If you can’t out run them, take them out at the knees.

After a dramatic drift off between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the two battling challengers of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, was called off on Saturday when the time limit expired, the AC75s returned to the racecourse the following day with the wind in full anger, for two top-of-the-range races. While there have been more than enough races at the opposite end of the range to show the AC75s can race at 6.5 knots it was finally time to show what they could do at 21—or more.

As the teams paced back and forth through consecutive delayed race starts, there was an ominous clue something was amiss on Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli with the crew craning their necks aloft. With less than 10 minutes remaining to the start, starboard helmsman Jimmy Spithill climbed out of his cockpit, walking around the front of the mast and looking upward, it then obvious there was a major issue—broken top battens poking through the mainsail skin.

Minutes later, with the chase boat aside, and the mainsail strip underway on the Italian’s silver AC75, the race committee finally passed the “wind test” and the race was a go. For the Italians, it was simply of race of time to get a backup mainsail bent on for the next race, and the British of INEOS Britannia, it was an easy point when the race committee handed the Italians their disqualification (for receiving outside assistance once the race went live).

The breakage was a serious let down for race fans hoping for another high-speed, high action race, but the patient spectator was then treated to the most compelling race of Barcelona yet.

Match 4, A Match Racing Sizzler

With the wait finally over, the Italians entered with port entry and were immediately targeted by the INEOS Britannia, entering at 44 knots. Luna Rossa jibed to starboard as the two came together and helmsman Ben Ainslie was quick to fire the protest button—a hint of more to come and a more aggressive strategy for dealing with the Italians: Luna Rossa has yet to be passed once ahead, so take the gloves off in the starting box.

The umpires, ashore and watching on an array of screens with copious streams of data, were quick to green flag that one, but the British continued their attacks, pushing the Italians to the left-end of the starting line and matching tacks back to the right. Trailing the Italians at 45 knots, the setup for the next moved had been practiced in the simulator hundreds of times. A tack for Luna Rossa would have the set up above the layline to the starting line, and a jibe made them an easy target for the British.

As Luna Rossa slowly jibed and came across INEOS’s bow it looked as though the British had them exactly where they wanted, they triggered the protest button again, certain they had the Italians copping a penalty. Green-flagged again with a precision call from the umpire booth that Luna Rossa had completed its jibe in the nick of time.  With 15 seconds to the start, the Italians were strong to leeward, doing 35 knots to the British 28, and as they simultaneously struck the line, the Italians were a knot faster and able to flick the INEOS off to the right.

As Britannia charged away to the right Ainslie was still fuming about the no-call penalty, but the match was about to get spicy again.

Off the right boundary, Luna Ross had the cross and tacked ahead of the Brits, which had just enough pace to dive to leeward and try a hook and another shot at the protest button. That one too was denied and INEOS tacked away again to the right boundary. Luna Rossa let them go and crossed ahead to get through the first gate with a 4-second advantage.

With a split the race was on again, both boats streaming down the course at nearly 50 knots—cavitation speeds. Luna Rossa had the first downwind cross by a slim 135-meter lead, but through the next gate, the lead was up to 6 seconds.

Split again at the gate, with Luna Rossa going right and INEOS Britannia left briefly, they intersected again minutes later with the Italians defending with another slam-dunk tack. INEOS port helmsman Dylan Fletcher said he thought he had a chance at a hook and went for it. With Ainslie goading him on from his starboard cockpit, “Keep going Dylan, keep going!” Fletcher tried a few luffs, but was denied the penalty again. His frustration with the calls was for all to hear: “This is a joke, umpires.”

Coming out of the exchange, the unflappable Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni, locked down the race with a series of perfect covering tacks, pinning the British to the right boundary and leading through the third gate with a 5-second lead. A prompt jibe after the gate created another split. Luna Rossa added another 6-seconds by the time both boats were through the next gate, and at the next intersection were a whopping 300-meters ahead. Their lead was up to 19 seconds and 400-plus meters at the next gate, and then 20.

Swapping sides of the course as both boats went boundary to boundary on the final upwind leg the British hooked into one final shift at the top of the course to reduce the Italian lead to less than three boatlengths and a 6-second delta through the mark. With a long drag race down the run, the INEOS brought the match back to the middle of the course to set up a high-velocity jibing duel, but the Luna Rossa had just enough breathing room to nail its final jibe and lead the British through the finish line—by 4 seconds.

With a win for each team the Louis Vuitton Cup Final’s second day wrapped where it began—a tied series at 2 points apiece. To quote the race commentary team, as the Finals come closer to first-to-seven, there is literally, “Nothing in it.” 

The post INEOS Goes on the Offensive on Day 3 of Louis Vuitton Cup Finals appeared first on Sailing World.

April began with new-boat reveals that highlight the innovations of the second-generation AC75s for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. While similar in size and scale, no one boat is alike. 

