While Emirates Team NZ have been piling up the on-water hours downunder, two other AC teams have been on the water in Europe’s very different conditions.
Italy’s Luna Rossa and La Roche-Posay Racing Team of France are well out of their commissioning phase and fully into development and race training.
Luna Rossa had four solid days of training in Cagliari in their ‘Silver Bullet’ AC75 ahead of a 10-day break for the whole team before they de-camp to Naples for the Preliminary Race 2 series.
What we saw over the period was a notable increase in manoeuvre speed, particularly in pre-start practice with the helms pushing the ‘Silver Bullet’ hard into tight circling perhaps in anticipation of the start format to come in the Louis Vuitton Cup in May 2027.
Max Sirena, CEO of Luna Rossa, alluded to upgrades in the coming month but stopped short of saying in what areas that development will be visible – foils, sails and systems controls being the most likely.
Skipper Peter Burling has been an ever-present, but no decision yet whether Ruggero Tita or Marco Gradoni gets the nod for the coveted port helm slot. August has seen the team iron out boat-handling issues and they have looked solid.
Much attention is being paid in this phase to the aero package with Burling overseeing mainsheet track and cunningham settings – often walking out at high speed to inspect.
La Roche-Posay Racing, have their AC75 back on the water in Lorient after the capsize and battery fire.
The French are deadly serious about going deep in Naples in 2027 and with a sister-ship to ‘Taihoro’ they have a great platform to work from.
A new mainsail double skin was introduced in the last session and Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team, was impressed saying that it gave the team more control out of the manoeuvres initially – and that’s a huge gain.
The team are still running the legacy foils of Barcelona 2024, and it feels like the concentration for now is all about the aero package and the pre-set controls that develop the speed through manoeuvres up the wind range.
Linking mast control and rotation with cunningham and outhaul settings to both de-power and then power-on the rig is the big game in town and La Roche-Posay Racing Team are beginning to look polished in that area.
Three other challenger teams, the British, the Swiss and the USA are still working on their modifications programmes, costing them valuable sailing development time. Team Australia is also a confirmed entry but no details available to date.
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