Official 'spying' delivered information to all at the America's Cup
The innovative 'Recon programme' officially introduced for the first time at the Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup Barcelona has ended after providing all the teams with a wealth of information about their competitors.
Traditionally, America's Cup teams had organised their own 'spy' programmes to monitor the opposition, but in Barcelona organisers made it compulsory for the competitors to have observers — videographers, photographers, editors — who were mandated to report and record everything on a server to which all the teams have access.
As stipulated in the rules, this reconnaissance programme came to an end on 22 June, two months before the start of racing.
Describing the Recon system as "fabulous", Bruno Dubois, CEO and Sports Director of Orient Express Racing Team, said: "Without it we would have had to organise months and months of observations of our competitors ourselves, in New Zealand, Sardinia, etc...
"We had all the images at our disposal, which were all scrutinised and analysed by our engineers and architects as well as our sailors. If we wanted information on an opponent, all we had to do was make a specific request to the people in charge of surveillance and by the evening, we had the photo we were looking for on the shared server. Everything was transparent.
"It's a plus in terms of learning and a plus for the environment: no disproportionate movement of RIBs. Six teams to watch. If all six are doing the same thing, that's a lot of people on the water!"
Then the blackout arrived on 22 June: "The day after the end of the programme we had competitors' RIBs in front of our pontoon, with photographers and videographers shooting at us — of course keeping to the regulatory distance of 75 metres from our base... which is not much!" said Dubois
"On the water, we mustn't come within 200 metres of another challenger. The programme had made spying official, which until now was certainly commonplace, but always very discreet. It's also what forged part of the America's Cup myth," he added.
All the information-rich photographs and filmed material gathered is still being analysed, with set-ups, manoeuvres and other data studied at the heart of the Orient Express Racing Team performance department led by Franck Cammas.
Dubois said: "In addition to our data analysts and other designers and engineers, Juan Kouyoumdjian, a naval architect with many successes to his name and a wealth of expertise, joined the team a few weeks ago. Given his profile, Juan will be analysing the competitors' boats in great detail, and will be producing detailed, quantified reports on the observations made."
Juan Kouyoumdjian added: "Knowing what the other teams are doing in terms of the design and use of their boats is an important part of this competition. It puts things in perspective and contributes to refining one's own view and setup. I am very grateful to be given this chance to participate with Orient Express Racing Team. I am very impressed with the quality of what they've done in such a short time."
Working with all the observations and analysis the team will learn, modify and develop in the next few weeks before the start of the 37th America's Cup.
Benjamin Muyl, Head of Design at Orient Express Racing Team, said: "These observations of our rivals allow us to compare foil designs, for example, and thus anticipate strengths and weaknesses. We can also compare manoeuvring techniques and benefit from their experience. As the only team not to have sailed an AC75 before we got ours, this last aspect is also important.
"Of course, depending on what we think is relevant, our AC75 Orient Express can evolve over the weeks, whether it's on the foils, the rudder or the sails...".
The Barcelona Preliminary Regatta is from 22-25 August, with the Louis Vuitton Cup – Challenger Selection Series starting on 29 August.