Luna Rossa were back on the water in Cagliari, running a split session as a weather front rolled through the training area, forcing the Italian team to down tools for a while before resuming.
Training in the Mediterranean at this time of year is a headache for every European-based syndicate. Early autumn conditions mean meteorology teams have to work closely with sailors and shore crew to wring maximum hours out of each planned session.
In the first session, the Recon Team noted the boat "sailed shorter boards and looked slightly unbalanced especially downwind." Once the crew had warmed up, they threw in some aggressive bear-aways to roundups on port tack, before tacking and switching to longer boards.
The manoeuvres that followed looked largely consistent, aside from one touch-down hitting a wave in a tack, perhaps the result of a ventilated wing during entry.
Roles rotated through the day. Marco Gradoni ran the port helming pod before handing over to Ruggero Tita for the second session, while the initial trim duo of Umberto Molineris and Gigi Ugolini saw Vito Bissarro swap in for Umberto late on. Maria Giubilei in P5 and Peter Burling were the constants, Burling skippering in the starboard pod and Giubilei in the port aft pod throughout.
There was a minor hiccup in the final session, when the carbon pole carrying the LiDAR cameras snapped after a crash-down following a sharp exit from a tack. A rogue wave was the cause.
Technicians came aboard to inspect what the Recon Team described as a "hole", along with the jib track fairing, before securing everything with tape so the sailors could complete the session.
Sails were down by 5.15pm. Luna Rossa had logged around 106 minutes of foiling time, with 24 tacks and 23 gybes.
They are back with a bang, in more than one sense.
