Update
The leeward-side flight controller can also help with grinding, on his own pedestal. This division of labour leaves tactician Giles Scott free to look for pressure and shifts and keep an eye on the com- petition. Giles’s only other duty is to steer while helmsman Ben Ainslie crosses in manoeuvres. In the round-robin having a dedicated tactician clearly paid off in puffy conditions with big shifts, but we all know that a fast boat is the best way to have good tactics. While the challengers are honing their racing skills Emirates
Team New Zealand continue to refine their yacht, Te Rehutai. We’ll see how much speed they’ve added once the Match begins. We’ve already seen their crew work. The Kiwis are the only team with the deck at a level that lets
No surrender!!! Sam Davies stopped – surprisingly briefly – in Cape Town to repair her keel structure, broken in a high-speed collision, while Isabelle Joshke diverted to Brazil after her cant system failed which left her keel gyrating dangerously. Both then continued… after which the pair enjoyed a very close race back to Les Sables including a tacking duel back up the Atlantic!
American Magic, while Patriot was getting repaired Luna Rossa was getting faster. In the repêchage the Italian yacht made quick work of the New Yorkers, by a score of 4-0, showing the importance of continuous development with the AC75 class. At this writing Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are 4-0 over Ineos Team
UK in the first-to-seven Prada Cup final with racing delayed by new Covid restrictions from the New Zealand government. The Italians need three more wins to advance to the America’s Cup Match, beginning on Saturday 6 March, against Emirates Team New Zealand. The Brits are now in a deep hole, but we’ve already seen that
racing the AC75s is a game of chutes and ladders. At wind speeds below 10kt Britannia struggles to get up on the foils, but they seem able to compete with the Italians in stronger breeze. No changes to the yachts are allowed during the Prada Cup finals, so Ineos are standing by while hoping for stronger winds… The concept of the AC75 yacht and its realisation have thrown
daunting challenges at both the designers and the sailors. The sailors are still learning how to race these boats. Each team came up with a unique deck layout, leading to important differences in how they are sailed. Luna Rossa is the only team to opt for a helmsman on each side
– Francesco Bruni on port, and Jimmy Spithill on starboard. When one is steering the other handles the flight controls. Mainsail trimmer Pietro Sibello is the only crew who changes sides in manoeuvres. Sibello provides input to tactical decisions, made by Bruni and Spithill. Handling the helm, flight control and tactics gives Bruni and Spithill a lot to do. The eight grinders, four on each side, face fore and aft, and are forward of the helm. On American Magic skipper and tactician Terry Hutchinson was
also a grinder, on the port side, with limited visibility. Flight controller Andrew Campbell was in the forward-most position on the starboard side, providing some tactical input from that side. Helmsman Dean Barker and mainsail trimmer Paul Goodison were the only sailors to change sides. Goodison helmed while Barker crossed during manoeuvres. All eight grinders, four on each side, facing fore and aft, were forward of the helm. Ineos, while lacking boat speed, has arguably the best layout.
They have only six grinders, with three one-man grinding pedestals mounted transversely on each side. We can imagine that the G forces in manoeuvres can be transmitted to the handles – perhaps becoming a kinetic energy recovery system. Leigh McMillan and Luke Parkinson handle flight control, one on each side of the boat.
18 SEAHORSE
sailors climb out of the forward cockpits and cross in front of the mast. They are also the only team with two grinders aft of the helm on each side. Flight controller Blair Tuke is in the forward-most cockpit on the windward side. Glenn Ashby controls mainsail power from the leeward side while Pete Burling steers and works the traveller on the windward side. During tacks and gybes Ashby steers while Burling crosses in front of the mast. Tuke follows Burling to the new windward side. Once Ashby hands off the wheel to Burling he crosses to the new leeward side. The video broadcast of the racing has an option to hear the audio
from one of the yachts. The ability to listen in onboard allows us to have a better understanding of how these boats are raced. The commentary team of Shirley Robertson, Nathan Outteridge and Ken Read do an outstanding job. Great entertainment!
www.cupexperience.com
LOOKING BENEATH THE SURFACE – Robert Laine As Patrice Carpentier tells us elsewhere, Maxime Sorel was happy to finish the Vendée Globe because his boat, a VPLP/Verdier sistership to the first Safran but not built as well as Safran, has retired three times in the VG. The first two times as Groupe Bel and last time as Le Souffle du Nord, skippered by Thomas Ruyant – who in 2016 somehow succeeded in reaching New Zealand with a broken deck and sinking dangerously from the bow… Here is a small follow-up to my initial comments on Imoca
structures and failures (issue 492). Figure 1: illustrates the situation when a boat dives at high speed in a wave. The bow is subjected to forces pushing it up and back (buoyancy and resistance to dive in water) while the momentum of the boat is pushing forward. An Imoca launched at 20kt into a wave will see a deceleration of 10 m/s² (1g) and will stop after 5m in one second. The resulting longitudinal compression on the bow will be equal to that of the mass of the boat, ie it will be like having the boat standing up on its bow! Not sure that all boats are designed for that load case? As the boat dives in the wave the bow wave falls back on the
Figure 1
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