There are tips and advice, and the one that the youth team gave to their Sail Team BCN teammates is well worth a feat like qualifying for the semifinals of the women’s Copa del América. “Tighten, tighten the boat because it won’t break,” they told them, aware of how much a flying AC40 imposes, at more than 40 knots (75 km/h) on the water, and how uncertainty creates limits that only the winners are able to overcome. Third in group B (the first three of a group of six passed) after a very good second and final day, the Spanish team of the women’s Copa del América will play the semifinals on Friday the 11th with the rest of the favorites.
Without its own ship and with preparation based almost exclusively on training in a simulator, the performance of the host team in the water was an unknown. But after an accelerated process of adaptation to flying boats, they are already in the semifinals. “The most complicated thing has been recognizing and accepting that the boat is very safe, that it does not break,” explains Neus Ballester (Palma, 20 years old), one of the team’s helmsmen.
Going from living in a simulator to the real ship is not easy. “You lack the wind and the balance of the boat,” summarizes Ida Svensson, one of the flight controllers of the Artemis (Sweden), group leader and winner of three of the day’s four races. “The simulator is a very precise tool for training, without a doubt; but when you get on the boat for the first time it is difficult,” he remarks.
And so much preparing for the America’s Cup without being able to get on an official boat and so many comments about the very high speeds that are reached, that sometimes the mind can impose the limits of coherence. “In the end, people magnify it a lot, but you realize that the most different thing is the speed, but not so much the way of sailing,” insists Ballester.
The Spanish team’s youth players who were eliminated in the semifinals went home with the feeling of not having pushed the AC40 to the limit. And they alerted the girls. ”We had the feedback from the boys, who told us that they needed to push harder. And today we have sought to go a little more to the limit,” shares the young woman. “The faster you go, the more unsafe everything becomes. And what has surprised us is how much the boat can hold and how well we have controlled it,” he adds.
The female format is noticeably more attractive than the male format for viewers. It is held in a fleet race (all against all) and each team receives a score (10 for the first, 1 for the last) based on their classification at the finish line. This format allows you to maintain interest when a boat has an accident or misses its flight because the rest remain in contention. Many tests of the men’s competition, in format Match race (one against one), they attracted less attention because the one with the advantage had half a race in their pocket.
This Tuesday, the Sail Team continued the regularity shown on Sunday in its competitive debut. In the eight regattas held, the Spanish have been second in four races and have never dropped below fourth place (out of six participants). “Our goal was to advance to the semifinals. Now that we have accomplished it, perhaps we are more relaxed without pressure and we navigate better,” says Ballester, who can now advise whoever he wants.
