The pre-event practice racing that has been held in Barcelona ahead of the first Preliminary Regatta in Vilanova i La Geltrú from the 14-17 September 2023, has given us an early look into the form and revealed much about the sailor’s approach to pure one-design AC40 fleet racing. The racing has been remarkably competitive with a huge premium on boat positioning with very few passing lanes. Downwind work has arguably seen the biggest gains amongst the front runners and the premium on constant flight is a given. The world’s best foiling sailors, the golden generation of foilers, are certainly not disappointing and we can expect fireworks when all six AC40s line up for eight fleet races that will decide the top two boats to proceed to the match-race final–winner-takes-all. The first Preliminary Regatta on the road to the 37th America’s Cup, begins in Vilanova i La Geltrú with practice racing on Thursday 14th September 2023 with the racing starting on Friday 15th and running through to the deciding match-race final on Sunday 17th September 2023. The America’s Cup media provide their insight into who is expected to do well in Vilanova i La Geltrú.

America’s Cup AC40 Lineup for Vilanova i la Geltrú

Emirates Team New Zealand The Kiwis have performed consistently in the Practice Racing in Barcelona with a tight-knit team that trust in their process. Seemingly preferring mid-line starts and then applying pressure on boats to windward with their high mode and low riding, Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge have proven to be excellent front-runners once ahead whilst being determined chasers when behind. As defenders of the America’s Cup and with a lot of time on the water, they are the team who always have a target on their back and there’s a sense that several teams are rapidly closing the gap. Will be interesting to see how they go in Vilanova.

INEOS Britannia Luke Parkinson told it straight when he said that the team hadn’t done enough racing and sailing in the AC40 and for the Challenger of Record it has been a tough few days of racing in the practice regattas. At times brilliant, Ben Ainslie’s starting has been world-class but poor execution of manuevers, particularly downwind, has cost them dearly. However, this is a team with superb coaches, who learn fast and there is no more dangerous a sight in world sailing than Ben Ainslie with his back to the wall. Giles Scott is a super-rapid sailor with a lot of experience at the top level of foiling whilst the team has plenty of experience to call up for Vilanova in terms of trimmers. Could be dark horses to show well.

NYYC American Magic The Americans chose to sit out the first few days of the recent practice regatta, preferring to complete their aero and foil testing schedule, but when they came to the racecourse, they were sensational. This is, no doubt, the team to beat with Tom Slingsby, Olympic Gold medalist and Paul Goodison, a three-time International Moth World Champion, looking for all the world like the best pairing in this America’s Cup cycle. Able to sail high upwind with a super low-ride, their brilliance is mirrored downwind with relentless pace and superb trim. American Magic very much look the real deal with so many hours of practice under their belt two-boat tuning in the AC40, and their technique in all conditions is impressive. Many people’s pick to win in Vilanova, the Americans are looking tasty.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are the one team that everyone is watching closely and carefully. Unafraid to ride very different modes to the others, the Italians have a playbook for every scenario and at times have shown unbelievable boatspeed. Their starting has been hit or miss and when they make a mistake, they are quick to bail and try another tactic. Francesco Bruni is a perfect foil for the mercurial genius and downright competitiveness of Jimmy Spithill whilst their Flight Control team of Vittorio Bissaro and Andrea Tesei are arguably the best in the business. If the Italians can string together some consistent results early on, they could easily make the match-race final.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing The bull is charging. Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin have formed a dynamic partnership, rooted in steady progression, and Alinghi Red Bull Racing have surprised to the upside in the practice regattas. The Swiss are getting more and more comfortable with front-running when ahead whilst their tenacity to fight back when behind is impressive. Boathandling is still a work in progress, but the team have made big gains downwind to compete with and beat the established teams. Starting has been generally on the money and they are a team that everyone is watching on the racecourse. Can the Swiss make it to the final? That’s the big question and early results in Vilanova will be crucial to their overall regatta chances.

Orient Express Racing Team Having taken delivery of their AC40 just last month, the French are methodically approaching the Preliminary Regatta with ‘humility’ according to their coach Thierry Douillard, but they have shown early signs of being more than capable of taking race wins and collecting scalps. The French are brilliant sailors, of which there is no doubt, and Quentin Delapierre and Kevin Pepponet are forming a formidable afterguard. Whether they can challenge for the title in Vilanova is a tall ask with so little time in the AC40 compared to the more established teams, but they will acquit themselves well and could easily score memorable and morale-boosting race wins. The team to watch and cheer on.

