Over in Cagliari, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli recovered quickly from their dramatic AC40 nosedive yesterday and continued their impressive two-boat training in a light, patchy breeze that built and faded through the morning session.
The team docked-out early with localised thunderstorms heading for the surrounding hill ranges, sucking the wind in from all directions and leaving flat but swelling waters that were less than perfect but vital for the team’s match-racing playbooks that they are developing fast.
On balance, the AC40 had the best of it today with Marco Gradoni getting valuable training once again alongside the legendary Jimmy Spithill whilst Francesco Bruni was in full coach-mode with the Nacra 17 reigning Olympic Champion, Ruggero Tita onboard the LEQ12. ‘Ruggi’ put it brilliantly in interview afterwards saying: “For sure every day, and in every start, it’s a big learning for us and I’m pretty sure the old guys are training us well and they’re of course getting training on these small boats too. So, yeah, for us it’s every day we go in the water and every start we try to take the best out of it and learn as much as we can. To be honest for me it’s twenty years match-racing learning put together in three weeks, so it’s a big week and everyday it’s a good learning.”
Off Petrol Beach the shore team put a start-box in and the nimbler, lighter-weight AC40 was quicker to fly and seemed more manoeuvrable but in a straight line and once flying any speed differences were marginal. Plenty of pre-start action was observed with the key idea being to get the other boat off the foils as self-starting was proving difficult and both teams achieved this on occasion. A total of five starts followed by short course racing were completed, the team had planned to do more but in the late morning, the swell picked up and the wind dropped off and they were back at their base before noon.
‘Ruggi’ Tita summed up the day saying: “It was not an easy day, for sure we had very tricky condition big waves, long swell and the wind coming from everywhere because of this thunderstorm going around, but I think we used the best of the day and we tried also to do some starts and it was a good day, some good learnings…I think AC40 had a bit of an edge today in this big sea-state but more or less we were pretty similar.”
With both Orient Express Racing and the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, also out today sailing their AC40s in one-design configuration, Barcelona was a busy place. The pace in the race for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup is noticeably picking up. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Luna Rossa rolled out their AC40 (white) at 7:00 and their LEQ12 (red) at 7:25, stepped masts and craned in respectively at 7:20 and 7:40. Dock-out was scheduled for 8:30 and both yachts were towed out of the harbour. M1 and J1 OD were hoisted on white, first main M1-1 was paired to the J1-1 on red. The forecast looked tricky with swell from 115°, about 0.5m, significantly offset to the offshore northerly breeze from 305° 6-8kn.
The first foiling stint saw the yachts execute a series of manoeuvres in the patchy light breeze. Then both yachts lined up for some upwind and downwind runs. In terms of boatspeed the boats looked pretty similar, especially downwind, while upwind perhaps the red boat looked slicker. White definitely looked more stable on the offset swell.
Several shorter stints were sailed by both yachts, which were quickly towed up again once splashed down after unsuccessful manoeuvres. The whole area by the harbour looked quite patchy and main traveller over-sheeting and pumping was seen quite often. As the rain increased both teams came off the foils and took a break.
More pressure was seen offshore of Petrol Beach where the team headed and successfully found some profitable knots to place marks for the starting box. At 9:45 the first pre-start drill was run with red on port entry, chasing down white approaching the line quite aggressively. White managed to start slightly more leeward and forced red to tack bailing out.
During the day, the team conducted some short upwind and downwind races with both yachts eventually engaging if not split. For the second prestart drill, white had port entry and both yachts sailed towards the upper right boundary at first. They converged approaching the line and white managed to force red to windward ending up off the foils.
In the third pre-start, both yachts sailed apart in the box and managed their own time on distance without engaging closely. Red started closer by the committee boat and white further to the pin, seemed like an even start.
Both yachts came off the foils and the pressure had picked up to 10-12kn from 325°, J1-1 was then lowered to hoist the J1.5-2 on red. The starting line was now longer and two additional pre-starts were observed ending pretty even with a decent gap on the line and some closer engagement in the short upwind/downwind leg. The team had planned some further pre-starts but in the following four drills either red or white fell off the foils without enough breeze and increasing swell. The rain increased, the pressure died completely, and sails were lowered with approximately 105 minutes foiling time and approximately 35 tacks and 25 gybes [Michele Melis AC Recon].
