Out on the same racetrack, NYYC American Magic put in another two-boat shift with the wind building into the early afternoon. Today it was the turn of some of the Youth & Women’s team to get their chance on the AC40 in pretty challenging conditions with the wind gusting up to 20 knots at times. “The kids did great today. It was really good to see the Women’s and Youth Team out on the AC40 for their first time. Out of the SIM and out on the water in the Mediterranean…they did an awesome job and it was good to see…We threw them in the fire and they did great,” was how Tom Burnham, Team Coach, summed up the day.
Speaking afterwards, Andrew Campbell, Flight Controller and always mustard in interview, summed up the day saying: “Well we wanted to make sure we got out in the early part of the day when the south-westerly came in and yeah it was awesome it was in the high teens for a moment there, you know the sea state was building and everything was looking like it was going to be a little too much all of a sudden. Then it mellowed out and it was a kind of a perfect afternoon for us when it went back to the west a little bit. We got what we needed to get done and these are great days for us when it blows out with south-west here and it has kind of that look like the summertime…”
Talking about the goals and priorities for this intense block ahead of the new AC75 arriving in Barcelona, Andrew added: “Our goals are mostly around racing this week, we had a couple of pre-starts with the other boat today and that’s been our priorities last few weeks, making sure that we can get around the racetrack in a way that that we can compete well with these two boats together. So, from the trimmers side, it’s trying to be consistent, trying to not only be consistent side to side onboard our boat but be consistent between our trimmers on our boat and then the trimmers on the other boat. So, between America and Magic, we have to kind of be on the same page and you know then we can start to test different strategies and how we’re doing our trimming and then how we’re doing a race onboard so now we’re building consistency first over these first few weeks of racing and then we can start to experiment.”
Looking at the team’s new mainsail, the MC-4 on ‘America,’ with its big aft fairing the recon team asked if they were getting good feedback with Andrew responding: “I think we’re getting some good answers, the nice thing about having the two one design platforms is that it gives you good answers straight away – the masts are pretty close and we can get some get some ideas about how the changes affect our design strategy.”
The only downside to the day was an early retirement from action of ‘America’ who came to a halt just before the end of the session and called in the Chase Boat for a tow home with several crew-members hanging over the side inspecting an area just forward of the port foil. Hopefully an overnight fix as the NYYC American Magic campaign is really flying at the moment on all fronts. (Magnus Wheatley)
On-Water Recon Report – NYYC American Magic: American Magic Team boat AC40-8 ‘Magic’ rolled out at 9:55 this morning. The boat was prepared and craned into the water by 10:25. Five minutes after AC40-5 ‘America’ was also rolled out and got ready to be craned in and moored at the dock at 11:20. When alongside, sailors and engineers made some regular checks to be sure everything was in perfect condition before the sailing session.
Both Magic and America had LiDar cameras installed. As well we noticed that America had some new cameras (we guess they were cameras) installed on the bottom of the side of the hull, a couple of meters forward from the foil arms.
At 12:30 both Magic and America docked out towed by the chase boats. At the entrance of the harbour, they hoisted up both LEQ mainsails and J3 OD jibs each. America started sailing first and went for a short warm-up through a small downwind and upwind to finally join Magic once she was ready to start. At this time wind was about 12-18 knots TWD 210º @13:00 h.
From here the sailing session was conducted as follows:
Stint 1 (13:05 to 14:00): America and Magic started into a starboard downwind. Magic was some metres ahead and leeward to America. They did a gybe, a short portside run, another gybe which was great for America and ‘touch and go’ for Magic and then after a long starboard downwind run. America was looking faster, and they both had similar courses, no one going clearly deeper than the other.
Suddenly they went into a luffing match and started sailing upwind on starboard for a short run and tack after. They waited for each other and started a speed test upwind on port tack (custom foils in the water). America was leeward to Magic and was also on upwind clearly faster. Not sure if America was also able to point higher as the wind was turning to the right the closer they got to the coast. By the middle of the run, America bore-away and slowed down a little bit to let Magic come back. They continued a little bit more, tacked and went for a small starboard run and then bore away to start a downwind towards a start-line that one of the chase boats had set.
When they arrived at the marks it was around 13:50 and they decided to stop and perform a debrief and some regular checks at both boats.
Stint 2 (14:00 to 14.35): They got divided in two teams for this stint. Magic went for some mark luffing on both sides, a couple of starts and some short upwind and downwind lines. America was 10 minutes later to start and went for a long upwind and downwind and did around 5 tacks and 3-4 gybes.
Stint 3 (14:35 to 15:15): America and Magic had a great fight in the three starts that they simulated. In the first one America get into the box just before Magic and they both seem to have a fight to see who was able to start at the pin first. This one was clearly won by Magic. On the second start America came into the box on starboard and Magic on port tack, both at the same time. America gybed to stay to windward of Magic and control her. When approaching the pin, America managed to start before Magic this time, close to the pin and took the start. On the third start America gets inside the box on port side and Magic on starboard side. After some approaches from one to the other they faced the line separately with Magic starting close to the pin and America close to the committee. After the third start they stopped to change batteries and meanwhile to perform a small team briefing @ 15:00.
Around 15:15 Magic started sailing upwind, but America was stopped as it seemed to have some problems at the hull as we could see some sailors trying to inspect certain area forward to the foil arm. We think they were concerned about a possible crack at that area of the hull. They dropped the sails and got ready to be towed back to port.
Magic sailed back to the entrance of the harbour and performed three tacks on the way. Before at15:36 dropping the sails. Dock in was completed at 16:15 h for both boats.
As a Summary America today foiled for 105 minutes, performed around 36 manoeuvres: 85% fully foiling and Magic foiled around 125 minutes, performed around 42 manoeuvres: 75% fully foiling. Jose Piñana AC Recon
