However, a collision with a log at speed on the second tack of the day just off North Head very nearly brought the day to an early conclusion for the LEQ12 with the starboard foil suffering damage just below the intersection with the foil arm. Immediately the sailors lowered the sails, and the chase boat team were in quickly, taking the boat back to the Wynyard Dock and hauling out for a thorough inspection. The maze of wires running down the lower foil arm could be clearly seen exposed, and the carbon fibre shards were quickly cut out and at double-speed, the repair was affected. Top job from the relentless shore team. The LEQ12 was dropped back into the briny a little under an hour later and towed out to join the AC40 with Liv Mackay and Josh Junior aboard for an entertaining afternoon session that stretched into the evening.
America’s Cup Recon
Emirates Team New Zealand
LEQ12
D23
The recon team noted that for the LEQ12 it was very much a commissioning run with all manner of modes and pitches being rifled through quickly by Pete Burling and Nathan Outteridge and as Ray Davies, the team’s coach, commented afterwards: “Yeah, for sure with the new foil there’s heaps to learn, there’s obviously cameras on it and so forth and designers pouring all over it and yes just some fast modes, some slow modes and different drops, accelerations all sorts…Yes, happy overall. Against the one design board you’d like to think it’s going well so we’ll do some to some two-boat racing probably next week now so that helps us get an understanding of its performance. It is quite hard to tell purely off numbers so it’s quite nice when you can line a couple of boats up.”
Talking about the incident early in the session Ray gave his analysis saying: “Big day, big week. Having the two boats on the water is always a logistical handful but it’s going well but we hit a bit of wood out there and with all this weather there’s quite a lot of debris out there, just off North Head, first tack of the day so that was a bit of a shame and we thought that was potentially going to end our block but the boat builders were able to do a bit of work on it, patch it up and we got out there for a good session at the end of the day which was nice ‘cause it was obviously our new foil there and we were able to get some good numbers on it. We’re probably blown out for the next five days – another ‘cyclone’ coming to New Zealand – it’s just a low this one, so all good.”
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And talking about the effort to get the LEQ12 back in the water in such quick time, Ray was full of praise for the team saying: “It was a good day, a massive team effort. The team’s just charging at the moment, we’ve got a lot going on when you look around the yard it’s like crazy how much we’ve got going on, but we’re smashing it out and looking forward to getting up to Barcelona later in the year and getting a bit of this kit up there.”
America’s Cup Recon
Emirates Team New Zealand
LEQ12
D23
More to come soon from the Kiwis as they wait for the weather to clear in Auckland but the new foil very much signals that the arms-race in this America’s Cup cycle, is well underway.
On-Water Recon Unit Notes: The AC40 was on the docks edge by 10.30 and in the water at 10.49. Next up the LEQ 12 was in position on the docks edge at 10.56, and in the pen at 11.18. At 12 both yachts were slipped from their berths and taken in tow astern out to rough rock to hoist sails. On the LEQ12 the J2 was on the lock at 12.26 and the main at 12.32. She was off the chase and sailing by 12.46. On her second tack of the day just under North Head she hit a log floating with the starboard arm just below the water line in foiling trim. After a quick inspection from the chase boat she dropped sails and was towed back to base to be hauled out. She was back in her cradle by 13.45 and a team of boat builders got to work. After lots of grinding and trimming, a brew of 5 min epoxy bog and some fiber was used to fill the hole.
At 14.40 she was back in the water, and she was being towed back out to sea by 14.55. After several attempts to get foiling under the city, the chase boat was hailed and took her in tow. The LEQ12 dropped her tow off Devonport wharf at 15.28. From here she headed down the Rangitoto Channel and out past A buoy. Doing lots of moding on port gybe to check the new foil. After 2 hours of straight lining and moding she went into one prestart drill just off Number 12 buoy. Here the LEQ12 was pushed very hard into two full anti clockwise circles before sheeting on and beating back up the harbour in a dying breeze. She came off the foils just West of the Naval base in a very light spot and the chase came alongside to help douse sails. She was back in the pen at 17.31.
Dock out: 1200 & 1455 Dock-in: 1322 & 1731.
Onboard the Boats Today
Helms LEQ12: Nathan Outteridge / Pete Burling
Crews LEQ12: Andy Maloney / Blair Tuke
Helms AC40: Josh Junior / Liv Mackay
Crews AC40: Sam Meech / Marcus Hansen
Wind Strength:
Weather AM: SW 10 dropping to VAR 5 fine, some cloud.
Weather PM: SW 6-12 fine, high cloud.
Sea State AM: Flat water
Sea State PM: Moderate
Sail Used onboard LEQ12:
M1 Mainsail: 2 hours 25 minutes
J1 Jib: 2 hours 31 minutes
Total Tacks: 80 – 79 foil-to-foil, 1 touch & go.
Total Gybes: 80 – 78 foil-to-foil, 2 touch & go.