Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Prototype Day 60 Summary

Race pace intensity noticeably ramped up for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli on Monday as the Italians took to the waters off Cagliari in near-perfect conditions of flat water and sea-breeze to really start pushing tight manoeuvres and time-on-distance. After an initial foil data gathering exercise on straight-lines, the Chase Boats threw in the customary marks and created a short course with tight boundaries and placed the fully instrumented Chase Boat 1 on the course as opposition. This is a technique honed from AC36 in the lead up to the 2021 regatta that Philippe Presti, the team’s coach, perfected shadowing the AC75 and made major gains in boat positioning and handling as the Chase Boat puts the sailors under serious pressure. Out in Cagliari, and with six people onboard at times, the Chase Boat was pushing hard and demanding more and more from the team. Shannon Falcone, the on-water Operations Manager for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli described the technique saying: “The racecourse is so small with the boundaries and everything and with Chase 1 you basically sail like you're sailing a boat, so you've got targets, true wind angles, you’ve got all the instrumentation onboard to sail as if you were sailing the race boat and in the manoeuvres you drop the speed so you're not gaining too much in the manoeuvres and so on and you just try to basically be on it. The good thing is I've got a great team - Max (Sirena) calling tactics you know Gilo (Nobili) navigating, Mickey calling relatives so just feels like you know we can really bring it to the boys and show them how it's done.” 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