Alinghi Red Bull Racing got straight back in the saddle today with a full sailing session completed in Barcelona just four days after the team’s latest generation AC75 Boat One was dismasted.
Sailing with the MT1 mast in place of the broken MT2 spar the Swiss crew put in a four hour training session that was sailed in five to 15 knots of breeze and on a moderate chop seastate.
The team suffered a catastrophic failure of their mast on June 13 in Barcelona during a bear away in around 20 knots of breeze when the mainsail looked to have detached from the aft surface of the mast causing it to overbend and snap low down.
A number of minor repairs were noticeable on the boat when it docked out at midday today for what was somewhat of a stop / start session that saw the crew switch through the J2, J3, and J4 as the wind ratcheted up and performed 32 tacks and 22 gybes in total.
Boat One boat captain Jack Taylor admitted the team’s return to the water had been effectively ‘a recommissioning day’ after a lot of hard work to get the boat ready to return to action with a previously used mast.
But, for now, he remained tight-lipped on what the team had identified as the cause of the mast failure.
“I’m sure we will be opening up on that soon,” he said. “But today was all about recommissioning a previously used rig and we had a really good day out there.
“We started with the J2 and we got to do some diamond practice before moving into the J3 in the afternoon and then we got to finish with some race laps.”
“It's positive vibes throughout the team and we're happy with our progression and we'll continue to keep going forward,” Taylor concluded.
