No further developments from the late entry French K-Challenge. An announcement was expected in mid-late January according to an earlier announcement by the Late Entry team.
American Magic - AC75 Version 2 - Pensacola - January 26, 2023 - Day 39
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
Patriot sailed offshore today, covered approximately 71 nm, comprised of seven W/L legs.
Five headsails were loaded into the support RIB, three were used. Sailing began at 11:26, completed 43 maneuvers and ended sailing at 16:32. Patriot had a total flying time of 135 Minutes.
Top speeds were approximately 38kts upwind and 42kts downwind (according to RIB GPS). Patriot was towed offshore this morning and arrived 4 miles off the coast at 11:00. The team then waited well over an hour for the breeze to fill in.
The breeze increased around 13:20, enough to allow for stable flight and successful maneuvers. The team pushed hard again today getting in a lot of sailing till quite late in the afternoon.
The majority of the day was comprised of the very long, one tack legs. The last hour of sailing was more race laps with frequent maneuvers.
Patriot is not expected to roll out again before Monday January 30th.
Session Statistics - Pensacola - January 26, 2023 - American Magic - AC75 V1.5 - Day 39
- Wind Strength 8-12kts (AM) 12kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NE (AM) NE (PM)
- Sea State: 1-3ft chop (AM) 1-3ft chop (PM)
- Roll out: 0915hrs Dock Out: 1030hrs
- Dock In: 1715hrs Crane out: 1745hrs
- Total Tacks: 22 - Fully foiling: 17; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 21 - Fully foiling: 17; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 2
Crew: Paul Goodison, Tom Slingsby, Riley Gibbs, Andrew Campbell,John Croom/ Madison Molitar/ Colten Hall/ Trevor Burd/ James Wright/ Tim Hornsby
INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Mallorca - January 26, 2022 - Day 16
Top sailing journalist, Justin Chisholm was on the water and made various observations:
Despite a 0700 roll out of the British LEQ12 lit only by the team base floodlights and in temperatures just four degrees above freezing there was no pay off for the INEOS Britannia syndicate in terms of sailing hours accumulated, as the weather forecast of a mid-morning breeze on Palma Bay failed to come good – meaning only tow testing was possible.
0915 saw the first of four initial sail-less towing runs took place on a mirror flat sea with the T6 test boat’s silver hull breaking free of the water at around 10 knots each time and top speeds of between 18 and 20 knots. A half hour break was followed by a fifth towing run with the same speed characteristics.
Sails were brought on board at 1030 with the mainsail hoist completed at 1112 and the jib connected but not housed by 1124. An hour long wait then ensued as the crew of Giles Scott, Leigh McMillan, Iain Jensen, and Bleddyn Mon crossed their fingers for the 10 knots of north easterly breeze to materialise.
That was all in vain however and sails were dropped and packed away at 1247 with a bow tow attached for two more towing runs – where the sailors seemed to be experimenting with getting the hull in skimming mode and then rapid switching to high flight – before the team docked in at 1330.
Session Statistics - Mallorca - January 26, 2023 - INEOS Britannia - LEQ12 - Day 16
No sailing due to lack of wind.
- Wind Strength 7kts(AM) 14-18kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NNE (AM) NNE (PM)
- Roll out: 0750hrs Dock Out: 0903hrs
- Dock In: 1330hrs Crane out: 1430hrs
- Total Tacks: 0 - Fully foiling: 0; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 0 - Fully foiling: 0; Touch & Go: 0; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Giles Scott, Leigh McMillan, Iain Jensen, Luke Parkinson, Bleddyn Mon
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC40-LEQ Boat 1 - Auckland - Day 12
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
A day at the top end of breeze with a nasty short, steep, confused sea. Large passing clouds shifted the wind 20 degrees and the pressure was up and down. 12 knots up to 26kts. The LEQ12 looked skittish and twitchy in the top end conditions.
