Monday, November 16, 2009

Sunday in San Diego ….



After a day off and a scheduled maintenance day on Saturday, it was business as usual on Sunday with an off-the-mooring start at 09:00.

Wing testing carried on today as the guys continue to get up-to-speed with the new aero package. Mike Drummond, BMW ORACLE Racing design director, told the guys at a debrief a few days ago that over the next few weeks they would be investing time in learning some new ways of achieving best performance from the new wing sail.



“It’s very different from trimming a soft sail. Do you see a pilot looking out of the cockpit at the airplane wing? While the objectives are the same, some of the operating principles are different. It’s much more about flying with instruments than we are used to with soft sails.”



The learning curve continued today and in the process, one of the eight control arms broke. It should be a quick fix with a return to testing tomorrow or Tuesday.