News Around the World
RB: It is a dot in the ocean, but the wind is modified by the dot. SH:So when you returned to New Zealand how much of your weather input about Bermuda was incorporated by the designers and sailors? RB: Oh, very little! The boat was already out training in Auckland and the conditions there were generally much stronger than in Bermuda. On the Sound in Bermuda you can get plenty of breeze, but in the summer it is generally quite soft, say, 5-15kt. SH: I have to say going with the different concept of cyclors back then, the preparation looked very smooth in Auckland… But were there breakdowns we never heard about! RB: I don’t think so. Though I wasn’t there all the time, of course! All those systems worked really well together and were reliable, which was a massive endorsement of the engineers and boat- builders. The interesting thing is that we didn’t seem to have too many spies in Auckland looking at us! Well, they may have been there, but they all seem to have written us off – probably assuming we had no money, no time and were just a bunch of cowboys arriving at the last minute. Which I guess we were really! SH: So when did you actually arrive in Bermuda for the Cup? RB: Some guys went on ahead to build the shed and prepare, then we all turned up, I think in April, with the boat a fair bit later. SH: So now you are all on the ground in Bermuda, what are you tasked to do? RB: The same thing I have always done really, which is the main
Happy boys all… some of Roger Badham’s customers at Team New Zealand celebrate their success after relieving Oracle Team USA of the America’s Cup in Bermuda in 2017. Accurate met analysis was particularly critical to this team’s success since they had gone out on a limb with their foil designs which were quite different from those of the Cup defender and while fast were both ‘wind critical’ and modestly fragile if caught out of range
weather forecast for the team early in the morning to prepare them for the race time. But since we have been competing in these fast foiling boats the emphasis has been completely different. In the slow boats I was intimately involved in the decision making
out on the water right up to the five-minute gun – how are you going to start? Wide leeward, tight pin-end? How will you play the track on the first beat? What are the influences playing out here? But with these fast boats the whole game has changed and the
critical thing now is getting the boat right, moding it for the day’s conditions and getting the gear right. Since the development of the fast boats I haven’t really been out on the water again, whereas I used to be always out there, talking to the key people onboard just before the action. In San Francisco I had an apartment overlooking the racecourse
which meant I could keep an eye on things and talk to the guys about options after the offset mark and what was likely to happen; but these boats are going so fast now, generally the sailors out there driving these foiling ‘racing cars’ are making those calls instantly in the moment. SH: So the calls back in San Francisco?
30 SEAHORSE
RB:Moding the boat. Are you running a Code Zero? Do we need to race with a bowsprit? Whereas when we got to Bermuda it wasn’t so much the bowsprit or Code Zero, but moding the boat in terms of all the appendages – Team NZ had a huge range of options with the appendages that they’d created. We could change the rudders, plus we had multiple elevators on the bottom of those rudders that we could use, then different foils, plus of course many options with foil-tips. So there are four groups of combinations to play with which we could change with every increase or decrease of a knot and a half of breeze to get the whole set-up right… SH: No small pressure on you then! RB: Well, the forecast I gave in the morning was pretty critical, particularly for the foils and foil-tips, because once I had presented my forecast the selected foils and tips were taken away to be glued, bogged and autoclaved. So I gave my forecast at 07.00 – but I couldn’t change it at, say, 07.30. By then the foils and tips were in the oven being cooked! SH: So who were you talking to at that briefing? RB: Well, the core sailors were still out doing their thing, so I was having the conversation with Ray Davies and the boatbuilder and his team. This would mean I was up just after 04.00 to work on my first forecast by 05.30 before I left my apartment, then I would do an updated forecast at the base by 06.45, and that became the definitive forecast and data that decided the configuration of the boat. It took just over two hours to get everything perfect. SH: Did you always get the call right? RB: There was one day when I didn’t do too well… Well, no, I say that now, but it wasn’t that bad actually. There were thunderstorms around and the breeze was really up and down, so it was a really hard day to pick. But every other day I did it well and got it right. SH: And the weather team is just you at TNZ right? RB: Yep, just me. Compared to the old days in Valencia when we had nine or 10 of us! SH:And in Bermuda did you observe other teams getting the forecast and foil choices wrong? RB:Ummmm. Well, they may have, but really I was too busy worrying about my own stuff, covering my backside so that I didn’t get in trouble from the powers that be… I think the guys at Oracle may have been a little surprised a few times at just how soft the con- ditions were. It seemed to catch them off guard a bit, but I can tell you that ETNZ went in very prepared for those light conditions. SH: One of the most significant moments for the team was that catastrophic pitchpole capsize against Ben Ainslie’s BAR. Where were you for that? RB:Most days when they were racing I would take my motor scooter round to the small hill and have a look at the conditions and have a chat with Ray Davies on the radio, just to add anything for the debrief. But when that capsize happened I was back at the base. SH:What then happened… it was pandemonium and all hands to help repair the damage? RB: It was. But we played a little game during that time, because there was obviously a massive amount of work to be done and of course there was supposed to be racing the next day. So I had a good look at the forecast, and quickly came to the opinion that there would not be racing the next day, and so we came straight in and really took the boat apart. We had to really, as there was so much damage, but by calling
the time we had available 24 hours early, that gave everyone enough time to settle a bit and do their thing. But I can tell you it was close. That following morning I wondered if they would race as it was mar- ginal, but in the end they didn’t as it was too breezy – which meant we didn’t lose the points from not competing in two vital races. SH: Then making it through to the Cup. As a team ETNZ on the water looked so confident and comfortable. What was it like ashore with the shore guys and with Grant Dalton? RB: Mate, after San Francisco, no one, but absolutely no one on the shore team wanted to say anything until we had an absolute done-and-dusted outcome. Locked down. Signed and witnessed. In the bank. Nobody wanted to spook anything, and so it was
INGRID ABERY
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