INEOS Britannia AC40-2 Day 5 Summary

You will be hard pressed to find a more elegant sight in world sailing this year than the INEOS Britannia AC40 ‘Athena’ gracefully, elegantly, effortlessly flying against a sepia backdrop of Palma Bay, late afternoon in early Spring. What a sight to behold. The team waited for the breeze all day but when it came, as forecast, bringing in 13-14 knots under the cliffs of El Arenal, the crack test team of Giles Scott, Dylan Fletcher-Scott, Bleddyn Mon and Leigh MacMillan had Athena on its foiling knife edge, pushing hard to find the limits. Ben Cornish, another cool customer and current 5.5 Metre World Champion, gave a typically open and frank interview post-sailing, very much the hallmark of the INEOS Britannia team, and after his second day on the AC40 he was enthused, saying: “Yeah nice boat…you know it's a different beast to what we've got in the shed in a number of areas and in what the crew are doing and how you sail it, it's interesting for us and we’re learning something new… you never go on the water without a test list so today was no different to that and with that good breeze the guys ticked through everything they wanted to…it's a well refined racing boat and there’s stuff on there which is very good and you want to explore the ranges of what it's capable of. There's plenty to learn.” 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