Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailed on Saturday. With the Italians continuing to test the recent upgrades to their LEQ12.

Speaking with AC37 Joint Recon tea, Luna Ross Prada Pirelli Team Director, Max Sirena summed up.

“Well, it was a good day obviously. We are still in Summer-time here in Calgary with a good sea breeze, which is gives us a lot of opportunity to keep going with our development and testing process. I guess most of the team are in the final decision process regarding the new boat, and so every day we are spending in the water with this condition is gold for us.”

He reveals that the team was starting preparation for Jeddah, and that a crew had flown to Barcelona that afternoon to start preparation for the second Preliminary Event which starts at the end of November.

Luna Rossa – LEQ 12 – Day 91 -Cagliari – October 7, 2023 – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’s Cup

“We try to to maximize as much as possible the time here in Calgary and in Barcelona. Obviously our main focus is still the both here in Calgary but at the same time, we need to try to to train as much as possible with with the amount of time we have had for the Jeddah event. So it’s working progress is part of the game and we have to do it.”

“I think we need to make sure we don’t get too distracted by by the result of Villanova and eventually by the result in Jeddah. Our main focus is the Cup next year and want to make sure we all our fire bullets in the preparation for the for that role.

Luna Rossa – LEQ 12 – Day 91 -Cagliari – October 7, 2023 – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’s Cup

Looking forward to the race boat launching expected early in 2024, Sirena said “there is a good chance we’re going to see quite different strategy between teams but sooner or later I mean everyone will get in the water and at the end the final result will tell who did the the right choice and the right decision. But again, is a tough game because with only one boat it’s really tricky. And with small amount of components, when you can build, the key to make the best decision or the best strategy but but in the end you have to make some decisions and you have to live with that.”

AC37 Joint Recon Team Report:

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (LRPP) – LEQ12 – October 6, 2023 – Barcelona

The Italian team LRPP rolled out their LEQ12 prototype at 11:30hrs for another afternoon seabreeze training day, quickly stepped mast and cables before craning in by 11:45hrs.

The appendage configuration seemed to have remained the same compared to the previous sailing day.

At 12:30hrs the team headed out of the harbour, the main M1-2 was hoisted by 12:40hrs followed by the J1.5 jib as the breeze were recorded between 5-7kts from 170 TWA TRue Wind Angle) with a flat seastate.

Similar to the previous day, the LEQ12 was boarded by four sailors only with a reserve helm on Chase-1. As Chase-1 towed up the LEQ12 on portside tack, the yacht foiled for couple of minutes before landing back off its foils after exiting a tack.

 Luna Rossa – LEQ 12 – Day 91 -Cagliari – October 7, 2023 © Ivo Rovira / America’s Cup

During this short run a rather unusual movement on the starboard shrouds could be seen as documented by video. Once towed up again, the LEQ12 performed a successful tack in light air with a faster transition on two boards before bearing away and heading downwind for some gybes, never without having before reached 24-26kn boat speed.

Once again the team seemed to conduct mode testing with prevailing straight line sailing.

By 1400hrs the pressure had increased to 11-13kn from 175 degrees TWA with a slightly larger choppy seastate and the team lowered the J1.5 to hoist their J2.

Luna Rossa – LEQ 12 – Day 91 -Cagliari – October 7, 2023 – photo © Ivo Rovira / America’s Cup

After a self take off, the LEQ12 moved to the usual sailing path several times on both tacks before ending the foiling stint with some hard bear aways and trimming ups closer by shore.

By 15:30hrs, the breeze had picked up to 14-16kts in the south-western part of the gulf and the J2 was lowered to hoist the J4 and proceeded training around the gulf, upwind speeds of approx 36-37ktn were observed while downwind approx 43-45kts.

The day was called after approx 22 tacks, 12 gybes, and 193 total minutes foiling time

Weather Observations – Port Olimpic

For the record, although no teams sailed, it was another funky day in Barcelona, with the breeze settling in at 6-7kts gusting 9kts from 1200hrs – 1500hrs before fading slowly to 4kts. Peak gust for the 24hrs was 9kts.

The breeze blew from the East at 1200hrs before slowly clocking South – settling from that direction at 1800hrs.

Racing would likely to have been possible – but only just.

This commentary was written and compiled from video, still images and statistical content extracted from the AC37 Joint Recon program and other material available to Sail-World NZ including photo files, and other on the water coverage from the 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2021 America’s Cups. Weather information is by Predictwind

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World NZ