AC 33: Draft
Alinghi´s main was too flat?
Although the wing is a different toy altogether I couldn´t help looking in detail both sails, their camber and draft settings.
A5 main was dead flat and they were struggling in 7-10knots sometimes.
How come they were flying a hull quite high in 3-4knots showing they were prepared to race, and with more wind they were flat? of course racing and pointing angles are a limitation, but pure heel with more wind should be there, then they even change their jib after leading.
USA 17 was an unstoppable train and performed like a Stradivarius, the point here is A5 was not in a 100% mode, even though performing at their best is not likely to win but at least have a better performance than yesterday.
Check Wing Camber above
HR Pic from Gillles Martin Raget.
The best view was the helicopter one, but I failed to print screen that one when seeing the race Live.
Yes, 100% agree. It looks like they needed to let go a bit of main downwind. When you see Spithill (US17) driving downwind, the hull is almost always 1-2 feet above the water. A5 had big ups and downs.
Anyway, that was a fantastic match.
Sptihill also had more power for sure, but he was steering quite stable also