America's Cup teams switch gears around the world
At four locations across the globe the six teams contesting the 37th America's Cup are moving into a new period of intense training as the wait begins for the new crop of AC75s
After some well-earned downtime over the Christmas and New Year holiday period five of the six teams who will contest the 37th America’s Cup have been back in action over recent weeks at locations in Spain, Italy, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia.
I say five rather than six teams, as the French Orient Express Racing Team are only scheduled to return to the water this coming week with their AC40 in LEQ12-mode for the first time to allow them to do some foil testing.
The weather here in Barcelona has been somewhat uncooperative over the last few weeks has made life tricky at times for INEOS Britannia, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and American Magic who have all lost precious training days to either too little and too much breeze.
Things have been going a little better for the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli syndicate out in Cagliari, Sardinia where the weather has allowed them to get plenty of sailing in on their LEQ12, including in recent days some two-boat-tuning against their AC40 (see main image).
NYYC American Magic were originally planning to sail their trusty AC75 workhorse Patriot for the last time at the end of last week, but have made the call to continue through until Thursday this week. The team’s two AC40s are being prepared by the shore crew, with the coaching staff believed to be planning an intense period of match racing training throughout the month of February.
Having initially returned to training in their AC75 in Barcelona, the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing syndicate has been making the most of keeping their two AC40s out in Jeddah, where for the past week they have been racking up valuable hours of head-to-head match racing practice.
The team set up camp in the Saudi city prior to the America’s Cup preliminary regatta there at the end of November and the sailors stayed on to train immediately after the event.
Alinghi sailing team manager Rodney Arden said the opportunity to decamp to Jeddah when the forecast in Barcelona looked poor was highly beneficial to the campaign.
“I think the point of being here is to get good conditions where we can train,” he said. “It worked out well before Christmas and since the boats were already here we have taken the opportunity to come back. We will keep doing this as long as conditions are worthwhile and it is not that good in Barcelona.”
Arden said he felt the Swiss outfit was in good shape at this stage although still playing catch up after returning to the America’s Cup with a brand new group of sailors who are learning to sail the AC75.
“You would always want to do more in the time available but you have to pick and choose what you can do, but I think we are on a pretty good path,” he said.
“We are definitely putting in plenty of time – we started off behind everyone, without experience in these boats. We need to try to catch up after missing the last Cup and the gains people are making this go around. We are realistic. We have a long way to go and I wouldn’t say we are there yet.
“We are focussing on some match racing right now, taking advantage of having the two boats, and that’s going to be an important part of racing come Cup time.”
Meanwhile, with the build of INEOS Britannia’s third-generation AC75 already well under way in the UK, it appears we may well have seen the last of the team’s opinion-polarising silver LEQ12 test boat ‘T6’.
The British LEQ12 did make a brief comeback in November following a long repair period as a result of a spectacular wipeout while tow testing, but the boat has been off the water since then.
When I spoke to team principal Ben Ainslie at the beginning of January he told me the team’s immediate focus was to get match racing sharp using their pair of AC40s in Barcelona.
Aside from the masses of mission critical data T6 has generated since its launch in Palma, Mallorca in October 2022, the experience of building the boat in conjunction with the Mercedes Formula 1 team is something that Ainslie believes will pay dividends in the creation of the Brits’ new AC75.
Ainslie held back from announcing the boat’s retirement just yet, preferring to leave the door open should more testing be required at a future date.
“It’s a test boat so it depends if we have components that we want to test between now and the Cup,” he said. “I can’t say for certain that we won’t see it again – but I would say it’s unlikely.
Another team making the most of favourable weather conditions is the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand, who decamped back to their home base in Auckland at the end of October last year.
The Kiwi team took a long break over Christmas and New Year but returned to work on January 16 when they went straight into a testing programme for their final foil design aboard their LEQ12 AC40.
Many observers believe that as the originators of the original AC75 rule and the updates to it for AC37 the New Zealand team holds a distinct technology advantage over the other teams.
Team CEO Grant Dalton was asked about that in an interview on The Platform recently and although he did not refute these claims he did suggest there were downsides to being the creators of the rule and admitted that the British and Swiss teams’ partnerships with Formula 1 teams was a significant factor.
“One of the dangers of being the people who designed the [AC75] rule is that you think you know what it should say,” Dalton explained.
“When you aren’t the person who designed the rule, you don’t care what it should say. You care about what you think is the best and fastest solution.”
“The introduction of the Mercedes and Red Bull Formula 1 teams [is significant]. They play on a different level and in different areas and they may be playing with some new technology that we haven’t heard – never mind thought of. That’s certainly a fear: that there’s something we just haven’t turned over because we didn’t know about it or think it was relevant.”
Dalton denied that anything in terms of technology had been held back during the 36th America’s Cup but said he believed the team overall was in a stronger state this time around.
“This time it’s probably only a design breakthrough that would worry me,” he said. “As an organisation putting together an America’s Cup sailing team to go out and defend the Cup I think we are – certainly in my time – stronger than we have ever been.
“Who knows if our new boat is going to be fast enough – we certainly hope it will be. Te Rehutai was the best boat that we could put on the water. What we would have wanted to have put on the water last time is a more rounded package in terms of the integration of the boat and the people in the sailing team.
“This time I think we are headed that way. Now, is that good enough to win? I’m not suggesting that it is, but, this is a considerably improved Emirates Team New Zealand than the one we saw defend the Cup in 2021.”
A key change, Dalton said, was the introduction of Australian double Olympic medallist Nathan Outteridge as co-helmsman with Peter Burling.
“That helps Pete split the tasks on board the boat so he doesn’t have to be the conductor of the orchestra and play in the band at the same time,” Dalton explained.
“That allows him to focus on speed while Nathan is focused on painting a general picture of the course. I think that has made a massive difference to the communications on the boat.”
“Also, as a sailing team, they are a lot more mature. We are debriefing well, Ray [Davies] is doing a great job on the coaching along with Josh Junior. I just feel like the team has made a big step on.”
Asked what he thought the new crop of AC75s currently under build would look like when they are revealed later this year, Dalton said he expected them to all look very different to the AC36 generation boats.
“I don’t know [specifically] what the other guy’s boats are going to look like, but they are going to look different alright,: he said. “Because this is the second iteration of the rule [I would expect that] the teams will come together a lot more in terms of hull shapes. But they will still diverge a bit and I will guarantee that you will see boat shapes that you haven’t seen before.
“When we launched Te Rehutai, it was really different at the time. Now it’s basically an old battleship – that’s how quick the America’s Cup moves on.”
Dalton also acknowledged that many of the new developments would be “under the skin” – i.e. the control systems that are below decks and impossible to spot.
The mast, the foils, the sails, the hull shape – all those things are out there in the open from the moment that the boats are launched.
The things that you can’t see is how the control systems work. That might not sound like a big deal but control systems this time could mean winning or losing the Cup.”
In a passing comment during the interview Dalton confirmed that the New Zealand team’s third-generation AC75 would be launched and sailed in New Zealand before being transported to Barcelona towards the end of June.
What the other teams’ plans are in terms of their AC75 launch dates and locations is yet to be revealed but it seems likely that most would want to get sailing on the America’s Cup racecourse as soon as they possibly can.