INEOS Britannia AC40-2 Day 11 Summary

The INEOS Britannia team had been keeping an eye all week on the weather for Thursday as the Bay of Palma promised some top-end breeze to allow the sailors to explore the extraordinary performance parameters of the world’s most exciting new foiling class – the AC40. And the Bay didn’t disappoint. 17-19 knots of south-south-easterly rattled across choppy seas that had the flight controllers on high alert as they wrestled with low flight upwind on the margin for stability desperate not to catch the bustle. Downwind it was all on as Giles Scott in the port pod and Dylan Fletcher-Scott in the starboard pod sought excellence on the waves, weaving through angles, desperate not to lose the rudder. But, as the team pushed ever harder, the inevitable occurred as a rapid-fire bear-away at the windward mark saw the team hurtle off downwind before throwing a fast gybe in, losing the rudder on a waveform causing the boat to nosedive and screw into the inevitable capsize. It’s all part of the game now in the America’s Cup in these small foilers and Giles Scott, always sublime in interview, was nonplussed by the one-water shenanigans saying: “We had a little mishap on the exit of one of our gybes and ended up losing the rudder - which is pretty easy to do in these boats - and then ended up with a nosedive and yeah, we rolled over unfortunately. But I think given the day and how hard we’re pushing, and you know we are pushing this boat as we want to see it at the corner of its performance, not that we aim to ever capsize but not necessarily a surprise, and certainly something that we are seeing all our competitors do as well.” Section 41. Reconnaissance a) As a campaign cost reduction measure, COR/D has mutually agreed to cooperatively implement a centralised reconnaissance programme for all teams for the reconnaissance of all Competitors’ AC75 Yachts, AC40 Yachts and LEQ12 yachts including both on-land and on-water imagery (the “Joint Recon Programme”). b) Each team is assigned a two-person Recon Unit to follow their every on-water move, but it's not that simple. The cameras are supplied and identical for all Recon Units. Drones are not allowed, and they can't get that close, plus following a boat and keeping a camera steady at 45 knots isn't that easy to begin with. c) A three minute interview follows each on water day, and teams must answer the Recon Unit's questions while trying not to give too much away. It's a raw, unedited view of the never before seen behind-the-scenes development of a team and their boat to win the oldest trophy in international sports. #AC37Recon #AmericasCup #Barcelona2024