Cup Spy July 15: Emirates Team NZ start testing in Barcelona
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ 16 Jul 2023 15:46 BST
15 July 2023
Emirates Team New Zealand - AC75 - Day 21 - July 15, 2023 - Barcelona © Hamish Hooper / Emirates Team New Zealand
Emirates Team New Zealand was the only team sailing at the 2024 America's Cup venue in Barcelona, on Saturday.
Although the real time wind observations recorded a strong breeze well in excess of 20kts at Port Olimpic, on the water it was reported to be a more benign 9-13kts.
On their second day of sailing at the venue, the team dropped into a standard routine - which is a mix of straight line sailing to work through their test routine, along with some race practice.
After the session, co-helmsman Nathan Outteridge - an Olympic Gold and Silver medalist, in the 49er class, who is on his third America's Cup campaign, explained their initial objectives in Barcelona.
"We're always looking to get better in every area. Sailing in a 10 to 12kt wind range is probably the easiest for these boats, because you've got more than enough power to keep it on the foil - but it's not so windy that you're at the top end, when you're on the edge of control.
"So, for us to have two really good solid first days so far has been great. It looks like the wind is going to get a little bit lighter the next few days. We're here to sample the full wind range and sea state conditions. Surprisingly, it's not as wavy as we're first expecting. But we're here for a few months, so we're going to see a lot more soon."
Outteridge says the breeze around Barcelona, from a testing perspective the winds around Barcelona are quite different from Auckland.
"Sailing around Auckland, you've always got islands, and the wind is always quite puffy and shifty. So you end up having to drive and steer quite a lot. But so far with the sea breezes we've had in Barcelona for the last couple of days, we've had a lot of conditions where the winds been quite stable. So it's been good for us to really concentrate on sailing the boat as accurately as we can.
"It's a good venue here to validate the VP performance [computer performance predictions] of the boat, because here there is a stable wind, you can get a really good feel for how the boat's performing."
"From a handling perspective and sailing team, it's good for us to really try and fine tune a lot of stuff we've been working on and also a good venue to do some development on the boat and make sure we're getting what we expect out of the boat," he added.
"One of the biggest things that we want to find out here is how the conditions are compared to what we've sailed in a lot and how that will affect the ultimate design of the race boat. As a team we've done a lot of sailing previously in these conditions and learning the sea states and the wind.
"That's what we really want to get out of being up here and just getting used to the environment.
"For sure, we've only done two days. So it's too soon to know what we've really learned yet, but I think it's pretty valuable to be up here in full scale and, get out there as often as we can, and just just learn about the nuances of this venue.
"So far it looks quite simple and straightforward, but the racecourse is close to shore where it looks like it can get quite puffy and shifty in there.
"But it's only Day 2 and we're going to be here for a while. So we're looking forward to learning a lot more."
The team are having a day off on Sunday, will sail through to Wednesday, and leave on Thursday to fly to Los Angeles for the next round of SailGP next weekend.
AC37 Joint Recon Team Reports:
Emirates Team NZ - AC75 - Day 20 - July 15, 2023 - Barcelona
ETNZ rolled out their B2 AC75 from the shed at 11.20 am. Immediately after, the mast was set with no problems this time. The boat was craned to the water at 11:55 with no unusual occurrences. Just normal routine activities well performed.
The team docked out at 13:00, as it was scheduled, with the M1 and J4 sails onboard, that were used during most of the day. Sails were hoisted at 13:15.
It looked like they divided the day in two. The first part consisted more of sailing on a straight line focusing on target speeds and angles, while the second part of the day was a bit more maneuvers intensive. A total of 41 tacks and 32 gybes were performed, during the entire day, approximately, with almost all of them standing on their foils. No marks were used.
It is very clear that for ETNZ doing all maneuvers standing in their foils is normal or it´s their standard performance. On some tacks/gybes they may slow down a bit more than in others, but the boat looks very stable with considerable margins from falling.
At 15:10 when the wind dropped and the tendency of the wind to continue to drop was clear, as forecasted, ETNZ changed the J4 for the J2.
It took not more than ten minutes to change jib, get someone up and down on the mast, and continue training again.
Conditions: Southerly breeze, very stable in direction oscillating between 180° and 190°, intensity building at the beginning getting up to 13.2kts and then dropping all the way down to slightly over 6 kts of TWS [True Wind Speed]. Generally speaking, flat water 0.4 – 0/3m swell. No chop.
At 16:20 ETNZ returned to the dock, the boat was craned out at 16.50 and put back in the shed at 17.20 after washing, cleaning, and bringing the mast down.
No breakdowns and no failures. Just solid performance.
The Team plans to take a day-off tomorrow and then sail two or three more days before part of the team leaves for the SailGP event on Thursday
Session Statistics - Emirates Team NZ - AC75 - Day 21 - July 15, 2023 - Barcelona
- Total Tacks: 41 - Fully foiling: 39; Touch & Go: 2; Touch Down: 0
- Total Gybes: 32 - Fully foiling: 31; Touch & Go: 1; Touch Down: 0
Crew: Nathan Outteridge, Peter Burling, Andy Maloney, Blair Tuke
Additional Images:
This commentary was written and compiled from video, still images and statistical content extracted from the AC37 Joint Recon program and other material available to Sail-World NZ including photo files, and other on the water coverage from the 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021 America's Cups. Its format is intended to give Sail-World readers a snapshot of all teams' progress on a given day or period.
Additional Images: