‘We spent our winter in Cagliari training alongside the Italian squad and Argentina’s Santi Lange and Vicky Travascio. The main focus was working out how to sail the boat with the new rudder system – primarily upwind foiling. We had to learn the techniques and set-ups, which are quite different from what was needed for this boat in the Tokyo cycle. The good thing for us – and for everyone in this training group – is that we all bring something to the table. Everyone has their condition and everyone works hard. ‘The Nacra is a one-design class so in theory there’s no scope for foil development. Naturally with all one-design classes there are small tolerances in the equipment coming out of the factory so the nature of the game is to find the equipment you like best; unfor- tunately this can mean having to buy more kit than you’d like and we have to be resourceful, find what we like and try to save it for the most important regattas.
‘For us the best foils are the ones that are most tolerant to ventilation. We’ve tried a lot of techniques to measure the foils but the best measure has genuinely been to go sailing – and with the foils it can be quite quick to decide if you like them or not. A big part of the technical game has been trying to work out the right set- ups for the foils with so many combinations of rakes you can use now; and different conditions require different ideas on set-up. ‘Fortunately we have a great team to help us! Iain Percy is our lead coach and we also work closely with Adam May (technical head in the British Sailing Team) and Iain’s Artemis Technologies group. Also involved, especially around foil choices, is David Howlett. So no shortage of good brains and good people. Or put another way… not much room left for excuses.
‘The Nacra 17 is a very complex problem because it goes from being a slow-displacement boat in the light to a high-performance foiling boat above 10kt. We’re pushing big cambers in the displace- ment mode and looking for lots of side force, then as soon as we’re foiling we’re frantically trying to reduce the drag everywhere. ‘There are a lot of controls at our disposal to help achieve the different flying shapes but some things you can only adjust between races, so if you get caught out it can be quite costly. We’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with the extremes of the set-ups to work out what we can get away with in every condition. As you can imagine the sail shapes needed for the two modes are very different. ‘During the races we play a lot with the cunningham and mast rotation to control the depth and entry angle of the main. ‘The mainsheet is mainly used as a twist control for moding, with the traveller our main heel control once foiling. Between races we can change the mast rake, side stay tension and diamond wire tension, which is the main control we use to add compression to bend the mast and even up the spreader sweep. We can also adjust the rake of both rudders and boards individually, to allow for dif- ferential when foiling which controls righting moment and pitch.’ Understanding foiling upwind in catamarans has shades of the Emirates Team New Zealand/Oracle America’s Cup classic of 2013 and although the gap has very much closed, the deal isn’t done yet, as John explains: ‘Last season Ruggero and Caterina were on impressive form. They adapted very quickly to upwind foiling and the rest of us have been playing catch-up. There’s no doubt they are still exceptional in certain conditions but everyone has pushed hard over the winter and the margins are much smaller now. ‘Starting well with the right strategy is much more important now. The upwind foiling angles we sail are wide and obviously the speeds are quite high too, so the separation on a first beat can be massive. This makes it very hard to control a race so consistency across a regatta is important. Winning regattas is not about the good races but about how you come back through the fleet in a bad one. The priority is to make a “keeper” out of a race after a poor first beat. ‘This summer we will make the most of our time in Marseille to get used to the venue and the conditions. We have the Olympic test event in July and then the Worlds in Den Haag, Netherlands in August… the two big competitions. Den Haag is the first oppor- tunity for everyone to qualify their nation for the Olympics so that’s a really important regatta at not an easy venue. ‘In terms of physical development our focus is generally around injury prevention, so we can maximise time on the water. The front
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