Coverage Specifics can be found here.

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In the America’s Cup, especially with today’s experimental and extreme foiling crafts, there is a fine line in the race for the edge, and on the waters off New Zealand earlier this week, Emirates Team New Zealand, the 37th America’s Cup Defender, suffered a serious setback to its winter testing program after severely damaging its modified AC40 one-design (which now qualifies as its development yacht and is referred to as an “LEQ12”).

It is more than a developmental hurdle the team, however, as the bow section’s structural failure that resulted from the pitch-pole and subsequent capsize will now force the design and engineering teams to address the issue before AC40s are launched by other teams in the coming months.

According to an Emirates Team Zealand statement, before sailing resumed this week the AC40 had been modified from its one-design configuration. America’s Cup recon personnel assigned to the team noted a curved anhedral foil on the port foil arm that appeared to be smaller in area than the standard one-design foil, but other than that, there were no other observed changes to the boat or rig.  

According to a team statement, sailors Peter Burling, Blaire Tuke, Nathan Outteridge and Andy Maloney were sailing under manual flight control in around 15-20 knots of windspeed and large waves. “While sailing downwind at over 40 knots of boat speed, the crew onboard lost control of the ride height which caused the rudder and elevator to come out of the water. This resulted in a high-speed uncontrolled jibe and simultaneous deep nosedive followed by a capsize.”

“Stuffed it pretty deep,” is how Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton summarized the incident. “But it happens.”

The recon team noted that two previous jibes were completed without issue, but during the pitchpole the observed windspeed had increased significantly. Videos and images following the capsize revealed that boat’s foredeck crumpled in multiple places and the bow almost sheared off forward of the forwardmost watertight crash bulkhead.

“It appears that when the boat nose-dived, which was the best we have done, the high-water pressure and side load collapsed the forward section of the deck causing the resulting bow damage,” Dalton said. “The designers are analyzing the load cases of the incident and although it might be too soon to tell, it is likely that we will have some retrofit structure necessary to our boat and throughout the AC40’s fleet. But we will understand this further in the coming days.”

ETNZ’s LEQ12 will certainly need a new bow, with the possibility of another ring frame or structural reinforcement, Dalton noted, while also acknowledging that INEOS Britannia’s recently delivered AC40, as well as Alinghi Red Bull’s soon-to-be-delivered, would need “a bit of a retro.”

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The British America’s Cup team, INEOS Britannia launched its first test boat for the 37th America’s Cup last week. Code-named “T6,” the boat was designed and built-in collaboration with Mercedes-AMG F1 Applied Science, a division of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team. The launch of this test boat at the team’s training base in Palma, Spain, late last week, marking the beginning of a busy winter for the America’s Cup Challenger of Record.

The silver 40-foot development platform, the team says, will play a vital role in “validating the team’s design tools and testing key components ahead of the design deadline to start the build of the team’s race boat.”

“We came out of AC36 lacking confidence in our design tools, we made key design decisions in the last Cup using our design tools and our simulation, and they weren’t accurate enough,” said Ben Ainslie, INEOS Britannia CEO and Skipper. “In the recent America’s Cup cycles we have seen a massive step up in design simulation. However, you must have confidence in those tools, and trust that they’re giving you accurate feedback. T6 will give us that development platform.”

The boat was built by Carrington Boats in the UK before being transported to the home of the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team for its fit out. T6 will now operate throughout the winter from the team’s new base in Palma de Mallorca with live test data and results streamed to the design, engineering and performance teams at the team’s UK headquarters in Brackley, where work is already underway on the research and design of what will become the team’s AC75 race boat for the 37th America’s Cup.

Teams and curious America’s Cup fans alike are analyzing the angular “LEQ12” with its sharp V-shaped bow profile that quickly transitions to a flat-bottomed and slab-sided hull with a pronounced skeg that runs nearly bow to stern, terminating sharply just forward of the long and needlelike rudder.

With an emphasis on aerodynamics and the goal of near-surface flight, the deck slopes upward aggressively from the bow, transitioning to oval cockpits on either side where the sailors will be embedded and control the boat without ever crossing during manuevers. As T6 is primarily a data-collection and design-tool-validation platform, sensors are said to be webbed throughout the boat and according to the team, towing sessions will be the primary focus initially, allowing them to validate concepts before introducing the variability of the wind and sail/rig dynamics.

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