Softbank and Oracle looked solid in the trying conditions

Bermuda

Four races were held at the very bottom of the wind range today on Great Sound. The wind speed topped out at 7 knots today while 6 knots is the minimum windspeed for racing as stipulated in the rules. All boats struggled to keep the boats foiling, some more than others.  After the first three races, it was clear that the French and BAR were struggling the most and this made the fourth race of the day most compelling.

Race 19. France vs. Japan.  Japan starts on foils, French are not.  Huge speed delta.   Japan is able to foil almost the entire race.  French are not. Japan wins easily.

Race 20. New Zealand vs. BAR.  New Zealand shows strong ability to stay foiling in the light winds while BAR falls off almost continuously.  ETNZ stretches to huge lead and win.  BAR retires on final run.

Race 21. Oracle Team USA vs. Softbank Japan.  These two teams have shared design information as allowed by the rules and trained a lot together.  Both had similar ability to stay on foils. Oracle, late to enter, gets “dialed up” above the entry line. After one minute, Oracle gets penalized for not entering the starting box. Japan has lead into first mark and down to the bottom gate and maintains the led up the first windward leg and down the first run.  At the bottom gate for the second time, Oracle creates the split, takes left gate and heads right.  Oracle has decent wind despite that side being slightly under the land.  As the teams cross with Japan still in the lead and heading to the right (west), Japan falls into less wind while Oracle now finds more wind on the left.  When Japan tacks, their leeward hull falls in the water and they can’t get foiling.  Oracle remains foiling in the good pressure on the left side of the course and makes a 300 meter gain and takes lead. Oracle remains in control and takes win.

Race 22.  BAR vs. France.  We could tell from the previous races that these two teams were struggling about equally and suspected that this would be a good match, and albeit painfully slow, they didn’t disappoint.  BAR got a penalty on France in “dial up”. Cammas does a great job of working off the penalty with minimal loss of distance. Down the first run, as both boats gybe, they both come off the foils and sit down in the water. They become displacement boats rather than foiling boats.  Unfortunately, it looks like both these teams are deficient with their boards or possibly the power being generated by the wing.  The race was a true battle with many lead changes.  The race was shortened to finish at the top of the second windward leg. Around the last bottom gate, both boats took the left mark with BAR following the French by 60 meters.  The French made a good rounding foiling throughout.  Ainslie tacked shortly after rounding as he was in the French turbulent air. The French do not cover!  The French stretch into the lower right hand corner, behind the land. They tack and get stuck in lighter wind, not foiling.  BAR on the left is foiling the entire time and comes back just 20 meters behind the French.  At the next and final cross, the French have to duck and cross behind BAR.  BAR wins.

The final race was the best race of the day.  It looks like Japan, Oracle and ETNZ have the right foils and or ability to generate more power from the wing.  We will see these conditions again.  Is Artemis in the same league.  We don’t know as they didn’t race today.

The beautiful SV Rosehearty on the race course yesterday…no wind.

Another interesting note is that after Oracle finished their one and only race today, they stayed out  and trained alone for another hour when normally, all teams head in after they finish racing.  Despite leading the qualification rounds and looking likely to take the point for winning this stage into the Cup, Oracle press on knowing that their speed today is not enough to win the Cup in three weeks time.

Four races are schedule for tomorrow and the forecast has the wind up a bit to 8-12.  Four races are then scheduled for Saturday and this qualification round will be over. The Defender will go off on his own and the last place challenger will be dropped from the competition.  The remaining four challenger will begin the semi finals on Tuesday June 6 and finish by June 9.

Tomorrows line up:

ETNZ vs. Japan

Sweden vs. USA

ETNZ vs. France

Japan vs. Sweden

Go Warriors!

Paul

Artemis has had a tough 24 hours.

Bermuda

Three races were held today on Great Sound in 12- 14 knots of wind. It was a day to get more racing in as the forecast for the next few days is very light.  However the schedule was set in stone and so no changes were made.  Four races are on the schedule for tomorrow.

It looked to me that most team had their light air boards on, certainly Artemis and BAR did. Artemis had to race in the first and last races of the day and could not afford to get caught in the last race of the day with the small boards as the forecast had the wind dropping. Its possible ETNZ had smaller boards on in the race against Artemis as the Kiwi’s had just the one race to deal with today.

The first race of Round 2, Race 16, was a rematch of the last race of round 1.  Artemis was up against ETNZ and certainly looking for some redemption after they were wronged by an umpire call yesterday. Nathan Outteridge schooled Peter Berling at the start and Artemis held a comfortable lead all the way around the first lap. Up the second windward leg, ETNZ began making in roads on the Swedish lead.  It looked to me like mostly speed.  The wind did turn right all day so often the boat on the right in the splits would make gains.  Near the top of the second windward leg, the Swedish lead was all but gone. The Kiwi’s were coming on starboard and laying the port side of the windward gate.  Artemis was not crossing and should have gone behind but maybe that was too bitter of a pill to swallow after having a 200 meter lead just 3 minutes earlier. Instead the Swedes tried to cross and fouled the Kiwi’s who still managed to get around the windward mark after bearing away to avoid a collision. Penalty to the Swedes, game over.

Artemis vs. ETNZ II.  ETNZ gets a little loose coming into bottom gate.

Race 17: France vs. Oracle. No story here really.  Spithill schooled Gammas on the start and Oracle went on to win by a big margin.  One technique thing was interesting: Oracle was coming to the reward mark and a bit “thin”.  They put the windward board down to add lift to the package so the boat would not drop into the water as they “soaked” don to the mark.  Essentially, they crawled in on all fours.

Race 18: This was a huge race.  Artemis vs. BAR.  Either Artemis was going to suffer yet another loss or BAR were going to extend their losing streak to 5 in a row. Artemis got too close to the line too early and Ainslie was able to create gauge off the Swedes which allowed him to pull the trigger earlier and have more speed at the start.  BAR rolled around the Swedes and led the whole way. The race never got close.  The teams seemed pretty even in speed, both on light air boards I think.  Artemis has a hard 90 degree radius in their board where BAR is a softer radius. The harder the run, the more draggy I believe but also makes the span and the righting moment greater which are both pluses.  Interesting tradeoffs.  So far, technique and sailing skill has outweighed all these small design details.

Now is a good time to tell you about the format of this America’s Cup.  For the first time ever, the Defender is doing some racing with the Challengers, and it counts.  The Defender, Oracle Team USA is racing these first two round robins with the Challengers.  The team with the most points at the end of Round 2, will take one point with them into the America’s Cup, unless it is a challenger who doesn’t qualify for the Match.  A bit confusing but we will cross that bridge later if we need to.  The last place challenger will be eliminated and the defender will exit the racing and move to the finals starting June 17. Privilege of winning last time.

The remaining four challengers will race the semi finals of the Louis Vuitton Challengers series. The highest ranking challenger from the round robins will pick his opponent. The other two will race. Both series will be won by the first team to win 5 points. The winners of the semi finals will race the Finals of the Louis Vuitton, again a first to win 5 points series.  The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup will race Oracle in the America’s Cup Finals, starting June 17, which will be a first to win 7 points.

The forecast is for tomorrow is northerly 4 to 8 knots, becoming variable 2 to 5 knots in the afternoon, then settling southwesterly 4 to 8 knots overnight… Not great.

Oracle moved to 6 wins, ETNZ is on 5, BAR on 4, Artemis, Japan, and the French all on 2 wins.

Tomorrows dance card:

Paul

Oracle Team USA and Softbank Nippon duel at start of race 12.

Bermuda

Six fantastic races were held today on Great Sound, Bermuda, in 12 dropping to 8 knots from the southwest. What is of interest in a condition like this is to see who has the light air boards on and who has the all purpose boards on.

I have been here two days, and may be wrong, but by my eye Artemis had the light air boards on and Oracle had their smaller heavy air boards today.  What this means is that if the wind drops and you get caught with the smaller boards on you have trouble keeping the boat up on foils.  The speed difference between foiling and non foiling is about 6 knots.  So it doesn’t take much time out of a tack, with the hulls in the water, to lose a lead.  The reason to have the smaller boards is that they create less drag when the boat is at high speed in stronger winds.  Not only are the surface areas different between the boards but the sectional shape is different as well…thinner for the high speed foils.

One more subtlety; some teams use a smaller board on the port side of the boat than on the starboard side.  This is because the first leg of the course is a high speed reach and you want a smaller, thinner board for that.  So when the wind gets light, the first place boats struggle is tacking onto starboard tack up wind.

Again, I may be wrong.

In the first race of the day, race 7 of the round, everyone was expecting a non event but the French raised up and claimed their first scalp off Artemis. The French won the start but got rolled in the first gybe; still not steady or consistent in the maneuvers. However, the wind was shifty and up the first windward leg, Artemis got out of phase and the French climbed back and took the lead.  They we just able to hang on and win by one boat length.  Huge for the French!

Groupama France lead Artemis Sweden

Race 8 pitted Oracle vs. BAR. Br won the start handily and was ahead at the bottom gate.  oracle split and got some good shifts.  Passed BAR and stretched from there.  Game over.

Race 9-ETNZ vs. Nippon. Dean Barker on Nippon chased Peter Berling down to the pauline and left him there to have a slow start.  Nippon leads at first mark and up the first windward leg.  Down the first run ETNZ showed more wind on the east side of the course and made a big gain.  Nippon able to hold on but ETNZ goes to the east side out of the bottom and makes big gain on Nippon.  When Nippon switches sides to go the the east, the wind shifted to the west and put ETNZ ahead. Game over.

For races 10-12, my friend Joey and I got on the “Race Chase” boat and followed the competitors on the race course.  This is a very cool program offered by the event to give fans a very close look at the action on the water.

Race 10-Oracle USA vs. Artemis SWE. Wind down to 8 knots. Artemis on big boards, Oracle Team USA on small boards. Bad start by Spithill; locked out to windward. On second windward leg, Oracle had trouble foiling.  Artemis sails well and fast. Race over, Artemis wins.

