No further developments from the late entry French K-Challenge. An announcement will be made on February 2.
American Magic - AC75 Version 2 - Pensacola - January 30, 2023 - Day 40
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
Patriot sailed inshore today, covered approximately 70 nm, comprised of 29 upwind and downwind legs.
Five headsails were loaded into the support RIB, two were used.
Sailing began at 12:38, completed 72 maneuvers and ended sailing at 16:00.
Patriot had a total flying time of 124 Minutes. Top speeds were approximately 34k upwind and 38k downwind (according to RIB GPS).
Patriot docked out at 11:30 in heavy fog with 1/10th of a mile visibility, and began sailing at 12:38 with approximately 2/10th's of a mile visibility.
The fog was so dense (at times) that the only visible part of the race yacht was the top portion of the mast which extended above the fog layer.
The fog became patchy around 13:00 and shortly after, the visibility was close to normal on most of the west side of the bay.
A slight increase in breeze was noted 13:47 prompting the headsail change from the J-1.6 to the J-2.5.
The last half of the day again, comprised of race laps.
Patriot is expected to roll out at 9am tomorrow January 31, 2023.
Session Statistics - Pensacola - January 30, 2023 - American Magic - AC75 V1.5 - Day 40
- Wind Strength 8kts (AM) 7-9kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: S (AM) S (PM)
- Sea State: <1ft chop (AM) <1ft chop (PM)
- Roll out: 0946hrs Dock Out: 1130hrs
- Dock In: 1626hrs Crane out: 1700hrs
- Total Tacks: 44 - Fully foiling: 38; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 3
- Total Gybes: 28 - Fully foiling: 27; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Paul Goodison, Tom Slingsby, Dan Morris, Michael Menninger, Andrew Campbell, John Croom/ Madison Molitar/ Colten Hall/ Trevor Burd/ James Wright/ Tim Hornsby/ Taylor Brown
Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Barcelona - January 30, 2023 - Day 41
From the AC37 Joint Recon team:
Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out at 08:45, craned in the AC75 and carried out a few systems tests at the dock, raising both wings and turning the mast.
The team's AC40 from McConaghy Boats arrived at the base just as the AC75 docked out.
The day saw more stable conditions than the previous week, with stronger West winds and less of a conflicting swell having died.
The team managed a total of five hours was spent on the water, covering over 63 Nautical Miles and reaching speeds in excess of 40 knots.
Over four upwind/downwind stints, the team attempted a total of 51 foiling tacks and gybes, the most of any sailing day so far, as well as roundings and bare aways (no physical marks were used).
A significant improvement on their frequency of manoeuvres, with many of their touch and go manoeuvres being close to fully foiling.
The team struggled slightly more with tacking/gybing onto the starboard foil, sometimes failing to engage the New Zealand Legacy foil after turning through the wind to sustain lift.
An end to the session was called after an intense day, the sails were dropped outside the port entrance and the yacht was towed back to base. ARBR will be carrying out a maintenance day tomorrow, organising the base with the AC40 on site, as well as a couple of 69F sailing dinghies.
Session Statistics - Barcelona, Spain - January 30, 2023 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing - AC75 - Day 41
- Wind Strength: 10-12kts(AM); 12-18kts(PM)
- Wind Direction: NW (AM) W (PM)
- Weather: Sunny 8°C
- Sea State: 3 (AM); 0.5mtr residual easterly swell
- Roll out: 0915hrs Dock Out: 1105hrs
- Dock In: 1610hrs Crane out: 1635hrs
- Total Tacks: 30; Fully foiling: 3; Touch & Go: 16; Touch Down: 11
- Total Gybes: 921; Fully foiling: 7; Touch & Go: 7; Touch Down: 7
Crew: Driving team: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Pietro Sibello, Lucian Cujean, Nicolas Charbonnier, Maxime Bachelin, Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux
Power Team: Nils Theuninck, Nico Rolaz
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - Cagliari - January 27, 2023 - Day 28
From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:
The LRPP team had good conditions for a serious sailing session with upper range strong breeze NW of 12kn in the morning and 22kn in the early afternoon with decent choppy water.
The day at the Ichnusa Dock started at 8:40 when the Italian LEQ12 rolled out of the shed and was craned at 9:00 with no major visible technical changes beside a fence with displays fittings in front of helmsmen cockpit seat.
Between the usual checks by shore crew, the LRPP proceeded on the Youth AC front having several young sailors around the base ready to train on a few 69Fs.
With the dockout scheduled at 10:30 the team headed off the coast of Petrol Beach to hoist main+J2 and the LEQ12 was boarded with four crew members swapping helmsmen and trimmers on different occasions in the following hours.
Throughout the whole sailing session only self take-offs were observed with occasionally a third crew members sitting on windward deck before reaching take off speed.
The focus was certainly on long straight line sailing for testing as to be seen by GPS data all across the gulf for offshore of Pula to offshore of Solanas and perhaps running through some foiling modes.
Having completed a flight time with J2 of 45 min and considering the growing NW pressure of 13-15kn, the team decided to switch to J4 at 11:50. With this foresail the LRPP kept sailing on straight lines for 59 minutes (5,36,17) and max boat speeds of above 42kn downwind and approx 38 upwind were recorded by AC37 Joint Recon Unit (RU) RIB which struggled to keep up with LEQ12 pace as breeze has increased further to 18-22kn.
Several breaks were observed for polishing Gopros screens and checks on jib sheeting systems, cockpit and below deck.
In the whole session a total of 12 maneuvers were observed consisting of 7 gybes and 5 tacks .
With gusts of 25kn forcasted at 2pm the team decided to called it a day.
Session Statistics - Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - LEQ12 - Cagliari - January 30, 2023 - Day 28
- Wind Strength 9-11kts (AM) 13-25kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NW (AM) Maestrale (Mistral) breeze (PM)
- Weather: Sunny 14°C
- Sea State: Choppy
- Roll out: 0900hrs Dock Out: 1030hrs
- Dock In: 1315hrs Crane out: 1445hrs
- Total Tacks: 7 - Fully foiling: 5; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 1
- Total Gybes: 5 - Fully foiling: 4; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Francesco Bruni, Ruggerio Tita, Marco Gradoni, Jimmy Spithill, Andrea Tesei, Umberto Molineris swapping with Vittorio Bissaro
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