Cup Spy Jan 27-28, 2023

What happened in the Cup – January 27-28, 2023:

Alinghi Red Bull Racing sailed January 27 from Barcelona in a cross swell sea state.
INEOS Britannia sailed January 28 – and suffered their first capsize.
Luna Rossa sailed January 27, with the AC37 Recon team asked to capture some specific points.
American Magic did not sail today and is not expected back on the water until January 30th.
Emirates Team New Zealand did not sail, Auckland is currently under a State of Emergency due to a series of past and expected weather events.
No further developments from the late entry French K-Challenge. An announcement was expected in mid-late January according to an earlier announcement by the Late Entry team.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – January 27, 2023 – Barcelona – photo © Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – Barcelona – January 28, 2023 – Day 40

From the AC37 Joint Recon team:

Alinghi rolled out at 07:15, the earliest start to date, to find the morning breeze which was forecast to drop and turn 180deg at midday. With a north westerly breeze and east swell, sailing was in cross conditions for a second consecutive training day. The team was on the water for a total of four hours. The mainsail was hoisted in the port, the yacht then towed North to the Forum District of Barcelona.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – January 27, 2023 – Barcelona © Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

This area is on the outskirts of the city and therefore the sailing area less sheltered by the skyline. The J1 (#1 Jib) was hoisted and the team sailed two stints of long reaches, attempting a few foiling maneuvers. Some time was spent adjusting jib sheeting system. An end to the session was called on account of the dying wind. Again, it was quoted as “the coldest day on the water so far”.

Session Statistics – Barcelona, Spain – January 27, 2023 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – Day 40
- Wind Strength: 8-10kts(AM); 7-9kts(PM)
- Wind Direction: NW (AM) NW (PM)
- Weather: Mostly Cloudy 6°C
- Sea State: 2 (AM); 0.5mtr residual easterly swell
- Roll out: 0755hrs Dock Out: 0913hrs
- Dock In: 1320hrs Crane out: 1345hrs
- Total Tacks: 8; Fully foiling: 0; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 5
- Total Gybes: 9; Fully foiling: 1; Touch & Go: 4; Touch Down: 4
Crew: Driving team: Arnaud Psarofaghis, Pietro Sibello, Lucian Cujean, Nicolas Charbonnier, Maxime Bachelin Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux Power Team: Nils Theuninck, Nico Rolaz

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – January 28, 2023 – Badia de Palma – Mallorca – photo © Ugo Fonolla / America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – Mallorca – January 28, 2023 – Day 17

Top sailing journalist, Justin Chisholm was on the water and made various observations:

Despite some persistent drizzly rain in Palma Bay today the British team had a sparkling day of sailing – marred only by a slow speed capsize around 1430 this afternoon which probably cost the team at least another hour of high speed sailing in 15 to 18 knots of wind and flat seas.

Having hoisted the main and J1 and towed four miles out from land the LEQ12 crew – Giles Scott and Leigh McMillan on the wheels with Bleddyn Mon and Iain Jensen (later swapped out for Luke Parkinson) – wasted no time in getting the silver boat up on foils in in 8 knots of breeze from NNE and a super flat sea state. Having completed two 15 – 17 minute foiling sessions the breeze faded to 5 knots prompting a brief tow up run of less than a minute.

After a 30 minute wait for the breeze to fill in it duly arrived at a solid 9 knots from 034. Several dry windward/leeward laps were performed with multiple foiling tacks and gybes and fast head ups and bear aways included. By 1400 the wind was up to 15 – 18 knots and the J1 was swapped out for the J3.

While on a prolonged fast downwind run – during which the yacht topped 40 knots – after slowing and coming off foils the crew appeared to lose partial control of the foils with at one point the windward and leeward foils both being elevated. What followed was a slow speed capsize to leeward (while on port gybe).

With the two sailors in the windward pod perched above the water, the two leeward crew were easily able to swim or climb free, Meanwhile, the chase boat crews were quickly into action. With the boat sitting comfortably on its side with the mast horizontal(courtesy of an inflated buoyancy bag sitting in between the sail skins at the top of the mainsail a tow line attached to a canvas sling was passed to the upper pod sailors who appeared to attach it somewhere at the front of the cockpit.

However this approach did not appear to work and instead the tow line was attached to the bow for the boat to be towed head to wind and then righted.

Soon after time was called on the session and the main and jib were dropped prior to a bow two back to base.

