Ahead of today\u2019s Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup, Helen Fretter went behind the scenes at the Athena Pathway to talk to Hannah MillsThe 37th America\u2019s Cup is already rewriting the history books in many ways \u2013 today marks another major shift in the event\u2019s evolution, with the beginning of the first ever Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup.
\nAhead of the AC40 competition, we visited the Athena Pathway base in Barcelona to chat to Hannah Mills, co-founder and Team Principal of the British entry into the Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup and Unicredit Youth America\u2019s Cup.
\nMills and the GBR Athena Pathway squad practising ahead of today\u2019s Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup. Photo: Ian Roman \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nMills, like her male counterpart Ben Ainslie, wears many hats within the Athena Pathway \u2013 she co-founded the programme, which ranges from training programmes for youth foiling talent, right up to the four women who\u2019ll be racing on the AC40 this week. And, like Ainslie, she is also helm and skipper.
\nAnd while Mills and Ainslie launched the programme together, Athena is its own beast with its own sponsors (Cobham Ultra is their main sponsor, together with Rolex, while supporting partners include Musto and yacht brokers Cecil Wright). To set up a wholly new campaign, in a near-unknown boat, creating two squads of sailors with zero experience in large foiling monohulls, has been a very very big job indeed.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very, very hard. But great.
\n\u201cI think for us, with Athena Pathway, it\u2019s the little sister to INEOS Britannia, but equally, we\u2019re very much in many ways running our own campaign, which has been more challenging probably than I ever imagined,\u201d Mills admits.
\nHarder than an Olympic campaign? Yes, she says, almost before I\u2019d finished the question.
\nThe Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup is held in AC40s. Photo Ian Roman \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nDid she know what she was getting into? \u201cNo, I definitely didn\u2019t quite know. But in all of these things, you just learn so much along the way. For sure, as anything, if you did it again, you\u2019d do some stuff very differently. But equally, we\u2019ve got such an amazing team here that has just worked so, so hard to get us to where we are. I\u2019m very proud of what we\u2019ve done so far.\u201d
\nPooled AC40s for Women\u2019s and Youth
\nThe women\u2019s and youth teams are all structured slightly differently. Each of the main AC37 teams (New Zealand, Britain, France, Italy, USA and Switzerland) entered both. These teams also purchased at least one AC40 (some purchased a second), which were pooled for use in the Women\u2019s and Youth racing.
\nA further six entries, known as the Invited teams, were Sail Team BCN representing Spain, Jajo Team Dutchsail, Concord Pacific Racing representing Canada, the Artemis Technologies Swedish Challenge, and Andoo Team Australia. Budgets vary massively \u2013 some of the British team make wistful comments about the Swedish funding levels.
\nSome teams, particularly from the Invited group, had extremely limited time in the AC40 ahead of competition \u2013 something Mills says has been mission critical to Athena.
\n\u201cI think ultimately for us, we always identified that time on the water was going to be the most important thing \u2013 but also the biggest challenge for these boats, because they are difficult to get hours and hours in.
\nMills helming the Athena Pathway entry in the Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup. Ian Roman \/ America\u2019s Cup
\n\u201cYou have lots of breakdowns, lots of sensors and hydraulic challenges, but then also you\u2019re limited by the batteries. Each battery set lasts an hour and 45-ish, 2 hours, depending on what you\u2019re doing. We\u2019ve had lots of battery breakdowns. You\u2019re always conscious of battery fires. All of these new challenges, I guess, that as dinghy sailors, we\u2019ve never thought about.
\n\u201cJust the operation to get the boat on the water is an hour at the start of the day, an hour at the end of the day, a big wash down. It\u2019s a whole team effort.\u201d
\nThe INEOS Britannia programme bought two AC40s, which were used for two-boat training ahead of the AC75 launch. One of which dramatically caught fire while training off Barcelona towards the end of the men\u2019s AC40 training block. The boat \u2013 nicknamed \u2018Crispy\u2019 by the team \u2013 subsequently became the Athena squad\u2019s practice boat.
\n\u201cThe rebuild of that AC40 has been hugely challenging and definitely cost us a good amount of time in the water \u2013 which we always knew was going to be the case. But we made the decision to get that boat back up and working so that when the other boat went into the pool for the racing, we still had a boat to sail. So hopefully, we\u2019ll see that dividend pay off.\u201d
\nShared knowledge
\nThere\u2019s a stark contrast between the INEOS Britannia high-tech base and the shared boatshed the Athena Pathway squad works from just along the waterfront in Barcelona.
\nWhile the AC75 bases have segregated areas of top-secret technical zones and corporate hospitality bars, the women\u2019s and youth teams set up is much more collaborative.
