News Around the World With the Covid-induced cancellations of world series races in


Sicily and England, the pre-Christmas racing provided the only competitive forum to date for the teams to check in against each other and hone their skills. The event not only validated the foiling monohull concept as incredible straightline speedsters – close to 40kt upwind and quadrupling the windspeed downwind – but also showed them to be viable and engaging match racers. At the same time the crews’ want of battle experience also exposed what ETNZ helmsman Peter Burling repeatedly referred to as ‘lack of polish’ in reference to his own performance. As the challengers and defender parted company until the Cup


Match ETNZ looked to its powerful RIB to replace the traditional trial horse model to ‘polish’ its act, particularly in pre-starts where Burling looked vulnerable. With the luxury of a slight speed edge, ETNZ was ultimately able to claim the first silverware of the summer by winning the World Series event, but the home team frequently relied on come-from-behind victories after trailing off the startline.


early skirmishes. Despite glimpses of speed when the breeze got up, the boat was frequently left wallowing off its foils, was lapped twice, once by the Italian crew and once by ETNZ, twice failed to complete the course and never threatened to provide a contest. The British plight was summed up by one TV commentator as ‘calamity upon disaster upon catastrophe’. Ainslie maintained a brave face, although at one point he blamed


the foil control system, which is a one-design element supplied by ETNZ. Although the Italian team also criticised the foil control system some months ago, there was certainly no support for Ainslie’s gripe from fellow challenger American Magic after a near-capsize in which a foil control snafu might have been implicated. Helm Dean Barker left open the unspoken notion that operator error might have played a part. ‘When in doubt, blame the boat,’ he said in a not-so-subtle jab. Whatever their issues, nobody was writing the British team off,


and their worklist kept the lights burning 24/7 right across the Christ- mas period as they sought desperately to find remedies in a very tight timeframe. Indeed in talking up new hardware coming on stream, there was an air of hoping that the design and boatbuilding team – or Santa – would deliver a Christmas miracle. At the last presser before the start of the Prada Cup three weeks later Ainslie was asked what had been changed on his dramatic-looking Cup challenger… ‘Everything,’ the five-time Olympic medallist shot back. Pressed further Ainslie added, ‘There’s not much we could do


with the hull in the time we had but the mast, sails, foils, rudder, elevators are all new.’ Though a terrible performer in light airs before the Christmas break, Ainslie’s Britannia (Rita to her friends) had shown strong flashes of pace when the breeze picked up... Sure enough, in an early warning to his rivals Sir Ben opened the


batting on day one of the Prada Cup when in strong breeze he went an immediate 2-0 against American Magic and then Luna Rossa. Early days but Ainslie’s rivals’ opening tactics of ‘start easy then


Was it a structural failure or did something heavy burst through the hull of American Magic’s Patriot? Only the inner sanctum know for sure but it looked from early pictures like a bit of both. The port foil arm system ‘is done’, to quote Terry Hutchinson, and certainly in the shots of the airborne AC75 it does look as if the arm had been levered back. So maybe the arm twisted back, instantly overloading the hull structure just in front causing the vertical shear seen here; at which point something inside heavy and now unsupported decided to leave. Interesting that in this photo the material around the void is clearly peeling outwards


That follows the pattern of the Bermuda AC, where superior speed


was enough to overcome some shaky starts to claim the ultimate prize. In that series Burling showed that, despite his relative lack of experience in match racing, he was a quick study. As the series progressed his confidence grew and his starts improved. But, particularly with the return of classic upwind starting duels


in 2021, following off the startline and eventually overtaking a match- fit opponent is not a comfortable or reliable strategy. Consequently, plenty of starting practice can be expected to play out between the high-stepping AC75 and the brute force of 1,200hp at full throttle. Team NZ have a proven playbook of starting scenarios developed


on their simulator, which the two sparring partners will follow. Chris ‘Curly’ Salthouse, who is part of the family yard that built the high- powered RIB, will be on the throttles, with sailing coach Ray Davies riding shotgun as the two boats engage in their ferocious war-games. After the pre-Christmas racing all four teams came away with


extensive work lists. The headline takeaways largely confirmed waterfront scuttlebutt: Challenger of Record Prada Pirelli of Italy was strong in lighter conditions; US team American Magic preferred a medium breeze; ETNZ’s Te Rehutai, last of the second-generation AC75s to launch, showed a slight speed edge, but those three boats were all competitive. Ineos Team UK was the mystery package. Despite a huge budget


and impressive talent the team led by Olympic legend Sir Ben Ainslie was at sixes and sevens and failed to score a single point in these


28 SEAHORSE


blow past the slow Brits on the first leg’… Well, that didn’t work out so well for them. British hopes took a cautious step up. For the fans watching the action from the spectator fleet, land-


based vantage points or on TV, there was much to observe and speculate about in the pre-Christmas races. For a start the foil wings came in various shapes and sizes. The three challengers all had anhedral droops, like inverted Y-shapes while ETNZ’s wings were clearly smaller in area and set in an inverted T-configuration. Commentator Peter Lester said the ETNZ set-up would have less


drag but would be more demanding to sustain in flight. Accurate and close co-ordination between Burling, mainsail trimmer Glenn Ashby and flight controller Blair Tuke would be crucial. Like all the teams, ETNZ suffered badly when that co-ordination


went awry and resulted in costly splashdowns. Burling was noticeably gentler in his turns on the second day, earning more stable flight and praise from Tuke for smoother manoeuvres. Heat-of-battle lessons were being learnt. Whoever you are, the penalty for falling off the foils is almost


certain death. While these boats are faster in flight than the previous AC catamarans, they are much slower to recover from a splashdown. To regain flight they were turning down 90° to the wind and some- times ploughed backwards and forwards across the course, straining to get airborne. Painful to watch and worse to endure onboard as the opposition flew out of sight. Unless, of course, both yachts bogged down in displacement


mode as the 45-minute time limit ticked away. Even a Formula One car grinds to a halt when the gas runs out. The lower wind limit of 6.5kt looks to be too slow for decent racing, but team politics make it almost certainly impossible for race director Iain Murray to negotiate a change at this stage. As a potential remedy code zero- type sails are in the inventory, but seem increasingly unlikely to be used in battle. Only one headsail can be used in a race, so it is a risky commitment to opt for a code zero to take you up and down the course all the way to the finish. It may provide enough horse- power to foil in light winds, but the minute it has achieved that purpose it becomes a liability with a huge spike in drag.


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CHRIS CAMERON


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