The third outing of Team New Zealand's AC72 Cat was described as a good day at the office. The otherwise rather stoic team boss Grant Dalton was beaming with satisfaction: "It was a quantum leap from the first and second training sessions. We sailed in 20 knots of wind, sometimes more, and had no problems at all. I think it's kind of cool to be sailing downwind at 30 knots ..."
The third outing showed what happens on an AC72 at 5 Bft
Everything had held, the systems had all worked, and it had also been possible to make racing turns, which required a lot of running, as the paths on the huge deck are very long. It turned out that experiments are being carried out on these mighty cats with daggerboards, which almost have the function of a hydrofoil to stabilise the boat and generate more lift, which reduces the wetted surface, which is known to be an annoying braking factor when sailing fast. In the video you can see how high the empty hull floats, even though the boat is heeling well on the cross. There is also speculation that the rudder blades are T-shaped, as on the Moths, but this cannot be confirmed at the moment, at least with the pictures available.
Now this adventure is on pause for the time being, because next week the America's Cup World Series in the small AC45 in San Francisco is coming up.
