Oracle i 40 knop – fun on foils

Ser för okontrollerat för att funka på en “kort” krysslänsbana. AC blir nog ett stort crash test, bara ingen dör så blir det kul att se!

Redaktøren på websiden Sailing Anarchy skrev følgende rapport fra sin tur ombord på Emirates Team New Zealand sin båt for en uke siden.

http://sailinganarchy.com/page/2/

So here’s a short summary of what I learned in my day with ETNZ:

As for sailing the boat, we had 9-12 knots of sea breeze; that translated into 16-18 knots of upwind speed at 42-44 degrees of TWA (something like 13 degrees AWA) and 26-30 knots downwind at TWA of 145 or so (22 degree AWA). At these speeds, the boat is almost sedate; really forgiving, relatively easy to trim, tack, and gybe, and quite dry; in other words, there’s just no drama. Same with the crew; you hardly notice anyone, because they do their jobs quickly, quietly and with their headsets on, you hardly hear a noise beyond the constant groaning and creaking of easing sheets.

Like many of our mothies have said from the start, this Cup will be won on the foils; to that end, the one area I wasn’t allowed to shoot was the dagger board cases, though frankly there is so much going on in there that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. NZ is running two different board designs, each has a slightly different upright board profile and each sports a different angle between the horizontal and vertical arm; the more closed-off board (with a more acute angle) was the ‘easy foiling’ board; in about 22 knots the boat popped up, nearly all its weight supported by a 1.5 meter piece of carbon, the rest by the rudder elevator. On the other board, the boat struggled to foil downwind in the light air; this is maybe a less draggy, higher speed board, or the fore/aft rake position they were working on produced less lift. Note that 12 knots ain’t what this thing is designed for, but they still have to work out crossovers; there’s bound to be a case of ‘it’s not usually like this’ in San Francisco come this summer. In any event, both foils are just testers, though given the 3-month time frame to produce new ones, ETNZ’s San Francisco foils are undoubtedly being built as we speak.

Luna Rossa and ETNZ are no longer training together; LR is in her modification phase, and needs to stay out of ETNZ’s prying eyes. Bertelli’s team is trying some new toys out, including a pretty trick new main foil with some kind of innovative control system; unfortunately it blew up within a few moments of loading up on its first day, and they towed in after just a short time on the water.

And finally, yes – they are flying through the gybes on the foils. Not in 12 knots of breeze, but I got one team member to admit to me that, in their best fully-foiling gybe the other day, their speed came down to 29 knots before building back to 40. How’s that for ya?
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Virker som om det er så stor forskjell i fart mellom foiling og non-foiling at det ikke er noe tvil om at det er raskere å foile. Banene vil også ha mer unnavind enn kryss, og starter med en kort slør før de har en lenselegg. Båtene vil derfor optimaliseres mer for lens enn kryss.