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In a full foiling turn the G forces may have surprised this French sailor. He crossed the boat during a fast turn and couldn’t slow down on the other side. Maybe he decided to jump because he remembered that skipper Franck Cammas had his right foot nearly cut off by the rudder wing when he went overboard training in France in November 2015.
Thursday 6 April 2017 – On an official practice race day, Oracle had a scare, nearly capsizing their America’s Cup Race Boat.
Two days later they did capsize. The boat was righted within 10 minutes. After tests and repairs, they were back out sailing the next morning. In the video, Oracle has blurred out the foils but you can see their shape in the video from MyislandhomeBDA, below.
MyislandhomeBDA also captured the incident. In this video it looks like the boat was righted by pulling it up from the side rather than by “flying it up” – towing the boat forward into the wind with the wing trimmed down. There may have been too little wind for that technique. Note that you get a good look at the foils when the boat is on its side – very long with high aspect ratio.
On Thursday 6 April, Artemis Racing won their pre-start against Oracle Team USA, putting a penalty on Oracle. Artemis led going into the first mark doing close to 40 knots, when an errant chase boat from a Red Bull Youth America’s Cup team crossed in front of them. The chase boat did a quick 180. Nathan Outteridge did an emergency bearaway and Artemis planted the bows, damaging the fairing on the forward crossbeam. Regatta Director Iain Murray abandoned the race and cleared the course. Artemis went to their base to inspect the structures and to patch up the damage. They returned for a second race against Oracle. Artemis lost the start and followed Oracle around the first mark but found better pressure later in the race and passed Oracle for the win.
At 1:00 into this video by Jason Smith of MyislandhomeBDA, Artemis and Oracle cross the start line. At 1:45 Artemis leads around Mark 1. You can see the Youth America’s Cup chase boat’s emergency turn on the right edge of the screen. About 15 seconds later, at 2:00 in the video we can see the damaged fairing hanging from the forward starboard crossbeam. At 2:17 a crewman leaves his cockpit and lies down on the crossbeam to pull off the damaged piece. At 2:33 he throws it overboard and at 2:50 the Artemis chase boat stops to pick it up.
Jason Smith’s “MyislandhomeBDA” YouTube channel provides regular video updates on the teams training in Bermuda. You can thank Jason by subscribing to his YouTube channel and by making a donation.
Artemis Racing’s test boat, the AC45x “T2” suffered serious damage. The wing came down and both crossbeams broke. No one was injured. The wing, a spare for their America’s Cup Class race yacht, was damaged slightly.
In the photo above, the daggerboard lifting pole is sticking through the lower segment of the flap element of the wing. Fortunately none of the wing control system is in that part of the wing, so damage was minor. In the photo below you can see the repair work underway. The Clysar film was torn and a few ribs were broken.
The port hull is lying on its side in the photo below. Both crossbeams have broken. Artemis engineers are studying data from the boat to determine what caused the breakage.
Thanks to the Bermuda Royal Gazette for the photos. You can read their full article here.
America’s Cup Class catamarans racing for the first time! Watch the pre-start between Oracle’s Jimmy Spithill and Land Rover BAR’s Ben Ainslie. With port tack entry, Oracle is allowed to enter the starting box 10 seconds ahead of starboard tack, right of way Land Rover BAR. But they are late and cannot cross in front of BAR. Both boats go into a dial up.