Patriot sponsored by Airbus made me chuckle. As for Britannia – how very quaint, lets get the spitfire flyby ready as well huh?

As @twodogs I’ve been windsurf foiling for a few years now, it’s transformed lightwind windsurfing 🙂

As a current bowman , would love to see more of this.

As an ex-bowman I’m glad it’s gone – that said my current ride (https://www.facebook.com/142980159117726/photos/corby-33-imposter-racing-at-abersochthis-design-is-being-relaunched-in-pre-preg-/889719247777143/) swings both ways!!

If get a hint of another chance, grab it with both hands….it’s just fantastic!

I tried foiling windsurfers over 20 years ago, but they were surface piercing foils and completely pointless outide a very limited wind range.
I will try it again.
I tried a foiling kiteboard a few years back setup but my kiteboarding skills were never that great so that ended as well as can be expected…
This was how foiling boards used to be…

Yeah I remember those..never tried one. Not sure if you’ve watched the Robbie Naish interview on Windsurfing.TV, but he doesn’t think the current design of foiling windsurfers are “right”…he admits he doesn’t know what right is, but thinks they should be able to go way faster

I’m on a prima 38 and love the windy days .
But to be foiling at these speeds, must be incredible..
One day maybe if the technology ever drips down..

Jesus, those things are scary fast.

On the plus side ineos is looking much punchier

From what I’ve read, apart from better starts, Ineos is still too slow compared to any of the other boats (capsizes not withstanding)

Well, how about that! Everyone wrote off the British boat a bit too quickly.

Apparently, lots of work in the boat shed over Christmas, Ben also mentioned (twice) help from Mercedes GP, but still lots to do.

So, going back to my comment earlier about the F1 talent in the UK the Mercedes link makes 100% sense!
I wonder if they were brought in just before Xmas?
I bet they were…. Original foils were no good so they went to the best for help.

How long after the Prada cup before we see LH on board for a ride?!

Anyway, well done them….. Fantastic result.

Apart from what they’ve done with the boat, it looks like Ben lived up to his reputation as a helmsman, and that the fears that foils would negate the skills of match racing were unfounded. I think they may also have been lucky with the wind strength and a windshift at the start of one race (but they may have anticipated that). If they can win in lighter winds that would be cracking.

good to hear that the protest by the Italians on the outhaul on Rita has no punishment, but does need to be resolved. https://www.livesaildie.com/breaking-news-luna-rossa-prada-pirelli-protests-ineos-team-uk/

Not sure what the final outcome of the protest on the Italian boat is regarding the use of their running backstays which resulted in Prada using the running backstay in the racing today rather than leaving it off like they did before Christmas.

good to hear that the protest by the Italians on the outhaul on Rita has no punishment, but does need to be resolved.

It’s probably minor going on the fact that the boat measured fine before the event.

Having just watched the races (with t a big grin on my face) what impressed me most was the seemingly very stable and low ride height that they never had before and the fact that they were using a smaller jib than either of the other boats – this means they’ve got more power to come when they need it.

They knew they were down on power as the new rig has been in for about 2 weeks, so it was under construction probably at the end of November.

On the first tack on the second race they were higher and faster than LR – and when Ken Read (who I lived and raced with in ’85…. did I mention that? 😉 ) says “…. Wow – that’s impressive” it actually means something!!

Don’t go thinking it was ‘windy’ – most of the time the breeze they were sailing in was only about 13 knots with a few extra in the top right hand corner.

Other thing I noticed was that the foils no longer hold water and are lacking the big visible trim tab that was there pre-xmas.

TBH it looks like a rocket ship now. That combined with the fact that Ben and Giles Scott are both good yachters (I would have actually put Giles as being the better Finn sailor at the end – but that may be an age thing and he’s a bit taller and heavier than BA) makes for a potent combination.

Time will tell but I think ALL the other teams will be pretty concerned at the moment.

I doubt they were sandbagging or, if they were, it wasn’t by much. Don’t forget that they have sponsors to keep happy and deliberately looking crap isn’t a good look.

But they obviously knew that the new rig was coming but uncertain of how much improvement it would bring.
Foils and controlling system is a big one. More power from the rig obvs helps get out of the water but they’re really slick now and that’s because the boat is more controllable than it was before.
This is a combination of foil efficiency, control hardware and software (I’m guessing it’s partly software controlled).
A quiet, slick, boat is generally fast.