Cup Spy April 16: Luna Rossa revealed on tow test
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com 18 Apr 02:11 NZST
18 April 2024
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - AC75 - Day 1 - April 16, 2024 - Cagliari © AC37 Joint Recon Team
On their first day, the Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled out their new B3 AC75 around 8:15am.
The plan consisted of a tow session and the team had to anticipate the heavy breeze forecast for midday. As the boat was craned in, systems checks were carried out involving several engineers and sailors. The pod configuration consists of the flight controller/trimmer most forward followed by the helm and two cyclor pods. On this day, no power group was observed onboard as the pods were boarded by six sailors, the design coordinator and one hydraulic technician.
As the boat was docked out, the team started towing and the first lift-off was recorded on 14-15 knots, reasonable considering that wing configuration. The team ran through different pitch angles and cant angles over a range of boatspeeds. On the forecast: upper range pressure with up to 23kn from 315° TWA and some longer period swell from SE.
The first tow-run reached a boat speed of 20 knots before turning around and proceeding with the second one at 25 knots and finally increasing to 30 knots. After the boat turned around for the second time and towing resumed on a straight-line, the boat seemed to lose stability with a large spray, touching down dropping the bow smoothly before finding stability again and the team stopped after approximately 15 minutes uninterrupted tow as some issues can be assumed on the towline.
Two shorter tow stints followed while sailors moved the towline from port to starboard before the team headed back to base on tow lasting 5 minutes. The boat was craned out at approximately 10:55
[Michele Melis, AC Recon].