NEW TECH DAY FOR THE ITALIANS WHILST THE SWISS TWO-BOAT

Looking for variances on the new ‘Wing 02’ is pure detective work, obscured by photography angles but when comparing the wing profile to the February iteration, when it was first revealed, it would appear that the symmetrical wing formation has now been replaced by an asymmetric version with a slightly larger inner foil wing with more ellipse on the trailing edge. The outboard wing looks similar to before, with the micro fence at the outboard end about 30cm in from the curved tip but it's the inner foil that will command attention from the recon teams in the coming days.

On the water, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli LEQ12 looked so stable in flight to be almost mesmerising, especially in the early afternoon Mistral sea-breeze that mercifully came in to cool Cagliari on the hottest day of the year. In gusts that topped-out at 13 knots, the LEQ12 was on rails, hovering relentlessly close to the water for perfect end-plating (all credit to Flight Controllers Vittorio Bissaro and Umberto Molineris) whilst Marco Gradoni, perhaps the biggest find of this America’s Cup cycle, and Francesco Bruni were having a ball with the new super-slender rudder that was debuted today. Compare the wings on the new rudder to those of earlier this year and it is night and day. ‘Slender’ as a description, simply doesn’t do it justice, but the effect was incredible. Luna Rossa looked a very tight unit today and over 126 foiling minutes were recorded over a 2-hour 45-minute session.

Valuable days in Cagliari for the team that everyone is watching at the moment and the programme is progressing well. Francesco Bruni, always a fabulous barometer of the Italian team’s confidence levels, exuded enthusiasm for the programme and summed the day up saying: “It's been a very nice day with a lot of different conditions. We started in a solid 13-14 knots with the J2, we did a few tests looking at the new mainsail – it’s always very nice to have new gear onboard so there was a lot of interest about this new main - and then we did some racing with this new main, then the wind dropped, we went to the big jib and we did some light wind sailing in the end which is always very helpful for Barcelona.”

Talking about the anhedral foil, Francesco offered: “Well we like to change foils as much as we can. This boat has mainly been produced to do foil testing but also obviously sails and a lot of other stuff, but as you know the foils are a big topic on a foiling boat and the LEQ40’s the perfect tool for checking new things. So yeah, we are very happy to try again ‘Wing 2’ the wing is going very well with a few upgrades and yeah, we are pretty happy with it.”

Interestingly, the value of on-water training was explained beautifully when talking about the modifications to the rudder, with Francesco adding: “We want to test as much as possible. So that rudder we changed a few things, and we always need a good balance between testing and racing to give the right answers because sometimes something can be good for testing but can be harder for racing so it's important to go around the marks and have the right balance everyday…to give the right answers to the designers.”

With the team starting to really focus on Barcelona, Francesco, who was in the City for the recent AC40OD testing commented: “I think that is going to be very important to get the right tools for dealing with waves and light winds, so I think that everybody's focus is on Barcelona conditions which are not easy to find anywhere else in the world. So, we spent a few days of sailing in Barcelona, and it's been a very good experience for the team and it's very important that we try to sail in those conditions as much as possible.”

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are on a charge in this Cup cycle and with a laser-like focus they are going to be a tough Challenger right out of the box. The mark of their campaign in AC36 was steady improvement round after round to make the Match and take three races off the Defender. Can they go one better at the 37^th America’s Cup? Hard to bet against at this stage.

However, on form alone and with a relentless, ingrained dedication and determination to their campaign, Alinghi Red Bull Racing will be pushing hard for a slot in the Match and will be, for sure, a real handful in the AC40 racing in the upcoming Preliminary Regattas later this year.

Today, out in Barcelona, the young Swiss sailors put on a mammoth display of close quarters boat handling as they came out with the same configuration and set-up as yesterday with One-Design sails and the only noticeable difference between the LEQ12 AC40 and the AC40OD being the new starboard wing on the LEQ12. Little to choose from upwind in 10-15 knots of ‘Garbi’ thermal breeze but downwind, the LEQ lit the afterburners on the new foil and were noticeably quicker.

But the take-away from the day was the boat-handling. All credit to the sailing team who quite simply had the two AC40’s at the limit, desperately close and going at each other like it was the final race of the America’s Cup itself. Brilliant sailing from a team that have rocketed up the standings and are way more than acquitting themselves here in Barcelona. This is a team not here to make up the numbers and day after day they are a joy to watch as you can see their talent, honed on the Swiss Lakes, coming to the surface and really shining.

Arnaud Psarofaghis, more than any, epitomises the spirit of the camp and is taking the leadership role with both hands. Speaking afterwards, he was more than relaxed, summing up the day: “Today was a perfect day for testing we did the many up and downs and tried a lot of things and so we are quite happy with the day. A good day like that on the water is always really nice…We tried many different setups on both boats so sometimes one was gaining, some time the other, it's really hard to tell from the setup we had, we just need to review the data and we tried so much stuff today that we need to be calm and just check the data to see what comes out.”

Talking about the new foil, Arnaud wouldn’t be drawn on comparisons with the AC40OD foils or the Tubercle Delta Foil that the team previously ran, only saying: “The foil is designed for all the conditions because you need to be really all round here but there is a light wind, heavy wind, wave, no wave so it's an all-purpose foil that you need to design and we are quite happy with what we have and the way we could modulate it today.”

