SailGP Season 2 - Bermuda Recap
Phil Robertson - SailGP Spain Helmsman
Bermuda Sail Grand Prix 2021 - Recap
For the first time in 14 months we stepped back onboard the F50 and boy it felt good!
During the enforced covid downtime, the boats went through a refit, with new sterns, rudder systems and wings. The boats were also stripped of all hydraulic and electronic components so you can imagine what it was like getting them ready again for commissioning.
During this period of the pandemic, Sail GP as an organisation has gone through a massive evaluation of cost efficiency and sustainability, resulting in a reduction of people required, containers moving around the world and days required on site.
Pre-Season Training
Our team took a slightly new look after the 14-month hiatus. Diego Botín moved into the flight control position, with Ñeti (Antonio Cuervas-Mons) and Lucas Trittel slotting into the grind team. Spanish rock star Xabi Fernández also came onboard as our new coach.
The training was hugely disrupted by stormy conditions and Bermuda’s first lockdown resulting in half as much time on the water as we expected. We progressed fast during the short sessions but only scratched the surface on what we are capable of doing and frankly need to be doing as a team. We got to a good standard in sailing the boat in a straight line safely and our “level 1” maneuvers (tacks and gybes). All in all, I was happy with our progress and felt we would be competitive but knew we would battle if we had to pull off a “level 2” maneuver during a race.
Practice racing confirmed this with the team able to match pace and maneuvers with the big dogs. The motivation and enthusiasm of the team was at peak, focus was fixed onto race day 1! Another spanner thrown into the mix was the first day of racing being pulled forward 1 day due to variable conditions. A great call as the Saturday was a mill pond and Friday had 25 – 35km/h forecast.
Race Day 1
Our race day plan is a 1 hour and 30 minutes warm up followed by three 12-15minute races with 10minutes in between. We started our warm up in the big breeze and felt in sync with the conditions. Settings were all dialed in before we stopped for a 5minute break before we go into start practice. As we were wrapping up our break the wing motor which drives all the hydraulics in the wing started making funny noises. We called in the hydro experts and they decided it needed to be changed. 20 minutes later they were off the boat and we started to get going again. As soon as we did, we lost control of our port side foil. Up until this point we hadn’t had a major issue with the boat since commissioning it. Classic timing!
Back onboard came the hydraulic and electronic experts to diagnose this new problem. It turned out to be an electronic sensor which feeds the boats computer foil information. A new sensor onboard and replaced. Once they got off the boat there was 2mins to the start of race 1. Ideal.
A boat plagued with problems, then the electronics decided it didn’t want to race either. All our course boundary or tactical software kaput, meaning we spent the race guessing where the boundaries were.
A hectic first race with a lot of close situations at high speeds. A bit of an eye opener and with the buildup it left the whole team quite tense. We salvaged a solid 5th to take what we could out of it.
Tech team called back in post-race to sort the electronics and we were back and ready for race two with a fully functioning boat. An average start didn’t put us up the front to begin with but we sailed really well through the fleet to climb into third. The last bottom mark required a “level 2” maneuver, two quick and consecutive gybes to round the mark. We kooked this up royally and almost tipped the boat over. We got it back under control and salvaged our third placing! Phew.
Race three started the same (average), but again we sailed through the fleet into a solid third position. What we didn’t know was that one of our motors that pumps all the hydraulics for the foil control had shut down. This meant we were running off one motor for the entire race. As we made our last tack into the top mark, the boat shut down and we lost all control of our functions. Luckily the crash off the foils was not critical, but it meant we had to stop and wait, potentially even retire. Five boats passed us before we came “live” again and we managed to sneak back past two of them on the run to the finish.
Really disappointing to have so many issues on race day. It just goes to show how complex these boats are and how much they rely on the technicians to keep them running.
We were proud of how we sailed but gutted we didn’t get the points we felt we deserved.
I spent many hours after syphoning through data to find the route of all our problems and we came up with an electronic failure which got a slight re-program. Fingers crossed it was just that!
Race Day 2
Race Day two on Sunday brought the introduction of the new little wings. Six meters smaller, these things are weapons!
It was the first time our team had used the little wing so we knew we needed to learn fast in what was a do or die day. With breeze forecast to be 50km/h, it was a big breeze day and training time prior was key. We headed off early and got into our warm up on the course. Very quickly after I realised a similar issue with the boats hydraulic power lacking. Tech team on again and we opted for ANOTHER motor change. An impressive effort by the tech team to get this replaced on the water. Once again, we were coming in hot with no warmup. All sorted with six minutes to go this time, so managed to move into a starting position we wanted.
An early trigger pull on the gun and we were over the start line early, having to drop back behind the last starter. Once the penalty was cleared we got stuck right back in. A big crash between our competitors on the first upwind saw some opportunities open up and we sailed a great race to lock in a third-place finish. This put us in contention for a finals slot going into the last race.
We started this one poorly, miss judging our position and getting two penalties courtesy of tangling with the French. By the time this was complete we were at the back of the fleet with a lot of work to do. A good tactical call pulled us up into 2nd place and a provisional spot in the final. Unfortunately, we got into a situation battling for the lead which required another “level two” maneuver. We didn’t pull it off. A tack and dip behind another boat at 60km/h requires a lot of coordination between the whole team and we all got a bit out of sync. I slipped crossing the boat ending up being saved by my tether with both legs off the boat.
This put us back into forth spot and a lot of hard work to do to get back up. We came within a whisker of making it happen up the last beat, passing the French team and just being pipped by the Brits to end up 1 point behind both those teams.
After a tough two days of racing in big breeze, livered with technical issues onboard we were proud of how we rallied, how our speed was and how we performed. We know we are competitive and have the ability to win races and events. The focus now turns to data and video analysis before the two days (hopefully) of training before the next event in Taranto, Italy. The froth has never been so real….