Session Statistics - Auckland - January 26, 2022 - Emirates Team New Zealand - AC40-1 LEQ12 - Day 12
- Wind Strength 12-26kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NNE(PM)
- Weather: 40% cloud cover. Temperature: 24°C
- Sea State: Med - rough(AM) Rough (PM)
- Roll Out: 0930hrs; Dock Out: 1145hrs
- Dock In: 1512hrs; Crane Out: 1555hrs
- Total Tacks: 22 - Fully foiling: 20; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 5 - Fully foiling: 4; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
- Crew: Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge (co-helms), Andy Maloney, Bair Tuke, Josh Junior, Leonard Takahashi, Liv Mackay
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - Cagliari - January 26, 2023 - Day 26
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
After another break of three days due to lack of wind and bad weather conditions, LR finds again stunning typical Maestrale condition in the gulf with some NNW shifts. The day started at 8:00 when the italian LEQ12 rolled out during a cloudy freezing morning in Cagliari.
Considering the recent focus on the starboard outboard wing, four unique markings were noted which were then photographed and discussed with sailors by the boat captain on board between sailing breaks. Within a planned future interview with CFD engineer or foil designer, it will be clarified what exactly has been monitored by gopros, strips, markings etc.
The boat splashed down at 8:20 and usual checks by shore crew armed with laptops and iPads followed.
From the recon square, the AC37 Joint Recon Team (RU) noticed newly in January added black carbon shields in front of foil trimmer seats providing perhaps a bit aero shelter with below two newly placed digital screens as documented by recon shots.
Another observations was a darker portion of the PS flap outboard behind fence on wing LE, perhaps painted.
Following the requests by LRs competitors, the RU is certainly targeting well hidden details such as cockpit and jib sheeting system which are shown slightly by daily recon shots due to profitable heeling angle.
After docking out at 10:00 the team headed toward offshore of Sarroch and Capoterra to hoist main+J2 and the LEQ12 was packed with only 4 crew members swapping helmsmen on different occasions in the following hours.
Throughout the whole sailing session no tow-to-fly by RIB has been observed, exclusively six self take off with more easy looking & stable transition into foilborne. Observation of several breaks during runs followed by checks by shorecrew and sailors on jib sheeting systems, cockpit and all GoPros on board.
Once again and as suggested by GPS track, the team seemed to alternate between long straight line sailing for testing towards offshore finding more breeze and chop with several series of classic gybes and tacks in which the crew members are really improving their foil-to-foil success rate avoiding any draggy water touch.
On several occasions the prototype has been observed perform radical bear aways and heading ups, both boards down and slowing down significantly just above minimum foiling speed until picking up pace again.
At half of session 12:00, the team dropped two marks proceeding with their training and RU alternated between awaiting the LEQ12 at marks for closer footage and following it for several legs.
On the respective marks, typical maneuvers have been observed such as normal bear aways, normal round ups, gybe round ups, tack bear aways and a jk before calling it a day. With a total foiling time of 124 minutes, the LEQ12 covered approximately 72 nm completing approx 54 maneuvers. It is expected to hit the water tomorrow.
Session Statistics - Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - Cagliari - January 22, 2023 - Day 25
- Wind Strength 8-15kts (AM)
- Wind Direction: NW (AM) 10kts Maestrale (Mistral) breeze
- Sea State:
- Roll out: 0820hrs Dock Out: 1000hrs
- Dock In: 1350hrs Crane out: 1500hrs
- Total Tacks: 30 - Fully foiling: 25; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 2
- Total Gybes: 24 - Fully foiling: 20; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 1
Crew: Francesco Bruni, Ruggerio Tita, Marco Gradoni, Jimmy Spithill, Umberto Molineris/Vittario Bissaro (Sailed in a four crew setup).
Additional Images:
This commentary was written and compiled from video, still images and statistical content extracted from the AC37 Joint Recon program and other material available to Sail-World NZ including photo files, and other on the water coverage from the 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021 America's Cups.