Artemis Racing and ORACLE TEAM USA have been using their turbo-charged, foiling AC45s to get match fit on San Francisco Bay.
As ORACLE TEAM USA coach Philippe Presti says, this is a risk-free way to get race experience in foiling boats, without putting the AC72 program on the line.
“It’s going to be pretty hard to sail two AC72s in race mode so close to the Cup,” sailing coach Presti said. “There’s a lot of risk with that. So to have the AC45s in foiling configuration allows us to push hard with in-house racing and against other competitors like Artemis Racing.”
“It’s good to race another team,” said ORACLE TEAM USA trimmer Joe Newton. “You can never in-house put on the same pressure as you do racing another team. It’s completely different. We’re looking at how the boats work, seeing what they do to go fast and what’s not so fast. So just trying to take little bits away that we can translate to the AC72.
For Artemis Racing, the training is a chance to experience foiling catamarans while waiting for their second AC72 – the foiling one – to come on stream.
“We’ve been sailing the foiling AC45 for about a month,” said Troy Tindill, the boat captain for the Artemis Racing AC45 foiling boat. “We’ve just had another week against ORACLE TEAM USA and the boat is going pretty good and it’s been a great training tool.”
“We’re learning a lot about the boat with foils in the pre-start,” agreed ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill. “We haven’t done that at all with the big boat. And it’s always nice to go against another team because you’re under pressure and you don’t want to lose.”
Source; America's Cup Media
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