America's Cup, it will happen again

The Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailors were absolutely sending it in Barcelona today, in pretty much perfect conditions as the ‘Garbi’ breeze blew in a healthy 14 knots from the south-west and allowed the Swiss to light the afterburners on their spectacular AC40. Not all smooth sailing today however, and it’s just as well that the team practised their capsize drill as the sailors got screwy on a gybe, stuck the bow into Davy’s Locker and toppled over at high-speed. These boats reward accuracy but bite if you get it wrong and it’s something that we have got used to over the course of this America’s Cup cycle.

Yves Detrey, the megastar double winner of the America’s Cup and now in his fifth campaign was more than relaxed about the capsize in interview afterwards, saying: “Yeah that was fun. I mean it's the first time while sailing and it's going to happen again. It's part of the learning process and obviously was the first time for us to sail in that that bit of breeze, and the chop was getting higher and higher so, you know, it happens and it will happen again.”

Straight after the initial capsize the boat rolled over again at low speed with no flow over the foils as the trimmers sheeted on that Yves casually shrugged off with: “I think it was just a little bit of misunderstanding, a little bit of a mistake from us you know, when you're low speed or when you cut the tow you have to find your timing and we probably had it a little bit wrong.”

Other than the incidents that will no doubt catch the eye, it was a stunning session for Alinghi Red Bull Racing in “champagne conditions” again in Barcelona, with the team throwing in a huge number of manoeuvres as confidence in the platform sky rocketed. It was a dynamite performance that very much showcased where in the AC foiling world the team are at. Remember the vast majority of the sailing team have been regular winners on the European high-performance foiling circuit in TF35s and GC32s for a number of years so foiling runs very much through their veins – it was this phenomenon that Ernesto Bertarelli, the principal backer of Alinghi Red Bull Racing spotted and wanted to nurture. On days like today, his faith in youth and ability were rewarded.

Pre the capsize the recon team reported that it was “one of the most aggressive stints of the campaign” and it was a mighty display of high-speed foil-to-foil manoeuvring with the team throwing the boat through some 38 tacks and gybes in quick succession showing superb co-ordination on the board drops and trimming. Having initially opted for the J1, as the ‘Garbi’ built in the afternoon, they elected to drop down to the J2 and had the AC40 right at the max hitting speeds touching the 40-knot marker. The capsizes somewhat took the wind out of the sails of the Swiss however, and a few buckets of water were seen to be bailed out from the bow area, but no damage was caused as Yves Detrey confirmed later. Quite rightly, the team called it a day quickly after righting and towed back to base as the Spring light faded in Barcelona.

Great session for the team with plenty of learnings gathered all round and a very healthy 65 nautical miles covered over the session. The AC40 has added another exciting dimension to Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s sailing programme and the opportunity is being seized by the sailors superbly. No sailing planned for tomorrow, we will see the Swiss back on the water later in the week.