America’s Cup - ETNZ launches 1st AC75 (new)

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

In the case of American Magic, they sailed through to leeward.

Actually, given that the foils on both boats were in the water on the port side, I believe the boats were both on starboard tacks, meaning that ETNZ sailed past AM to windward and whilst the angles can be be deceiving, they looked to be on pretty parallel headings. Looking at AM’s wake and ETNZ’s course along it, they couldn’t be far from the same headings.

[jmh2002]

You are totally right, it seems I'm watching too many videos and had something else in mind, apologies

So, that means that ETNZ was both higher and faster in both instances on Tuesday, and also again on Thursday, as well as again seemingly having the ability to enable a 'boost' mode giving just more straightline boatspeed.

It's always pretty worrying when you see a competitor that can do that consistently over different days and different conditions and against different boats.

Let's see if Team GB and American Magic will come out and sail.

Here is an article taking an alternative view and suggesting some gamemanship could be at play:

America's Cup Rialto: Dec 10 - Who is kidding who?
https://www.sail-world.com/news/233763/?source=rss

It's the America's Cup so certainly anything can be the case, however all the teams are lacking actual 2 boat testing, practice, and racing so it would seem surprising if they would deliberately let these opportunities pass.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by fxykty

Can’t wait for the real racing to start in a week. I’ll have to watch the first two days online, but we’ll have our boat parked squarely in the spectator zone for the final two days on the weekend.

For those who have watched racing like this (fast boats, relatively short and narrow course) where is the best place to position ourselves? Leeward gate and start, mid leg, or windward gate and finish? We will have a few screens playing the online coverage too.

Fxykty, let me correct my previous advice:

Assume the boats will start equally (never a safe assumption) but the real action will occur between the start and the first tack to the port boundary. So get on the starboard PORT side of the course so they will be sailing towards you on starboard tack, a 100 meters up from the extension of the line.

From there you will see the start and who wins the first cross.

After that watch the big screens.

When I was on photo boats for a couple of previous AC's we positioned ourselves there then raced up to the top mark outside of the spectator fleet, and go back and forth that way to catch all the mark roundings but nobody now days will be fast enough to do that unless they're in a helicopter.

[jmh2002]

On that subject, IIRC they have converted a set of AC 50 hulls into a power driven cat to act as one of the TV camera boats, and be able to keep up with racing. You can see it in some of the videos of the practice days.

[jmh2002]

Here is the latest video of Thursday's practice session. Only ETNZ and Luna Rossa turned up, the other two boats are still in the shed...

ETNZ continues to carry more sail area than the challengers, both a bigger mainsail and a bigger headsail, as they did on Tuesday too.

This was also evident during previous individual training, with ETNZ persisting with more sail area, and even the Code 0 when the challengers were all flying the normal smaller headsails already.

This is a trade off, generating more power with bigger sails vs the added aerodynamic drag that this creates when foiling. The challengers all seem to have decided that they are faster by moving to the smaller sails as soon as possible, but ETNZ seems to show a different approach can be fast too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7KlmgYfusE

[jmh2002]

Although it's been a good show so far from ETNZ it's ended up quite disappointing really because now today (Friday in NZ) NONE of the other teams are willing (or able) to come out and sail against them...

Here are a few more articles for those who are interested.

America's Cup 2021: Team New Zealand train alone as all three challengers opt out of practice races https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ame...OTQRMNOV6IX3A/

All three America's Cup challengers have pulled out of official practice training on Friday - leaving Team New Zealand to train on their own - less than 24 hours after the Defender continued their impressive buildup...

Teams are expected to take part in practice races on Monday and Tuesday next week, before the start of the World Series on Thursday.

America's Cup 2021: 'Difficult boat to beat' - World media reacts to Team New Zealand's impressive showing in practice races https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ame...JUK67BSJIWS64/

America's Cup: Nerves in Italy and anxiety in Britain as Team New Zealand dominate early https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/americ...dominate-early

With Luna Rossa as challenger of record for Auckland 2021 and looking to break a 21-year drought in the America’s Cup, hopes are high in Italy...

...But that took a dent on Thursday when they were cleaned out in practice starts by Peter Burling and Team New Zealand in decent breezes out on Course E

America’s Cup: Hard times for the Brits https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2...for-the-brits/

The early indicators are the Kiwi defenders are seriously fast, and the British challenge is in serious trouble...

...Team Ineos sail the boat differently to the others – and some would say they are stuck in a set of procedures that other teams moved on from some time ago. And they are slow. Possibly not even at the pace of American Magic and a million miles from Team New Zealand and Prada.

[CassidyNZ]

Reports abound of Luna Rossa putting up two helmsmen and (I think) two mainsail trimmers and two foil trimmers. Jimmy Spithill contends that this provides them the ability to “secretly” tack/gybe without telegraphing their intentions by shifting crew across the boat.

He obviously learned this from ETNZ in Bermuda when in the last (final nail) race, ETNZ gybed away from Oracle with no crew changing sides, they only changed sides after their boat was rocketing away from Oracle who were caught completely by surprise and IIRC, earned a boundary penalty while dealing with the surprise.

