NYYC American Magic PATRIOT Day 30 Summary

American Magic once again put serious hours and miles on the clock sailing inshore in Pensacola Bay as the team ran through what Paul Goodison described as: “a complex test matrix” with a focus on ‘hydro’ (meaning the cyclors and crewing), and ‘aero’ with the sails. It was a long session late into the evening light with Patriot covering some 50 nautical miles on no less than sixteen windward/leeward courses. Attaining down range flight in the 6-7 knot breeze wasn’t easy as that’s right on the cusp of self-take-off, so for six of the nine flights, the chase boat came in and offered assistance to tow Patriot up. But once airborne and flying, the team put in long straight stints to gather maximum data for the design office as they enter the final stretches of design sign-off this quarter and achieved a total flight time of some 82 minutes – gold dust in data terms for the naval architects, sailmakers mechatronics team and foil designers. Riley Gibbs was back on the helm sharing duties with Paul Goodison whilst Lucas Calabrese was seen trimming and the power unit on the cyclors had a full-on day. Speaking afterwards, the ever-affable Paul Goodison offered a terrific insight (as he always does) into the day and the overall programme. When asked, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, whether a day like today was productive and whether they’d learned everything already, Goody offered: “You’ve never found anything in this game! You’re always looking for new things and striving for new things. In these kinds of conditions, we’re working a little bit on the take-offs but there comes a wind speed where we definitely can't take off with this hull shape, so we then get towed up and then we work on some of the manoeuvres we’re going to do. But we ticked off a lot of hydro and a couple of aero tests today in this light stuff and every day you learn something more and see how one thing affects the other.” 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