Ineos Team UK were back out on the water Wednesday afternoon (NZL time) in Auckland, after a Christmas period spent in the boatshed.
Ben Ainslie looking happier than for a while as he takes Britannia back on the water.
Obvious change to the foils . . . In this AirflowNZ Travel video they are sailing with different foils on either side.
They have replaced the anhedral set they used in the ACWS/Christmas racing, with a cranked foil on the starboard side and a different straight anhedral foil on the port side.
This is a combination that they used previously in practice. They also used a pair of cranked foils in earlier practice sessions.
Again they look fast and comfortable in the 12+ knot wind strength conditions, as they have previously, but without a boat-on-boat situation their real speed comparisan is unknown.
Also the major problems for Britannia arose in the light wind conditons, when they struggled to get unstuck and onto their foils.
But if they have returned so quickly to the water guess is this is testing some changes, before further modifications.
Trialing the cranked/straight foil combination again either indicates this is their favoured set-up, but kept underwraps for the ACWS.
Or they have run out of other foil/flap ideas and with whatever other changes they have made, they hope this will work!
Foil build time would seem too long to produce complete new foils, but maybe they aim to modify an existing foil/flap combination.
They have until 13 January before they must declare the boat/equipment that they will use in the first round robin series of the Prada Challenger Selection Cup , starting 15 January.
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