(Sandringham, Victoria, Australia)- Yes,
you can say the Australian's are getting a bit punch-drunk about having
a new Australian AC35 America's Cup Challenge from Hamilton Island YC.
Says one of the J/24 crews at Sandringham YC:"We are on the trail of something big at Sandy. With the approaching summer season rapidly coming at us here in Melbourne, we believe testing with the new J/24 foiler has been going on over the winter. The skipper is reported as saying that they have been able to get the boat foiling once they get surfing on a wave and can sometimes keep it on the foils long enough to get onto the next wave and doing that they have been able to actually skip forward overtaking the wave crests. ‘The AC is safe for the moment’ is the joke going about down on the hardstand but there are some very serious faces around this project where the foils remain covered away in a padlocked cover to keep prying eyes out (shades of Ben Lexcen). The skipper went on to say that “where we have made real gains though, is reaching, traditionally the J has been a very poor reaching boat due to it’s short waterline length, now we are blasting along like a skiff”. Apparently the lead in the keel keeps the boat much steadier than a foiling moth or Laser when it is up on the foils. The normal righting moment of the lead keel would tend to confirm this. Tests continue on foiling upwind which although reported has not been verified by anyone reliable yet. The only picture released so far is a rather poor quality shot showing the boat up on its foils whilst surfing a wave off Sandringham YC. We note that the name has been airbrushed off the hull to mask that actual test boat and the sail number has been blocked out. More when we can break through the security surrounding this amazing breakthrough."
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