Race 11-BAR (GBR) vs. ETNZ. Kiwis get a penalty in the prestart for a port starboard on the entry.  They have to get one boat length clear astern of BAR after start.  They do. After leading at the first mark, BAR wait too long to gybe for leeward gate. Kiwis gybe simultaneously and make the left gate mark. Kiwis stretch take lead and stretch.  Game over.

Race 12- Oracle vs. Nippon. Wind builds back up to 9.  Saves Oracle on the small boards. Good start by Oracle and they sail very well.  All tacks very smooth.  Stretch all the time-large margin of victory.

Tomorrow the last 3 matches of round robin one are scheduled; Artemis vs. Kiwis to be one of them. Oracle is done for this round finishing with a 4 – 1 record to win the round.  The forecast is for more of the same conditions so it will be interesting to see who changes to larger boards.

Lessons from the day; it seems better to error on big boards, and it is very shifty out there so the races are never over.

After two days, I think this will be a great America’s Cup.  Why:  Fast boats are cool if the racing is competitive and it is, lots of lead changes, short races, excellent venue to race these boats, the best AC Village ever (will describe another day), great television production, Bermudians are great hosts. I am really lucky to be here and looking forward to the entire month.

Paul

Look familiar? 4 years later, different venue.

photos by Andrea Francolini

Sydney

An aerial view of Sydney harbour and South head in the foreground

After four days of racing and a mix of conditions, Team Beau Geste came out on top of the Australian National Championship.  It was an honor to sail with Karl Kwok and his team.  I have known Karl for many years dating back to the Admirals Cup days in the 90’s but never sailed with his Beau Geste.

Sailing – Australian IRC Championship 2017
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia

Gavin Brady, who runs the Beau Geste Team, invite me to be the helmsman for two series down here in Oz. Gavin and I sailed together on AmericaOne in the 2000 America’s Cup and again on Money Penny in 2008.  It was fun to sail together and the results were there too so that made it even better. There was a great crew, including long time friend and teammate at Oracle and Artemis, David Brooke, who are regulars on Beau Geste and it was a pleasure to race with them as well.

Beau Geste is a TP52 that is optimized for the IRC rule.  This means it is slightly different than the Super Series TP52’s I sailed on last summer. The mast is slightly taller and we sailed with 15 crew instead of 12.

We had a mix of conditions from 18 knots and big waves on the first day to 7 knots today.  Beau Geste dominated the first two days of racing in the stronger winds. Interestingly, one of our competitors was a canting keel 66′ designed by Reichel-Pugh name “Alive”.  This boat was very tough to beat in todays’ lighter conditions.

Through it all we won the series rather handily. This marked the fourth time in a row that Beau Geste has won the Australian National Championship for IRC racing. They obviously have this figured out so I was just happy to be along for the ride.

I am headed back to San Francisco tomorrow and will sail next in Miami for the Star Western Hemisphere Championship, April 6-9.

Paul

Sydney

Last summer, my results were pretty bad on the TP52 Phoenix. I was feeling pretty down about it all and looking forward to getting back on a winning path this spring. When the owner sold the boat, that closed the door on redemption, seemingly.

Then I got asked to come down to Sydney and race as helmsman on another TP52, for the IRC national championship. The boat and team are very well known…Beau Geste out of Hong Kong. Gavin Brady is the team leader and the team is full of great sailors.

We managed to get a win this weekend and coupled with my win the Star a few weeks ago, it feels like I am getting back on my bike.

This past weekend we raced Beau Geste in the Sydney Harbor Series as a tune up for the IRC Nationals later this month.  While there were just a handful of competitors in our class this weekend, we expect 15 or more in two weeks time, with 8 of them being TP52’s.

It was very windy Saturday which forced the race committee to keep us inside the Harbor. Sydney Harbor is a very busy place on weekends. The race area was quite compressed for boats the size and speed of a TP52, so the theee lap, 0.75 nm leg races, in 25 knots of wind, were intense. At 20 knots of speed, the downwind legs lasted four minutes.  There were ferries, rocks, and a hundred other boats in 10 classes, all serving as obstacles at one point or another. It was the kind of racing where you could get the kite up and then decide it’s too windy or there is a ferry in the way, and you drop the kite to gybe. On one run our A4 simply exploded when we a 28 knot gust hit us.

On Sunday, while still raining, the wind had moderated and shifted southwest which made it possible, or let’s say reasonable, to race in the big swells off the Sydney Heads. Again two races were held but the course was stretched out to 1 mile legs. It was still windy enough that we went down one of the runs without the kite.

The 18′ skiffs were racing their World Champinship on the harbor this past week. With a few of the Beau Gesta boys, we went around to the Double Bay Skiff Club last night for their prize giving. I met up with 5 time skiff world champion Andrew Buckland who had taken me sailing on a skiff in San Francisco in 1979. Hadn’t seen him since. Pretty fun what life serves up sometimes. Andrew introduced me to a few of the young guys who are now dominating this iconic class. 18’s have been the ultimate dinghy for a hundred years. If you don’t know what an 18 is, you should Google it. They are very impresssive boats. Howie Hamlin and Skip McCormick, long time friends from California, were racing so I caught up with them as well.

I am headed back to SF today and then back down here in 2 weeks time.

Paul