Quentin Delapierre has revealed exactly how close he came to losing control of his DS Automobiles SailGP Team France F50, in the same breath as revealing how it hit a record-breaking 107.63 km/h in Sassnitz.
The French crew smashed the previous SailGP speed record of 103.93 km/h, set by ROCKWOOL Racing at the same venue last season.
For Delapierre, the challenge was keeping the boat under control as it accelerated through the final bear-away.
"I was definitely on the edge and it was quite scary on that last bear-away," said Delapierre. "I was just focusing on not putting too much pressure on the foil. At this speed, the first boundary comes up very quickly."
The team was flirting with cavitation, the point at which water boils into vapour bubbles around the foil. That's a fine margin between glory and disaster, and it meant the turn had to be handled with real precision.
"It was the last bear-away of the day and it was quite violent," he said. "We were on the point of cavitation, so I really tried to do a super-soft bear-away so Jason [Saunders, France's flight controller] didn't have too much pressure on his foil and we didn't crash.
"When you bear away gently like that, the boat goes much faster."
Getting there hadn't been straightforward. A penalty involving Los Gallos sent the French F50 off the foils in Race 1.
They answered with two much stronger performances after that.
"It was just a better start," said Delapierre. "In the first race we had a big penalty with the Spanish and we fell off the foil, which was quite painful for us.
"But in the last two we had good starts, good boat handling and just focused on the tactics."
Wing trimmer Leigh McMillan was back in the boat for the first time since France's collision with the Black Foils in Auckland in February. Delapierre pointed to the confidence the team can carry into Sunday.
"The boat handling is in place, so it's a good day for the team," he said.
