The Challenger of Record for the 37th America’s Cup, INEOS Britannia, launched into the second phase of their extensive testing programme in Barcelona on Monday, bringing out the team’s AC40 ‘Athena’ for a three-hour shake-down sail.
Greeting the sailors was 30 degree heat and a lumpy waveform with a building easterly breeze that topped out at 15 knots by mid-afternoon but from the start, the team were down to business and taking up exactly where they left off in Palma – foiling beautifully and running through the modes, cant and pitch angles with ease
With their base now almost fully operational right in the heart of the action along the Port Vell with Alinghi Red Bull Racing as near neighbours and the new AC Experience exhibition next door, the team are shifting their emphasis from pure testing to more dynamic two-boat racing with the first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú looming large on their immediate horizon to focus the campaign
Giles Scott, Head of Sailing for INEOS Britannia, described the shift after sailing, saying: “As we roll through the campaign design decisions are being signed off pretty rapidly so yeah the usage of T6 kind of shifts towards racing/two-boating. There's still a lot of engineering work we can do with T6 in terms of sail design and onboard systems, so really the list has shrunk a little bit but there's still a lot for us to do with that boat.”
Giles’s words echo many of those up and down the America’s Cup village with the major hull profile design decisions having been locked in and builds starting. There’s still plenty of scope for aero and wing development with big gains potentially to be made in those two areas whilst systems and controls appear to be the high focus for the engineers at the moment.
Talking about their highly impressive first day on the water, Giles was pleased with how the team performed saying: “It was great we had a really good day for day one. We rolled the AC40 out this morning, out past the breakwater. By about midday the breeze built really quite nicely, and we had three hours of really good sailing…it was a bit lumpy, the breeze was building from the east and it got up to around about 15 knots and the sea state was certainly no surprise, super tricky conditions but good fun.”
There were plenty of smiles around the INEOS Britannia base as the team effortlessly splashed ‘Athena’ and the transition from their winter base in Palma appears to have gone smoothly, as Giles attested: “Well we've obviously just come across from Palma, so we've got a lot going on with base set-up. The boats got broken down to come across from Palma so yeah there's a bit of work to get them both up and running. We made the decision to get the AC40 out first, T6 is in the shed behind it and yeah, we’ll be sailing that next week…and really, we will continue the testing programme that we've been running in Palma and that will continue for good few months to come.”
Giles set the scene now for the British programme leading up to the first Preliminary Regatta saying: “We're really excited with Villanova just around the corner. It really is just a few weeks away, so going forward with the testing programme here in Barcelona I think you'll be seeing quite a bit more two-boating and we will be focusing those training days primarily around the racecourse and you know for us, as a sailing team, we're keen as mustard to get racing and yeah I think the whole organisation is super excited about it.”
Barcelona extends a (very) warm welcome to the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, as they become the fifth team to splashdown in Barcelona. The countdown to the America’s Cup is very much ticking.