Ernesto Bertarelli's first taste of the AC40 boat

No stranger to high-performance foiling boats having competed successfully on the Swiss Lakes in the GC32 and TF35 classes, Ernesto Bertarelli jetted into Barcelona on Tuesday for his first taste of AC40 yachting and had a thoroughly entertaining time sitting forward in the starboard pod with Bryan Mettraux trimming whilst Arnaud Psarofaghis and Yves Detrey kept things ticking over down in the port pod. It was a pretty handy session with some 65 manoeuvres completed and the vast majority (91%) fully foil-to-foil.

After some shaky early transitions, Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s highly experienced Team Principal and seven-time Bol D’Or winner got into his stride and the team flitted all along the La Barceloneta beachfront of the America’s Cup course, completing lap after lap on a session that lasted just over three hours.

The pure plug and play nature of the AC40 came to the fore and certainly bodes well when these exciting boats are handed over to the teams competing in the Youth & Women’s America’s Cups and for the ultimate boss and financial backer of Alinghi Red Bull Racing it was a great day out on the water with team members that he knows well and sails with often.

After sailing, Pierre-Yves Jorand came to the interview station for what proved to be a very interesting conversation concentrating on the performance uplift that we’ve seen in recent weeks from the Swiss. Since launching the team back in 2022, they have been utterly clear that everything will be approached in a processed manner with steps taken logically to train up the team that sat on the sidelines for AC36 but are determined to make a big noise in AC37.

Jorand, the former speed skier who was the first to go above 200km/h back in 1984 described the process going forward and when asked about the evaluation process he offered: “Well I I'm not sure we are evaluating individuals, we are probably working more on couples you know like helmsman/flight controllers…also on the power group to try to find the best feeling between the sailors. It's a process we started perhaps two months ago, you've seen the last couple of weeks quite a lot of crew rotation onboard the AC40 and on the on the AC75 so we have to build in the mind and the first step will be to take the best possible athletes or sailors for the pre-regatta number one in Vilanova and then build in mind about the AC75 group.”

This team-building process has really started to deliver results and it has been as much off the water as on it with all the Alinghi Red Bull Racing athletes undergoing extensive training both physically and mentally as well as peripherally with programmes like media training. What emerges is a sense of unity and common purpose. The goal is very clear and it’s unequivocally a shiny silver ewer that Ernesto Bertarelli knows all too well but as Pierre-Yves explains, to win takes an all-encompassing effort: “Well, as in all America's Cup teams, every single detail counts not only on the technical side or the shore side but also on the athlete preparation. Mentality is part of the global performance but also the physical understrength preparation…We have a pretty strong relationship not only with the APC, the Athlete Performance Centre in Thalgau Red Bull but also with Hôpital de la Tour in Geneva and all these people are working nicely together with Matt Tinsley (Physiotherapist) and Alex Hopson (Physical Coach) here from Alinghi Red Bull Racing.”

Cheekily asked whether the ‘best’ combination of sailors were sent out on the water today with Ernesto, Pierre-Yves diplomatically responded: “No we sent three sailors with Ernesto, we have a group of 14 sailors you know, seven in the power group, seven in the driving group and they are all a part of the team, there is no best or worst so we just send three sailors out there - another helmsman and two flight controllers.”

An entertaining day for Alinghi Red Bull Racing for sure with good distance covered, big boxes ticked and plenty of manoeuvres to keep their eye in on the AC40. More intense race training for the pre-regattas in Vilanova i La Geltrú and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will continue this week.