So it is so far in the Louis Vuitton Cup – an intriguing and irritating mixture of exciting sailing and letdowns when these high-performance yachts fall off their foils either right at the beginning or more towards the end.
It happens – with almost monotonous regularity lately – at the pre-start, those natal moments where twisting and turning manoeuvres are used to gain an advantage at the birth of a race. Or it can happen late, when soft and unstable winds see these monsters unable to sustain flight mode.
At Friday morning’s racing, no fewer than four of the five races were blighted by touchdowns in the pre-start – operator error and/or inability of the boat to handle light airs.
Ineos Britannia, France’s Orient Express (twice) and Alinghi all went into wallow mode in the pre-start. Even Emirates Team NZ fell off their foils later in a race, allowing the French to waltz past on the first leg – before the French did the same thing rounding the mark on Leg 2 and the Kiwis romped away to win.
Yes, the treacherous breeze – now you see it, now you don’t – was to blame but so is the design and optimisation of the foiling monohulls, an element which has placed a question mark around one of the leading contenders pre-regatta: American Magic and their yacht Patriot.
In their first race on Friday, they beat Ineos Britannia in light-to-medium airs, with the Brits assisting greatly by falling off the foils pre-start and sustaining a self-inflicted boundary penalty. Britannia had to make up 75m from the early penalty – making ground on Patriot consistently as the breeze subsided. It wasn’t hard to feel that, without that penalty, Britannia could have won that race.
In their second race, American Magic were undone by Alinghi, who recovered quickly from falling off their foils and led out after the Americans copped an unnecessary entry penalty. However, on Leg 4 and about 25s down, Patriot went off its foils twice, sharpening focus on its design and moding.
It sparked loud conjecture in yachting circles that the Americans have designed and optimised their boat for best performance in medium-to-heavy winds. Which would be fine if there were any.
Way back before the regatta, Team New Zealand pointed to the need for teams to be able to perform in variable breezes and sea state. We probably haven’t seen their best race gear yet but it doesn’t take much to guess that ETNZ’s boat has been optimised to perform well in light-to-medium airs.
The 37th America’s Cup is a bit of an unknown quantity in weather terms. To avoid a clash with the European football championships and the Paris Olympics, it was scheduled later than would otherwise have been the case – potentially losing Barcelona’s predictable and steady summer winds.
American Magic’s weather research, however, seems to have persuaded them to set up their yacht for more wind, perhaps in the belief that Barcelona’s light airs would not be enough to trigger the minimum allowable windspeed (6.5 knots) for races to be held. They may have guessed right for later but, first, they need to find a way to get to the Louis Vuitton final.
That doesn’t look likely if the soft winds continue. The minimum has halted racing occasionally but the wind has dropped during races – and American Magic have seemingly had to operate at the most uncomfortable end of their comfort zone. They have Luna Rossa and the French to go in their last two races so should make the semifinals if they beat the latter.
After that…?
They raised eyebrows when they fell off the foils during the race with Alinghi. The design of their yacht calls for the cyclors to lie down rather than sit up (as in all the other yachts) to power the hydraulics, the foils and the sail shape. That aerodynamic styling looks advantageous in medium-to-brisk winds but, in light airs, Patriot appears to struggle.
The cyclors’ ability to pump oil round the boat seems strained in a soft breeze, probably exacerbated by trailing Alinghi. When behind, more power is needed to deal with what sailors call “dirty air” or “gas” from the lead boat, slowing the one behind, and to fuel manoeuvres for a lead change.
In American Magic’s case, maybe they have traded the extra power of upright cyclors for a hull and boat design that performs better in stiffer breezes than Barcelona has managed to produce thus far.
There are other assumptions that can be drawn:
- Luna Rossa: head and shoulders above the rest of the challengers, favourite to contest the match against Team NZ.
- Alinghi have improved their sailing markedly, not out of it yet. The French, however, seem destined to miss the Louis Vuitton semifinals.
- If the Brits, while they lost both races on Friday, can clean up their sailing mistakes, they could yet be a force.
- Finally, the pre-start will be hugely important when the teams improve sailing and boat optimisation, as they always do.
