With the America’s Cup community leaving Jeddah en-masse and the break-down of a most splendid venue in full swing, Alinghi Red Bull Racing wasted no time in resuming their training from their Obhur Creek base, taking to the pristine Red Sea waters on Sunday and Monday, keen to learn and capitalise on their positive momentum from the Preliminary Regatta where they finished on the podium in the overall standings.
How different the training days were, though, to the regatta where the team enjoyed 16-20 knots and a lumpy sea-state, for the final two training days in Jeddah it was slightly lighter and simply perfect for sail testing the team’s exquisitely detailed J1 and J2 LEQ jibs and the new mainsail design that looks to have a wider range.
Alongside the pure sail evaluation, what the coaches of Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be concentrating on is starting and high-pressure manoeuvres, the two areas that let them down in the regatta and with Phil Robertson and Dean Barker on hand it is going to be a busy winter. This is a team that knows the gap they are bridging to the more experienced teams and building consistency and second-nature into their execution is crucial ahead of 2024.
Nicolas Charbonnier, a vital member of the Driving Group and one sailor keen to make the raceboat in 2024 spoke after training saying: "We were a bit disappointed by our result, even if the result was good, we thought we could do better but it's good because we have a lot to work on for this winter to be ready for next year."
On Sunday the sea-breeze failed to materialise with the anemometer registering very light northerly breezes of just 4-7 knots through the afternoon whilst on Monday it was much improved with a more stable 13-15 knots and the team took the opportunity to launch the new mainsail on the LEQ as well as the new jibs.
Pietro Sibello, a cool head as Sailing Adviser gave a very interesting interview after the first day of training saying: “It's important for us to keep working after the event, as planned, and we had some sails to check today and tomorrow. Today was a marginal condition but still was valuable and so we have some data for the sail design programme… The mood is good we had the third in the AC 40 fleet and of course that we saw that we also didn't perform well in some races - we had some bad starts around the event and so we know where to work on as well so it's just I mean a good mood to keep working and yeah, the team is strong, today everybody was happy to keep working on the water.”
The America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Jeddah, presented by NEOM, was a great test for the team and one that they could take a lot of positives from. For sure, they had the pace when they got to the front of the fleet to match the very best and by and large their race positioning, tactics and manoeuvres were solid. At the top level it is all about hitting very high percentages all around the course and with few passing lanes, any mistakes are punished harshly. The Swiss know this all too well and it’s impressive to see them straight back out, sailing and racing again immediately after the regatta.
Pietro confirmed that the team will resume their big boat programme on the AC75 this week saying: “The big focus for sure is improving our communication on board which is super important in this kind of boats and we will focus on that, we'll be back next week in Barcelona sailing on the AC75 for the rest of the year so we will train on that.” And asked about whether they will continue to use the warm waters and fair winds of Jeddah over the winter as confirmed by Brad Butterworth in interview during the regatta, Pietro kept it real saying: “We’ll see. Now we think about closing the year and then for the next year we will plan.”
This is a serious tilt at the 37th America’s Cup on behalf of Alinghi Red Bull Racing – the coming year will be fascinating to see how they develop. (Magnus Wheatley)