The only time that Joan Vila (Barcelona, 62 years old) has fallen into the sea in his almost 50 years of experience, he ended up intervening with a minesweeper (a ship that locates and destroys maritime mines) of the Spanish Navy. It happened in the waters of Palma, in 1992, in the middle of preparation for his first America’s Cup. The pins holding the keel of the Spanish team’s boat failed and the piece came off. “The keel provided stability. It was a monohull, obviously it didn’t fly like they do now, and it had a lead bulb in the lower part that stabilized the sailboat,” recalls one of the best Spanish sailors in history, who in Barcelona is taking part in his tenth competition, this time as head of meteorology for Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland).
Vila and his companions ended up in the water, and the keel on the seabed. The proximity of the Porto Pi Naval Station facilitated the rescue and the team was able to continue forward after two weeks of repairs. “We more or less had the position of the sinking and the Navy managed to locate the keel and tow it,” he recalls a few hours before the start of the semi-finals of the America’s Cup, which are being played from this Saturday in a best of nine races and in which the Swiss have lost the first two rounds against Ineos Britannia (United Kingdom). The other qualifying round, between Luna Rossa (Italy) and American Magic (United States), also advances with a double advantage for the Italians.
Falling overboard on the high seas is one of the greatest fears of a sailor. The America’s Cup teams sail close to the coast and have several support boats, says Vila, “and nothing ever happens,” but the risk increases in long-distance races. And in this, Vila is an expert. He has completed six trips around the world and admits that a man overboard on the high seas is the worst. “When you go around the world, losing sight of yourself when you fall is very easy. That’s why we have to stay linked,” he warns.
Living with risk is one of the requirements for competing on the high seas. “Bad experiences remind you that you are practicing a risky sport, such as motorcycles, cars or boats.” rallies. Sailing is also a risk, whatever we do there is always a certain risk, even walking in the mountains,” he shares.
Three-time America’s Cup champion, his achievements include setting a record in 2012 for a non-stop round-the-world trip, completed in 45 days and 13 hours aboard the French trimaran (a three-hull catamaran). Popular Bank V. The 14-member crew sailed on the course, eating freeze-dried food (a dehydration process that preserves food and reduces its size) and potable seawater. “It takes up little space and is very nutritious,” summarizes Vila, whose contribution was to calculate the optimal route to achieve the record.
A civil engineer, his training and experience combined led him to study the best day to set sail in the months leading up to the race so that the weather conditions would be most favourable. If the context at the start is complicated, say the experts, it is very difficult to make up for lost time afterwards. “You encounter all kinds of conditions. Very windy days, you sleep very little, the boat moves a lot… it is all very complex,” he sums up. The team knew the exact position of the weather to beat and could compare their situation to see if things were going well. “We had meteorological help from land. We spoke two or three times a day by satellite; but for the rest of things we were alone. You hardly notice the rest of the things like the landscape, which is very beautiful at sunrise. The only thing you want to do is go fast and avoid icebergs.”
Vila is the first to arrive at the Swiss base. The door is opened by the security team, who already knows that it always starts at that time, and the first thing he does is consult the data from a permanently active server that generates weather prediction models for 24 hours to read the wind. Interpret it. The system receives information from various institutions and processes it through a program created by the Catalan. “It is a post-process that gives us the information we want,” he says.
The beauty of his job, he says, is correctly interpreting a science that is never exact. “Machines help, but the weather can change a lot depending on small details that cannot be measured.” And that is where experience comes into play. “If all you do is follow the model, I don’t think you will have a job for a long time, because that can be done automatically. The idea is to interpret and know how to find the gap,” says Vila.
His conclusions are key to deciding what type of setup to use in the races, from tactics to the type of sails. “If you think there will be a lot of wind, you can change the jib (the front sail) to a smaller one. Since the power of the mainsail is sufficient in a high wind (to maintain flight), you want to reduce the aerodynamic resistance so that the manoeuvres are faster.” This Saturday, with little wind, the Swiss are betting on a large jib. When the wind speaks, Vila listens.
