News Around the World
Fifth in the series division in the 2019 Mini Transat, for this year’s big race Pierre Le Roy was keeping busy in Sète during lockdowns completing this immaculate David Raison-designed proto. There’s not much work these days for designers of those old pointy boats
in constant contact with Ray Davies on the chase boat, feeding information about how the day was expected to unfold. ‘The team settled on its mainsail selection about an hour before
the start and tended to stick with that for the two-hour period of racing. Jib selections could be made up to four minutes before each start. There were six headsails so that provided a lot of variation. These could easily be changed between races.’ Using weather models, data from NIWA and Predictwind – and
not forgetting his own advice ‘to look at the clouds’, whence his nickname – the forecasts were very course specific. From A course north of Rangitoto, through B, C and D courses and out to course E, otherwise known as the ‘back paddock’ off Eastern Beach, there are differences for each of them reflected in the forecast. In fact, Badham’s forecast resolution was down to 300m x 300m grid squares, small enough to differentiate from one side of the 700m-wide course to the other, crisscrossed by 10 squares up its 3,000m length to create a fine mesh of detailed information. Another difference in February was that once the teams submitted
their boats and equipment for measurement they had to remain in that configuration for the duration of that stage of the schedule, whether a round-robin, a semi-final or final in the Prada Cup Chal- lenger Series, or the Cup Match itself. Badham welcomed the change. ‘That reduced my workload. In
Bermuda the configuration call every morning was horrendous. You had to call it at 7am for an afternoon race and we could change everything – the foil, the tip, the rudder, the elevator. I had to try to get the wind speed accurate to 1kt because we could change the mode of the boat virtually for every knot through the range. Now the changes were pretty much just sail selection.’ Over the years of his relationship with Auckland Badham came
to recognise personalities in the various winds around the city. ‘Winds are like people,’ he says. ‘Some are reliable, some are not. I have been here long enough to see just about every mood. ‘An easterly wind is not just an easterly. It comes in many guises.
A deep easterly is a phasing breeze that will vary over the half hour of the race. A shallow easterly tends to have a bit more north in it and is more reliable, with less variation in it. ‘A good west coast sea breeze is a beautiful breeze. It comes round the back of the city and off Orakei Wharf and flows up the
26 SEAHORSE
Rangitoto Channel. It is generally a robust breeze at least in the mid to high teens. Beautiful.’ Sadly for the Match itself that was the breeze least experienced,
consigning the racing to more capricious light-air easterlies in which flight maintenance, rather than all-out speed, became the priority. Maybe Clouds could be enticed back out of his Australian bush
retirement one more time if Auckland would only guarantee a strong showing from his favourite west coast sea breeze. On the other hand, he points to his grey beard as proof he has been around long enough to mistrust any guarantees the wind gods care to offer. Ivor Wilkins
SPAIN Expertise travels lightly Perhaps Joan Vila is better known by the general sailing public as a meteorologist, but in their professional orbit Miguel Sánchez Luna is also well-recognised. Both were working in Auckland, Vila for Ineos Team UK and Miguel for Luna Rossa. Miguel Sánchez Luna, nicknamed Capi, was a sailor before he
became a meteo man, an altar boy before he was a priest. He started sailing in Optimists and ‘arrived’ when he competed in the 1977 world championship in Thailand. Before jumping to the Olympic 470 he sailed 420s successfully and won the 1984 European Junior Championship in Mallorca. In Spain the 470 class had two solid champions: Luis Doreste
and Jordi Calafat. ‘But I never took it as seriously as they did… they were totally focused on sailing! I liked sailing, I had fun, and every year I could get into the pre-Olympic team. But I never had serious Olympic aspirations, because when Doreste switched to the Flying Dutchman Jordi [Calafat] took over the Spanish relay in the 470. He was also unbeatable! Honestly, I could have fought with them but not beat them.’ He sporadically competed on cruisers, achieving a victory in Copa
del Rey with the 3/4 Tonner Banca March, working as tactician with fellow Balearic José Luis Ballester. ‘But by now I was disconnecting from sailing because of my studies and then I worked for 10 years at the University of Palma,’ he explains, with evident satisfaction. Seahorse:So how did the return to the world of sailing come about? Miguel Sánchez Luna: I studied physics in Palma, later specialising
CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI
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