Meanwhile in Valencia... beautiful day but USA suffers breakage approaching the Committee boat
Update 8:30pm Valencia Time: We contacted BMW Oracle and were informed it was a minor problem. There is no need to take the wing down and the damage will be repaired with the yacht moored. USA will be back on the water on Friday, as scheduled.
Sorry for the delay in publishing any updates but it was again due to spending a long day on the water off Valencia. What a difference a day makes. While yesterday I was complaining about the cold, windy and rainy weather we had in the world's sailing capital, Thursday was a completely different day. Fortunately, the weather front that whipped Valencia for 4 days finally moved further north and gave way to blue sunny skies, flat seas and light breezes, too light at times.
I had the chance to be on the committee boat with Harold Bennett, Principal Race Officer, who together with the rest of the Race Operations team ran a number of tests in order to simulate a Deed-of-Gift race. One thing is for sure, it will not be very easy to set up a fair race course rapidly.
The dockout was at noon but the breeze was absent, topping 2 knots at best. The remains of the wind from the inland were fighting with the developing thermal breeze and as a result the safest option was to go further offshore, in order to set the starting line at 24 miles from the coast. Yet halfway through, approximately 10 miles from the coast, the shift was becoming more evident and there was a faint 3-knot thermal breeze. As a result, we moved back, getting closer to the shore. In fact, we got much closer than I would have imagined, just 2.5 miles from the Malvarosa beach.
This is due to the fact that the actual layline angles of the two giant multihulls are smaller than initially anticipated, making it possible to set up the starting line at least a couple of miles closer, if of course there is a constant thermal breeze from the east. At that distance, sea depth is about 35 meters, so the race committee and pin end boats can even anchor. A number of the race operations boats are already connected to the AIS and it seems to be working perfectly, so if you are curious to see what they are doing every day you can log on to www.marinetraffic.com zoom in on Valencia and track some of them.
The first of two yachts to go out on the water was USA, at around 2:30pm while Alinghi 5 followed half an hour later. USA sailed for a few minutes to the south, in front of the Albufera lake and then headed towards the committee boat. At that time, windspeed was just 5.5 knots from the east, but USA was already flying her two hulls. It was simply spectacular to have the challenger's yacht coming towards us. Unfortunately, a couple of minutes later, their sailing came to an abrupt end. As USA was passing right by the committee boat a very loud bang was heard. I, personally, was unable to observe anything broken and as one can see from the photos there are no external signs. Yet, most of the crew was looking upwards, observing the wing and by the reaction of the team it also appears the breakage wasn't minor. A few hundred meters downwind, they lowered the gennaker and USA was towed back to port.
Alinghi 5, on the other hand was sailing further south and never got close to the committee boat. Given her size, she was visibly flying when the breeze topped 7.5 knots at 4pm but she was too far away to come to any reliable conclusion.
Although the day was benign overall, it would have been impossible to have a race if it were scheduled to be an official racing day. As I said before, at the committee boat, 2.5 miles from the beach, the breeze settled from 2pm until 5pm, with a direction slightly oscillating between 90 and 100 degrees. Twenty miles further offshore, at the weather mark, the situation was completely different as the wind was up and down, all over the place. It never stabilized, neither in intensity nor in direction, and could go from 0 to 5 knots and shift wildly 70-80 degrees, all within 15 minutes.
USA approaches the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA approaches the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA approaches the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA approaches the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA approaches the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
A very loud bang is heard when USA passes by the race committee boat. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA slows down and it seems that the crew is checking something on the wing. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
USA slows down and it seems that the crew is checking something on the wing. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
The BMW Oracle crew is lowering the gennaker, getting USA ready to be towed back to port. Valencia, 28 January 2010. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia SailingLabels: 33rd America's Cup, BMW Oracle, USA
11 Comments:
Esa maquina es dificil de manejar y seguro no termina alguna de las tres regatas. Al tiempo.
Ha roto el trigemino de la polar que enlaza con el cable del arcabucio hasta la cuarta. Se ve claramente sin lugar a dudas. Paversematao.
It seems that the wing is "canted" on the starbord side as during sailing... some failure of the system used to move the wing upwind?
@ Jep - The mast will have been canted whilst sailing, keeping it in the optimum position. I suspect they were more worried about dropping the headsail to remove load from the rig, as opposed to getting the rig upright. I don't think we can judge anything from that photo - it is too soon after the incident.
Fred Meyer vice-comodoro de la SNG dice: "...También ha acusado a BMW-Oracle "de doble rasero" por intentar "sortear la regla de 'eliminación de residuos y protección medioambiental' recogida en las Instrucciones de Regata para continuar contaminando libremente las aguas de Valencia descargando un cóctel químico debajo de sus cascos que hace que su barco navegue más rápidamente".
Querido Larry:
Si esto es cierto...fuera inmediatamente de Valencia y sus aguas porque personalmente y antes de la regata os meto una querella medioambiental por contaminacion de las aguas costera de Valencia,y puedo hacerlo te lo aseguro.
Si es cierto ...no mereceis estar ni un dia mas en esta ciudad. Mucho ojo con lo que haceis.¿Entendido?.
Y por favor Pierre permite publicar este comentario.Gracias.
Of course they said it is a minor problem - would they tell the truth if it is a major problem? Unlikely.
Minor or not, the fact is that these boats are fragile. If today was a race day BOR would have lost it. I can only wonder the amount of stress on all the engineers and builders, as the race draws near. Two and half years of hard work can go down the drain on a minor failure. I hope it doesn't happen to any of the two boats. Regardless of our opinions about EB and LE the guys who built these marvelous boats are sure to be very nice people.
Handling problems?
To anon 2:00
Yes, I share your point of view. BOR wing is very innovative and it needs to be fine tuned. They need more time to test it and brake what needs to be broken. Time is something they don't have anymore. On the other side, Alinghi has chosen to keep a "traditional" mast with sails. Apart from the fact this is a real sloop, they did a wise choice. Anyway thank's to both parties to show us these monsters. I hope we will be able to see them race each other ...
Some history. In 1988 Stars & Stripes hoisted a head sail during the pre start, and lowered it soon thereafter for most of the racing. A sloop rig has a provision for a head sail. To use it or not is the skipper's call.
When the monohulls used in the AC lowered their head sails to raise a spinnaker were they no longer sloops?
My only surprise is that there is not two wings ready to battle it out in Valencia.
Great to see the two contenders afloat, hope that breakages do not determine the winner.
High tech is always scary, at first. Didn't John Conner use a wingsail years ago on his A-Class cat contender for The Cup? Seem to remember it won by a mile.
Be nice to see two big multis in combat - I hope!
Hi Glenn - keep your chin up! We are off to Braidies for a bite and a beer or two this evening.
Post a Comment
<< Home