Session Statistics – Mallorca – January 28, 2023 – INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – Day 17
- Wind Strength 7kts(AM) 14-18kts (PM)
- Wind Direction: NNE (AM) NNE (PM)
- Roll out: 0825hrs Dock Out: 1042hrs
- Dock In: 1615hrs Crane out: 1745hrs
- Total Tacks: 6 – Fully foiling: 3; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 8
- Total Gybes: 5 – Fully foiling: 2; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Giles Scott, Leigh McMillan, Iain Jensen, Luke Parkinson, Bleddyn Mon

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – Cagliari – January 27, 2023 – Day 27

From the AC37 Joint Recon Team:

The LRPP team finds again profitable condition for a productive sailing session within the gulf of Cagliari with steady lower range N-NW breeze never above 10 kn in the morning and below 14 kn in the early afternoon.

The day at the Ichnusa Dock started at 8:00 when the italian LEQ12 rolled out of the shed. The yesterday observed markings on suction and pressure sides of STB outboard wing and the darker flap portion on PS outboard, were removed while the team has declared a new version of foil arm stock 02 STB.

The boat splashed down at 8:20 and usual checks by shore crew armed with laptops and iPads followed. The AC37 Joint Recon Unit (RU) has been focussing on competitor’s request targeting the cockpit setup and has perhaps found some recon shots of it from square when, quite surprisingly, whole team left the dockside for a meeting leaving the LEQ12 slightly heeled with clearer view.

In addition to a portion of wheel, a few turned off displays in front of trimmer seat, several control buttons for trimmer and one red for helmsman, perhaps for board drop and some green lighted bars, perhaps for battery charge indication, were observed.

With the dockout scheduled at 10:20 the team headed off the coast of Petrol Beach to hoist main+J1 and the LEQ12 was boarded with four crew members swapping helmsmen on different occasions in the following hours. Throughout the whole sailing session only one self take-off against five tow-to-flys by RIB has been observed while the team decided to switch to J2 when the breeze picked out after lunch time during which the GoPros have been polished.

Within the first training half the team seemed to warm up through a series of classic tacks and gybes maneuvers, all executed with longer transitions time on both boards and lifting the windward board up much slower and, sometime in two time steps with only inboard wing immersed, considering the light breeze.

As usual, heading up slightly exiting the gybe before bearing away again and bearing away slightly exiting the tack before heading up again. Before dropping the marks in front of Sella del Diavolo at 12:50, the team started practicing some marks maneuvers and on the first JK the LEQ12 headed towards the awaiting Recon RIB for a quite close fly-by with Jimmy Spithill on helm, documented by recon sequence shots.

During the sailing session it seemed that the Italian team is clearly focussing on typical marks maneuvers such as normal bear aways and round ups (approx 5), JK (approx. 3/4 foil-to-foil), Chicago (approx. 3/5 foil-to-foil), tack bear aways (approx 2/3 foil-to-foil) and gybe round ups (approx 1/2 foil-to foil). With a total foiling time of 153 minutes, the LEQ12 covered approximately 70 nm completing approx 78 maneuvers with increasing foil-to-foil success rate.

Session Statistics – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – Cagliari – January 27, 2023 – Day 27
- - - - Wind Strength 8-15kts (AM)
      - Wind Direction: NW (AM) 10kts Maestrale (Mistral) breeze
      - Sea State:
      - Roll out: 0820hrs Dock Out: 1020hrs
      - Dock In: 1415hrs Crane out: 1545hrs
      - Total Tacks: 35 – Fully foiling: 29; Touch & Go: 6; Touch Down: 0
      - Total Gybes: 43 – Fully foiling: 38; Touch & Go: 3; Touch Down: 2
  N.B. Stats are approximated after observation on marks with binoculars.
Crew:
Additional Images:

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – January 27, 2023 – Barcelona – photo © Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – January 27, 2023 – Barcelona – photo © Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

Alinghi Red Bull Racing – AC75 – January 27, 2023 – Barcelona – photo © Alex Carabi / America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – January 28, 2023 – Badia de Palma – Mallorca – photo © Ugo Fonolla / America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – January 28, 2023 – Badia de Palma – Mallorca – photo © Ugo Fonolla / America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – January 28, 2023 – Badia de Palma – Mallorca – photo © Ugo Fonolla / America’s Cup

INEOS Britannia – LEQ12 – January 28, 2023 – Badia de Palma – Mallorca – photo © Ugo Fonolla / America’s Cup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 26, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Cockpit layout – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 27, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

Wing foil only partially raised coming out of JK – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – LEQ12 – January 27, 2023 – Cagliari – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’sCup

by Richard Gladwell