The key to Alinghi Red Bull Racing is staying calm and trusting in the data. It’s working. The sailors and designers know it and ahead of the team moving to their new, and quite fabulous, new base right in the heart of the Port Vell opposite the Mare Magnum Shopping Centre, there’s a real sense of momentum around the syndicate. Arnaud captured that as milestones being achieved saying: “Yeah, we are reaching a new milestone after the base move. It's a new page. New chapter. And I think going forward there’s going to be many, many, more coming down the line.”

Alinghi Red Bull Racing now go into a ten-day transition as they move from their temporary base with the next scheduled sailing day being the 31^st July. All systems go with the thrilling Swiss. Stay tuned.

 On-Water Recon Unit Notes – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Similar to the previous days, the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out their LEQ12 prototype at 12:00 on another record hot day in Cagliari. Quickly the shore crew began the mast stepping routine and the yacht touched the water at 12:15 with some interesting modifications:

• The anhedral foil ‘Wing 02’ had undergone some modifications on the wing and flaps along with the rudder as documented by actual and past recon shots.
• A new M3 mainsail was noted, looking quite similar to their first iteration in terms of surface distribution with an edgy clew covering the updated main sheeting system.

Over the sailing day the Recon Unit focussed on flying shapes and trimming of mainsail skins. As the team towed their prototype out of the harbour, the sea-breeze was slowly filling-in, fighting against a hot Mistral breeze. Once the breeze found stability over the Gulf, the anemometer displayed 11-13kn from 175 TWA.

The new mainsail was quickly fully hoisted and paired with a J2. With 6 crew onboard, the first foiling stint began with a tow-to-fly by Chase2 on port tack and the usual routine sailing path commenced with long straight-lining for testing, three tacks, bearing away on starboard tack and flying on the anhedral wing for a long downwind ride, gybing twice and trimming back up.

Within 30 foiling minutes, this course path was conducted twice until a starting gate was laid out with a single windward mark. A pre-start with time-on-distance practice was observed followed by an upwind leg, and half of one downwind, before stopping for lunch allowing sailors to debrief while the sea-breeze shifted to 155 TWA with some choppy water. Several pre-start routines followed before the LEQ12 sailed around the racecourse for several laps until the breeze decreased to 7-9 kn 155 TWA and the team decide to hoist the J1.

The marks were collected and in the last 40 minutes of the sailing day the LEQ12 performed a series of well controlled manoeuvres in light air and some occasional touch-downs were observed. The team called it a day with 4 pre-starts, approx. 15 legs, 126 foiling minutes, 41 tacks, and 38 gybes [Michele Melis: AC Recon].

On-Water Recon Unit Notes – Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Alinghi Red Bull Racing rolled out their AC40-4 (Yellow) and AC40-7 (Red) at 10:45 and 11:20 respectively. After executing standard system checks, one design sails were prepared on both boats, the Yellow boat still with the new foil on starboard. The yachts docked out at 13:00 and were subsequently towed to the port entrance with sails hoisted.

The 'Garbi' afternoon thermal wind provided steady conditions, starting at 11-13 knots from 200°, peaking at 13-15 knots from 190°, and subsiding to 10-12 knots by late afternoon.

Wave height oscillated between 0.5m-0.8m, with a period of 4-5s. Six stints of sailing were carried out through the day.

• Stint 1 began with a downwind gybing duel followed by lengthy upwind stretches side by side.
• In Stint 2, the yachts proceeded downwind on a port tack, allowing a comparison between the new foil and the one design foil. The stint concluded with a bit of warmup for match racing.
• Stint 3 began with a pre-start, with the first race being interrupted by a tourist boat crossing the 100 meters above the start line, as the both yachts then returned to two boat sailing upwind, leading into a long downwind stretch to Montgat. The yellow boat was observed carrying better performance downwind.
• In Stint 4, the yachts sailed upwind back to the course start gate, performing 15 tacks, inclusive of 2 double tacks. Maybe as a result of executing more manoeuvres, the Yellow boat seemed slower than the Red full One Design boat. Both boats then switched to J2 One Design sails. However, the yellow boat remained stationary, with the crew attending to unidentified issues below deck, while the red boat continued sailing.
• Stint 5 had the course set at heading 190. Following pre-start practice, the red boat halted at the start line, while the yellow boat continued practising two half laps of the course. It performed a JK manoeuvre round the leeward mark and a double gybe before the second leeward rounding.
• Stint 6 involved upwind sailing back to the base as the wind began to die down. Notably, trimmers Bryan Mettraux and Lucien Cujean stepped into helm positions for half of this stint. The red boat was towed back in displacement mode due to undisclosed issues.

The yellow boat docked in at 17:30, followed by the red boat 20 minutes later. Despite some hiccups, the team performed a commendable 94 manoeuvres, with 94% fully foiling.

They covered 55 nautical miles over a near five-hour period on the water.

In the post-sailing interview, helmsman Arnaud Psarofaghis expressed the team's enthusiasm about reaching a new milestone and transitioning into their new base.

Despite a few unknown issues on both boats, the day ended on a positive note, completing 68 manoeuvres, 94% fully foiling. They covered 55 nautical miles over a near

five-hour period on the water.