NYYC American Magic put in a full afternoon of two-boating in their LEQ moded AC40s that are both sporting out of class starboard foils and today looked to be bringing new sail tech with an upgraded mainsail foot fairing on ‘America.’ With an offset swell, lingering from recent storms down the Mediterranean, the sailors had a solid 12-14 knots of south-south-westerly breeze to play with and set up a course and start box just off the Port Olímpic to go into a series of starting sequences followed by laps.
Once again, Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison steering ‘America’ had marginally the better of the day and are the clear helming duo for when the new AC75 arrives at the end of April. Starts were ultra-competitive with the lead boat jostling to kill speed whilst avoiding the hook and it very much looks to be the power-position and enables the helm to decide their position off the line. What appeared to work was starting to leeward and then forcing the windward boat off into an early tack which from a positional and timing standpoint allows the leeward boat to then pick their tack and an optimal sea-state. Slingsby and Goodison looked to be masterful today in the racing against Lucas Calabrese and Harry Melges although the deltas were fine.
Speaking afterwards, Harry Melges, very much the face of America’s new foiling generation and the leader of the NYYC American Magic Youth Team, commented on the session saying: “It was certainly a really nice day, like 12-14 knots out of the south-south-west, typical Barcelona. It was actually quite a tricky day with this sea state, there’s been a swell coming from the north-east we’ve had a bit of a mistral up in the Gulf of Lyon last few days so they got pretty big and challenging for us.”
Asked what it’s like to face Slingsby and Goodison, two of the finest sailors on the planet, and whether it was exciting or nerve-wracking, Harry replied: “I’d probably describe it as a little bit of both, it’s a super-fast pace and we’re learning so much every time we do a pre-start and we’re trying to run through a few different timings and strategies to learn going forward…More mentally exhausted than physically, these boats are pretty easy physically you’re kind of sitting there pressing buttons, but there’s a lot of focus that goes in to race one of these boats and yeah today was a tricky day with the waves as well, so pretty tired.”
Stunning session from the Americans once again who are really starting to amp up their training and racing schedule over the next couple of months. More tiring sessions to come.
On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic took advantage of a close to perfect afternoon for sailing in Barcelona today for another two-boat practice racing session on their AC40s ‘America’ and ‘Magic’ in LEQ12 mode with custom starboard foils. Both boats were rigged and launched by midday ahead of an ahead-of-schedule dock out at 1255 and had sails up – America MC4 mainsail and J2 C3 headsail, Magic MN5 mainsail and J2 C4 headsail – at the harbour entrance by 1320.
An additional new (we believe) faring was noted on the bottom aft edge of the mainsail on America. The pair left the harbour five minutes later and immediately set off on a close quarters downwind run that ended at the leeward gate of the practice racecourse. After a short windward / leeward free sailing session, the boats rolled into a series of six pre-starts and races. America (Tom Slingsby, Paul Goodison, Michael Menninger, Andrew Campbell) largely had the upper hand in the racing over Magic (Harry Melges, Lucas Calabrese, Kyle Langford, Riley Gibbs).
That said, overall, the pre-starts were generally close with both boats mostly powering towards the line in close formation. The difference between the two boats came down to the ‘America’ crew looking crisper and more consistent through manoeuvres and while in flight – although neither were error free.
Both crews looked to be pushing hard all day with both pulling off high speed single-board round ups at the leeward gate. The final sailing of the day began at 1630 with the boats separating for some free sailing: ‘Magic’ setting off upwind and ‘America’ heading off on a long downwind and upwind return. Time was called at 1700 with both boats back on the dock by 1725.
