Any kind of well-crewed raceboat is steered as much by the sail trimmer as by the driver. Bring a foiling SailGP catamaran into the picture, and you add a third player, the flight controller, who keeps the boat flying above the water.
Acting as one, three people are fast. Out of sync, they’re slow.
The flight controller for the Switzerland SailGP Team, Bryan Mettraux, described his job as stability management. He anchors one corner of a lightning-quick, three-corner triage anticipating, acting, reacting and, when he must, guessing.
“The wind is always changing,” he said. “The sea state changes. And every time the driver turns the boat or the trimmer changes the wing, I have a role to play in the result.”
The team’s driver, Sébastien Schneiter, added, “We’re all three driving, and when we’re coordinated, I don’t have to steer a lot. The less I steer the faster we are because turning the rudders adds drag. That is why it takes all three of us.”
A new flight controller learns on day one that the boat goes faster the higher it flies — but closer to flying into an uncontrolled crash. From a crash, there is little chance of a comeback in the short races of SailGP. On Saturday and Sunday, the tour moves to Geneva, Switzerland, where Mettraux grew up sailing the lake of the same name.
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The post In SailGP, Boats Can Fly. Flight Controllers Keep Them Going. appeared first on New York Times.