\nThe British Athena squad shares a large hangar with American Magic and the Artemis-sponsored Swedish Challenge. Bench seats built out of pallets are dotted around, with team zones demarcated only by a few flags. While the jobs list in the INEOS base is a digitally generated maxi spreadsheet running continually on a large screen, there\u2019s a whiteboard tacked to a pillar in the Athena base, with some cartoons doodled in green marker pen for extra motivation.
\nThe atmosphere when we visit \u2013 admittedly before competition begins \u2013 is friendly, almost collegiate. The teams are all in this together and sharing knowledge only helps raise the level.
\nIt\u2019s not just knowledge they share \u2013 the AC40s are also pooled, so upskilling whoever is driving your rental for race day is in each team\u2019s interests.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s definitely been a consideration. We\u2019ve tried to talk through the handling, because actually at slow speeds, it\u2019s where stuff goes wrong because the boats are quite unstable just bobbing around \u2013 with the chase boat coming in alongside and the possible damage to the foil, if we get that wrong.\u201d
\nThe Athena Pathway women\u2019s sailing squad and reserve sailors. The opening sailing squad saw Hannah Mills and Tash Bryant co-helm, Saskia Clark and Hannah Diamond take the two trimmer roles. Photo: S.ENAULT \/ INEOS BRITANNIA
\nTricking the AC40 autopilot
\nThe AC40s are semi-automated, which in many respects levels the playing field. Strength becomes suc a non-factor that when I ask trimmer Saskia Clark whether there\u2019s any physical training element she just waggles her thumbs \u2013 they are the muscles that work hardest. The Athena squad had done some work on neck and core strength, F1-style, to counter the G-forces the sailors will be facing on the racetrack.
\nBut semi-automated doesn\u2019t mean simplified, as Mills explains: \u201cYou\u2019re constantly trying to trick the autopilot to do what you wanted to do.
\nUnderstanding the limitations of the autopilot and how you can optimise it is just another big challenge.
\n\u201cFor the event, we will all get given the same targets in the boat. So on your data screen, you have targets for your cant number, which way you put the foil, the mainsheet tension, just everything is a target. That\u2019s what\u2019s imputed by Team New Zealand. It\u2019s optimal in, say 10 knots, where you should set everything to make the boat go fast. So we\u2019ll all have the exact same.
\n\u201cThis is just the boat saying, \u2018if you set me up like this, this should be good.\u2019 But you can put things wherever you want. And so you decide to go, \u2018I want more Cunningham and a bit less mainsheet tension.\u2019\u201d
\nThings get trickier in conditions like Barcelona\u2019s confused sea states where waves rebound from the port wall \u2013 factors the humans can see, but the machine can\u2019t.
\n\u201cAnd when you put the boat on a race course, suddenly you\u2019ve got a lot of gas from the other boats. You\u2019ve got boundaries coming up. So many things that mean putting something to a number just isn\u2019t the right thing to do. It\u2019s definitely nowhere near as simple as pulling things to a number.\u201d
\nWhat next for women in the America\u2019s Cup?
\nFor Mills the team selections for the Athena Pathway squads have been a juggle between building a legacy, creating a team of women and youth who can carry this torch next time \u2013\u00a0 and also wanting to be competitive.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s always been the balance for us. We\u2019ve got so many amazing talented sailors in the UK that I would love to be a part of this. But ultimately, the time in the boat is so limited that at some point you have to put performance over opportunity. Because we want to win.
\n\u201cGoing forward, we\u2019re hoping there\u2019s quite quickly some continuity, particularly with the Women\u2019s Cup and the Youth Cup. I think if we can get that continuity then it becomes much easier to broaden it out and to build more opportunities for more people to get experiences and learn.\u201d
\nEight teams will be taking part in the Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup. Photo: S.ENAULT \/ INEOS BRITANNIA
\nIf Mills were writing a Protocol for the next Cup \u2013 would she like to see women on the senior America\u2019s Cup boat, or another Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup event?
\n\u201cOh that\u2019s hard. I think definitely another Women\u2019s Cup. I think there\u2019s so much importance in a stand-alone event to give that opportunity to upskill and to get the experience, that\u2019s what\u2019s always been lacking.
\n\u201cAnd whether you mandate [women on the boat] or whether you just do it on merit, I think, is an interesting discussion. I sit on the fence a lot of the time on that and swing one way or the other.
\n\u201cBut I think what the women\u2019s event does is provide the opportunity for women to get there on merit regardless. And I think that\u2019s exciting. This is just the start.\u201d
\nThe post \u201cThis is harder than the Olympics\u201d Britain\u2019s Hannah Mills on the Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ahead of today\u2019s Puig Women\u2019s America\u2019s Cup, Helen Fretter went behind the scenes at the Athena Pathway to talk to Hannah MillsThe 37th America\u2019s Cup is already rewriting the history books in many ways \u2013 today marks another major shift … <\/p>\n