The SailGP bandwagon hits the water this weekend for the ROCKWOOL France Sail Grand Prix in France at glorious Saint-Tropez.
Ben Ainslie and the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team will be hoping for a repeat of last seasons victory when the action kicks off this Friday and Saturday, at what is looking to be a full-on action event.
Practice racing was cancelled Thursday due to high wind, and with a strong northerly Mistral forecast, Emirates GBR Driver Dylan Fletcher said it was going to be a “wild one” out on the Riviera. Last time they were here it was Ben Ainslie on the helm, this will be Fletcher’s first visit on the helm.
Currently third in the overall standings, Fletcher said, “We’re getting towards the sharp end of the Championship – four events with the Grand Final included. We’re just looking to keep up the consistency, hopefully sail as we have done and stay out of trouble.”
Top of the leaderboard coming into Saint-Tropez are, New Zealand with driver Peter Burling tied on 61 points with Tom Slingsby and Australia on 61 points.
Burling commented, “Tom [Slingsby]’s been setting the benchmark pretty high in the strong breeze so everyone knows they’ve got to go out and put together a good day to get to the top of that leaderboard. It’s exactly what we’re trying to do – we love that rivalry with the Australians and look forward to carrying it on.”
Debut of new rudders and automated foil protection software . . .
If the wind preforms as expected it will be a tough debut of SailGP’s new rudders and automated foil protection software, which has just completed installation.
Thinner and with a longer cord length, the new rudders are designed to provide greater control at high speed and better foiling performance at low speeds.
The rudders will also raise the threshold for cavitation – which makes the boat more difficult to control with highly variable forces. Cavitation will now begin to occur when the F50 is moving in excess of 66mph (106 km/h) – a significant increase from the previous onset speed of 51mph (83 km/h) on the first-edition rudders.
Newly developed software will also provide an extra layer of protection for crews when managing extreme loads, experienced during high-speed maneuvers, which has become an important safety point with the increased speeds.
The new software will identify when the F50 is sailing in a highly-loaded moment – such as on a reach at high speeds – and automatically put an additional positive angle of attack (rake) into the daggerboard (foil) during a maneuver to limit the amount of load on the boat.
ROCKWOOL France Sail Grand Prix – Saint-Tropez
Day 1 Friday 12 Sep – Race Start 12:30 hrs GBR (13:30 FRA)
Day 2 Saturday 13 Sep – Race Start 11:30 hrs GBR (12:30 FRA)
