Sailing World on Water Dec 09.22 Luna Rossa Capsize, INEOS Towing, American Magic Foiling, Big Boats

Highlights of what happened globally in the sport of sailing in the last 7 days

.Glassy seas, but an ominous sky greeted the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team out today deep in the Gulf of Cagliari – the Golfu de Casteddu in local Sardinian- and with a forecast for the wind to increase significantly but some debate and conflict over quite how much and when, it was a tricky day for the team’s meteorologists. It was even harder actually on the water as the team docked out from their quite astonishingly well-appointed base in the Port of Cagliari at midday having spent the morning waiting for the wind.

This is the Sailing World on Water for December 09, 2022. Highlights of the sport, globally, in the last seven days.

It was a welcome sight to see Sir Ben Ainslie leading from the front today out in a very placid and peaceful, if somewhat chilly Palma Mallorca and bringing to this America’s Cup cycle a new acronym that is straight out of Formula 1 (we presume). In interview, Ainslie repeatedly referred to the ‘HMI’ – the Human Machine Interface – that crossover point where technology must relent to the human touch and vice versa.

It’s Leg Zero which means Team Malizia is on the way back accross the Atlantic to Lanzarote Spain to ready from their next race, The Ocean Race, the crewed race around the world starting in January. This how difficult it is to film life on a racing yacht. It’s also day 10 of the Malizia – Seaexplorer delivery across the Atlantic to Alicante and the crew is finally foiling downwind!

After what has seemed like endless weather delays over the past couple of months, finally Horonuku got to stretch its legs on a dry Lake Gairdner with breeze that is edging closer into the required zone for world record attempts. This is the on-board camera when the land yacht reach’s 200 kilometers an hour.

It’s December and that means it’s time for the Big Boats to race around Sydney Harbour.

It was a rather welcome late morning crane-in and a relaxed 1 pm dock-out, for an afternoon in Pensacola that promised little for the crew of Patriot, with a forecast of a dying breeze, but delivered rather a lot. Speaking afterwards Head of the Sail Design Department Juan Meseguer – a past winner of the America’s Cup with the BMW Oracle Racing Team back in 2010, confirmed the focus of today’s session, saying: “It is all about systems to be honest and we just put out a list of priorities for the day and we go from system to system, ticking them off and making sure they all work and just how to improve them daily.

”The huge racing trimaran Spindrift Sails of Change is 30 meters by 30 meters and it is getting ready to start the Jules Verne Trophy race non-stop around the world. Do you know what the crew’s standby days are like? What do they do while waiting for the D Day? remember at any time they may be required to get on board and start the clock. Weather, sports training and other activities, the crew of the maxi-trimaran Sails of Change has plenty to do before the start!