INEOS Britannia completed their final sailing session in Palma, Mallorca, on Thursday 15 June.
The British America’s Cup challenge is at full tilt now, with the base in Barcelona very near completion, and a hive of activity all week ready for the team’s arrival, with a first scheduled sailing day on 1st August.
T6, the INEOS Britannia LEQ12, looked absolutely alive for the final session with Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Ben Cornish driving her hard aided by Bleddyn Mon and Leigh McMillan performing wonders on trim and flight control.
Yachting journalist Justin Chisholm, also interviewed Leigh McMillan who gave a terrific run down of the day and bade Palma a fond farewell whilst looking forward to Barcelona.
The final sailing session of what has been an invaluable training camp in Palma, concluded in picture-perfect early afternoon conditions, that allowed the sailors to rifle through a whole load of starboard foil tests whilst giving the sailors some carte blanche to perfect their windward heel technique both upwind and downwind.
T6’s first flight lasted just under half an hour, when after a longish upwind leg, the crew bore away for a fast (38 knot) reach over to Magaluf where the J2-2 headsail was swapped out for the J3-2.
The second flying session involved more long upwind and downwind runs – sailing the boat at times with pronounced windward heel downwind more than upwind.
After 40 minutes of this activity, it was time once more for the foil painting exercises the team has engaged in for the last several sailing sessions.
The routine was . . . Flow-Viz paint applied to the upper inner section of the starboard foil wing, sail for a few hundred metres, round up, foil up, photograph the state of the painted foil. Three rounds of this were carried out.
The final section of the day involved more upwind downwind sailing, with more windward heel practice, before a final multi-gybe downwind run saw the T6 round up outside Palma Cathedral for the final time.
Sails were down by 14:30 and the team docked in at 14:40.
The British team’s next scheduled sailing session is 1 August in Barcelona.
RECON Team / Justin Chisholm
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