero testing and we’ll switch over hopefully not too late to do some do some race practice.”
Asked specifically about who he thinks will make it to the match racing final in Vilanova, Paul offered: “Hopefully us but I think it's going to be very tight, each of their teams have got a great bunch of sailors and they've been developing their skills so it's going to be really interesting when we properly line up and do it for real.”
And that’s an understatement. The first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova from the 14-17th September is going to be a real test and will give an early indication of form. Hard to bet against American Magic at the moment. They are looking like the team to beat.