On ETNZ we have Burling = specialist helmsman, Tuke = specialist foil trimmer (“flight controller“), Ashby = specialist mainsail trimmer. Each of these functions on Luna Rossa will apparently be shared by two people, one on either side of the boat. These people will seemingly work as grinders when their primary functions are being dealt with by “the other one” on the other side of the boat.

I wonder whether the process of not telegraphing your intentions offers as much advantage as having a specialist person managing each of these three critical functions. I wonder whether the delicate touch of helming/trimming/foiling will not be compromised even a little bit from the effort of grinding in the off-times.

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Although it's been a good show so far from ETNZ it's ended up quite disappointing really because now today (Friday in NZ) NONE of the other teams are willing (or able) to come out and sail against them...

Does this Xmas regatta not contribute points to the challengers based on their relative performance? Maybe not but if it does, their inability to perform in this regatta could compromise their bid to be the official challenger in the AC.

If there are points up for grabs next week, it’s surely going to be a balls-to-the-wall display from all the challenger entrants. Maybe they won’t hang it all out there next week but like someone else said, they’re not blessed with the time needed to ease their wares into the game.

ETNZ of course have to reveal nothing they don’t want to. They don’t have to score any points.

[jmh2002]

Yes Luna Rossa is using two helmsman, Jimmy Spithill confirmed it, and that there are some pluses and minuses just like with most things.

But if they are not fast enough in the first place, it might not make that much difference either way...

[jmh2002]

America's Cup 2021: Luna Rossa boss Max Sirena lifts lid on practice races against Team New Zealand
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/ame...M4HVF54VYRR3Q/

Luna Rossa chief executive Max Sirena admits Team New Zealand have an edge on the rest of the America's Cup fleet...

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by wingssail

When I was on photo boats for a couple of previous AC's we positioned ourselves there then raced up to the top mark outside of the spectator fleet, and go back and forth that way to catch all the mark roundings but nobody now days will be fast enough to do that unless they're in a helicopter.

Originally Posted by jmh2002

On that subject, IIRC they have converted a set of AC 50 hulls into a power driven cat to act as one of the TV camera boats, and be able to keep up with racing. You can see it in some of the videos of the practice days.

Fred, here is the camera boat that I mentioned earlier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6xusoxWXlQ

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Fred, here is the camera boat that I mentioned earlier:

Yes, I saw pictures of this boat earlier. Frankly, it does not look either fast enough or seaworthy to me, (not enough buoyancy forward) but that's just my observation.

The real problem however is that for a photo boat you need room for a dozen or more photographers or a few smaller boats with room for six. Then you need to be really fast to go around the outside of the course (outside the spectator fleet) in order to beat the racers to the top mark and get set up. Then race back down to the bottom. They don't allow the photo boats inside the course boundary. We did it countless times and out in the Hauraki Gulf swells it was brutal. We had a 45' alloy rib called Kawau Cat with a humungous diesel water jet which was constantly sucking air. It carried 20 photogs in bus seating in the back at about 30 kts. No one could sit down though because we needed our legs to cushion the shock. This will not be possible now, I don't think, nothing can do that with the speeds these boats travel.

I will always remember racing back to Auckland with the entire spectator fleet in 2000 in a 21ft Protector rib with five other photogs with twin 250 Yamahas at full song, going about 30 knots in the most gawdawful spectator wash you can imagine. That boat was every which way and mostly airborne but the driver never backed off an inch. The Yammi's at 6000 rpm sounded metallic like a A320 on take off and I loved every second of it. But photos were not possible.

[Jim Cate]

Sounds like they will need to post photogs at each end of the course and not attempt to run them back and forth. Kinda neat when the overpowered m/v can't keep up with the sail boats... I love it!

Jim

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Yes, I saw pictures of this boat earlier. Frankly, it does not look either fast enough or seaworthy to me, (not enough buoyancy forward) but that's just my observation.

Yes, I think they went for a lower buoyancy option since this is a (video) camera boat for live footage rather than a still photography boat and probably they intended to try and minmise any movement whilst still be able to keep up with the AC75s.

I think the hulls and the pod are flexibly mounted too to reduce movement of the video camera, which I guess is on a gyro stablised mount too of course.

You can however see how much less they are moving compared to a small rib at around 1min30 in the video.

It will be interesting to see how it works out.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by jmh2002

Yes, I think they went for a lower buoyancy option since this is a (video) camera boat for live footage rather than a still photography boat and probably they intended to try and minmise any movement whilst still be able to keep up with the AC75s.

I think the hulls and the pod are flexibly mounted too to reduce movement of the video camera, which I guess is on a gyro stablised mount too of course.

You can however see how much less they are moving compared to a small rib at around 1min30 in the video.

It will be interesting to see how it works out.

Aren’t the hulls from the first Team NZ Bermuda AC boat? It will cut through wash and I expect will be in the narrow lane between the course boundaries and the exclusion zone boundaries (i.e. in the exclusion zone).