Luna Rossa, a stunning display of sailing ability

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli put on a demonstration of foiling monohull excellence today out on a gusty, shifty Bay of Angels in front of Poetto Beach proving beyond any question from the very first flight the need for dynamic, rapid mainsail sheeting and traveller control. Indeed, today on a relatively short training session that lasted just under two hours, the Italians debuted a new, smaller-aloft mainsail which the recon unit recorded as having: “reduced square head girth and missing clew patch being sewed on the main itself.” Clearly the thinking being that in the higher bracket wind-ranges, inverting the top – impressive as that is - is actually detrimental to speed so the sail area has been shifted to the lower third. Fine margins being played with here and a very clever solution at the clew.

But in top-end conditions of around 13-18 knots, arguably the most stylish LEQ12 of the 37th America’s Cup cycle, was immediately sucking in the reflexes and skill of the sublimely brilliant Italian sailing team who had the boat right on the knife-edge today in a stunning display of sailing ability. The trimmers and flight controllers, Andrea Tesei and Umberto Molineris, had to be right on their ‘A’ game and in perfect sync with Francesco Bruni and Ruggera Tita who were dancing a fine line from displacement to flight in the gusts going from a shy reach to their windward course seeking to reduce the amount of broaching as the boat lurched out of the water and onto its foils. The sea state certainly didn’t help.

And it was a nervy watch on video, especially as the Italians have a technique of bringing a crewmember up to the windward side to get to target speed for flight before that individual scampers back around the mast and into his pod as the LEQ12 takes-off. The recon video unit caught one take-off manoeuvre today in slow-motion where, just before target-speed was achieved, the LEQ12 took a direct hit over the bow of a significant waveform and almost swept the ‘ballast’ man out over the stern. He lost his legs, clinging on to the aft pod cockpit - it was close.

Once flying, the Italians were settled in low mode on the foils which the recon unit believed could have been set on auto-pilot with the team thoroughly respectful of the conditions and displaying mainsail control that was truly next level stuff and highly pronounced. The sail design team have placed huge emphasis on their ability to de-power and re-power the mainsail and what was noticeable was their remarkable control of the back lower third towards the new covered clew. Pre-flight that lower third was worked hard but even when at 35-40 knots and foiling, the accuracy and speed of trim was noticeable. The Italians have possibly the best control systems of all the LEQ12s at the moment, and in breeze their ability to induce depth pre-flight before going almost windsurfer-flat once foiling is something that all the other teams will be looking at closely.

Shorn of the usual GoPro mountings on the foils, today looked more like a day of letting the trimmers settle into handling the new mainsail, undertaking take-off procedures in the swells and completing two relatively lengthy runs of 14 minutes and 11 minutes respectively. With the wind speed rising and sea-state worsening, and possibly mindful of events yesterday in Palma, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team hove-to just after midday and called an end to the session, towing back to base with plenty to analyse on the new mainsail and control systems.

The relentless, innovative, impressive Italian programme continues – weather permitting.

On Water Recon Unit Notes: The Italian LEQ12 rolled out of the shed at 8:00 and was craned in 20 minutes later. Some light differences on the main-sheeting system were noticed with several tests on its functioning with mast rotation by shore crew.

Having docked out at 10:20, before hoisting the J4, the team focussed on hoisting a new mainsail with reduced square head girth and missing clew patch being sewed on the main itself. The LEQ12 hosted 4 crew out of which only the flight controller seemed to rotate using perhaps the autopilot mode considering the significant sea state. With steady NW pressure between 13-15 knots, the sailing session began on the easterly side of the Gulf with approximately a 1m swell filling in from the east with 7-8 seconds period.

In the first part of the sailing session the LEQ12 foiled for approximately 14 minutes completing two tacks and one gybe. With boat speeds below 35kn, flight seemed to be stable with intense adjusting of sheeting angle. At 11:50 the NW pressure dropped completely and shifted to upper range ENE breeze with 16-20 knots filling in firstly on the westerly side of the Gulf in front of Poetto where the RIB towed the prototype.

The LEQ12 completed a self-take-off in significant swell, chop & gusts up to 25kn, it foiled for approximately 11 minutes completing one tack & one bear away splashing down slightly afterwards; team decided to bring down the sails and head back to the Molo Ichnusa.