INEOS Britannia T6 Day 11 Summary

Compelling, absorbing, authentic, the real deal. INEOS Britannia had a blistering session today out in the Bay of Palma with T6, their LEQ12 prototype that is more of a data gathering tool, sucking numbers and vital information from every angle to feed back into the overall design process in Brackley, Northamptonshire, home of Mercedes AMG-F1 Applied Science. The satellite transmitting the live data would have been in virtual meltdown today as Giles Scott and Ben Cornish put the hammer down, popped the boat up in flight and kept it there for stunning flight times -with one recorded run of 50 minutes alone – the biggest number we’ve seen to date from any of the contenders for the 37th America’s Cup. The data being sucked off the boat would have been gold-dust to the design team, and it was great to have Will Bakewell in interview afterwards. Will is officially the British team’s ‘Testing and Validation Lead’ providing the bridge between the sailors and the technicians and analysts back shoreside and he was more than pleased with the stunning day, saying: “We have a test programme that we write down in the morning and we go out there and obviously it changes dependant on the sea state, wind and the conditions and the runway and all of those sorts of things, but we get through a matrix of sailing configurations and we did we did most of what we set out to do, and it's a rare day that you tick all of those things off.” 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