Alinghi Red Bull Racing, of the Swiss camp, was first to show its AC75, BoatOne, in a theatric soiree, giving observers and other teams a peek at the boat’s design traits. Its straight and narrow bow profile transitions to a long and tapered bustle that goes all the way to the stern. The walls of BoatOne’s tall crew pods stop sharply before the transom section, leaving what amounts to a long overhang to accommodate the internal rudder elements. Bumps sculpted into the foredeck are said to redirect wind flow into the jib and down the middle of the boat for aerodynamic gains.

America’s Cup defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, was next to reveal, with a soft launch, followed by a foiling session the following day. With a naming ceremony that came a week later, the Kiwis’ AC75, Taihoro, was blessed for action, and they went straight into sailing in Auckland. Unlike the high cockpit walls of Alinghi’s BoatOne, however, those of Taihoro taper down toward to the ­transom scoop, which houses the mainsheet traveler system in a trench, and the rudder assembly.

The following day in Cagliari, the Italians of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out their metallic silver AC75, a menacing-looking design that has its pronounced curves and a significant bustle which rises toward the stern. The boat’s tall cockpits produce a deep trench through the middle of the boat. 

INEOS Britannia was fourth from behind the curtain with a boat dubbed RB3. It’s different enough from Alinghi’s and ETNZ’s AC75s to be dangerous. The plumb bow starts sharp and maintains a steep deadrise before flaring out to a flatter bottom. A pronounced ­bustle tapers off near the stern and transitions to a thin skeg that ends short of the rudder.

The New York YC’s American Magic revealed its boat, Patriot, in early May, blessing it and going sailing on the same day. It’s certainly a different look, summarized by the team’s design coordinator, Scott Ferguson. “We followed our own design path with Patriot as we pushed the limits of the AC75 rule while tailoring for the Barcelona venue,” he says. “Our overall philosophy is minimalistic, as we’ve tried to squeeze down our volumes to the base minimum while still fitting the crew and systems into the boat.”

With the French Orient Express Racing Team pulling from Team New Zealand’s design package, there’s an expectation that its ­platform will not be too far off the defender when it comes to light soon enough. It had not yet been launched at press time.

In terms of crew-pod assignments, cyclors have now taken the back seats, mostly concealed and out of the airstream, while ­trimmers and helmsmen take the front seats for a better view of the action. American Magic went to the extreme, positioning three pods inboard, two well aft in the boat, with cyclors on recumbent bikes.

The post The Marvelous AC75s On Deck appeared first on Sailing World.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Swiss challenger for the 37th America’s Cup, marked another milestone in its campaign in early April with the theatrical nighttime reveal of its first AC75, dubbed BoatOne. True to the team’s style, the unveiling was an affair worthy of the high-stakes days to come when the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series gets underway in August.

According to America’s Cup media sources inside the Alinghi compound, from behind the boat hangar’s large rollaway door, the boat was slowly extracted to reveal the sculpted lines of the first second-generation AC75. Its detail characteristics were enshrouded in the faux smoke and darkness, but one America’s Cup scribe described the hull as “a dead straight, ultra-slender bow profile leading the way back to a long, tapered bustle trailing all the way aft along the centerline and ending right in the stern.”

BoatOne’s bustle appears to be more pronounced than that of the team’s “BoatZero,” Emirates Team New Zealand’s winning AC75 from the previous Cup, which the Swiss team purchased and had been training extensively with. The new boat’s overall look is far enough removed from the Kiwi design to stoke armchair designers. BoatOne’s foil flaps and foil arm elbows were concealed, as are the myriad of mechatronic systems that will ultimately determine how fast and maneuverable the boat will be in the Mediterranean waters of Barcelona. The design team, which is led by Marcelino Botin, principal designer in charge of hydro and aerodynamics, will no doubt have plenty of innovation to hide in that department.

The boat’s noticeable aerodynamic elements are the result of the team’s association with the Red Bull Formula 1 designers and engineers as well. Once the boat is on foil, reducing aerodynamic drag is a critical part of the package. With no backstays allowed for the second-generation AC75s, structure and weight in the transom area can be greatly reduced, and in the case of Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s BoatOne, the tall cockpit walls round at back and stop sharply well before the transom, producing what amounts to a long overhang that accommodates the boat’s communications and rudder systems.

According to a team following the April 5 reveal, BoatOne will now undergo final systems installations and checks and will be sailing before the end of the month, with the “driving team”of Arnaud Psarofaghis, Maxime Bachelin, Nicolas Charbonnier, Lucien Cujean, Yves Detrey, Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz coming to grips with their new whip. Providing the power will be athletes Arthur Cevey, Barnabé Delarze, Augustin Maillefer, Théry Schir, Nico Stahlberg, Nils Theuninck and Florian Trüb.

The post Alinghi Red Bull Racing First to Reveal Its AC75 appeared first on Sailing World.