00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:02Il y a six athletes
00:04in five distinct roles on board an F50
00:06in Sail GP
00:10Strategist, driver,
00:12wing trimmer, flight controller
00:14and two grinders who make up the crew
00:16Let's take a look at the role of the driver
00:18So I'm here with
00:20Ruggie Tieta, driver of the Italian team
00:22Ruggie, can you talk to me
00:24what is the number one thing
00:26about being a driver on an F50?
00:28I think the communication is something very very important
00:30you have to
00:32be sure that everyone on board is on the same page
00:34And there's different points
00:36around a race track which I imagine as a driver
00:38you've got to be
00:40thinking about different things, so if we start at the beginning
00:42of a race, in a start
00:44what are you doing as a driver
00:46to set yourself up?
00:48So basically I'm listening
00:50to the comps that come
00:52either from the booth or from the strategist
00:54from the grinders
00:56on the time to kill
00:58I'm trying to put all this information together
01:00and take the best decision for the boat
01:02As a driver I guess
01:04how hard is it to be able to position your F50
01:06where you want?
01:08It's not easy, I mean
01:10but it's quite of an agile boat
01:12so you can go
01:14Put it where you want!
01:16Yeah exactly, sharp turns
01:18and try to adjust it easily
01:20but of course in the middle of the fleet
01:22it's not that easy
01:24Alright, should we head up to have a look at
01:26where you actually drive an F50?
01:27Let's go!
01:32So this is your wheel, this is where you sit
01:34when you're driving an F50, you have the strategist behind you
01:36I mean it looks pretty basic
01:38but there's a few little buttons on there, can you talk us through it?
01:40Yeah absolutely, it's pretty basic
01:42but once you are sailing it's not
01:44we have few controls but they are very very important
01:47so we have these two twist scripts that control the leeward brake of the board
01:53we use it in the transition
01:55or when the flight controller is not on board
01:58we go four or three person up
02:00It must be quite hard when the flight controller is flying
02:03and then it's your job to fly
02:05and then you've got to pass it over to get that coordination
02:07Yeah absolutely, it's not an easy one
02:09for the few seconds that I'm flying the boat
02:12I'm like, please Andre, come back quick
02:15No, but apart from that
02:17it's great to learn how to fly and steer together
02:22and you have to coordinate the two things
02:25And now you've got these two little arrow things
02:28so what does, I guess, the right hand side do?
02:30Yeah, so we have ten buttons that can be mapped as we want
02:35basically on the right side we use the rudders, the position
02:40so the top and bottom one are the rudder average
02:45then we use the differential
02:47differential is what we use to generate rating moment from the winglets
02:53and those can be mapped differently
02:56but we use max differential, neutral differential and max differential opposite
03:01So what that means is that when you're all sitting on this side of the boat
03:04this foil is pulling the boat down, like putting more people
03:07and the other rudder on the other side is helping lift the boat up
03:11so that helps you basically go faster
03:13and then on the other side what do you have?
03:15And on the other side I'm trying to figure it out still
03:18but for the moment I'm using the cant
03:21which with these new T-foils is something that is getting more and more important
03:25Yeah, so the cant, so the foils at the front of the boat, the dagger boards
03:29they are mostly important for lifting the boat out of the water
03:32when you say cant, it's how wide the foil is
03:36and that helps give you grip to the surface
03:38Yeah, exactly
03:39Is the wheel quite loaded? Like is it a heavy wheel or is it a light wheel?
03:42Or are the changes?
03:44It depends, yeah, it depends a lot on the settings of the boat
03:47but normally I would say it's kind of a heavy wheel
03:52and when you're manoeuvring in a pre-start and the boat is in the water and not foiling
03:57do you have to really whip the wheel around?
03:59It really depends on the speed
04:01because if you are slow you have to turn the wheel even at full speed at a time
04:06but if you are quick of course small movements will give you much more steel
04:11I guess it's like when you're reversing your car you're going full wheel each way
04:15and then when you're driving down the highway you can almost drive with one hand
04:19when you fly the boat you kind of try to decouple your hands
04:24one is driving and the other one is flying
04:27so you're basically driving with one hand and the other one is used to fly the boat
04:33And you've also got some pedals down here, what do those pedals do?
04:37Yeah, we have two foot buttons and basically with those two foot buttons we control the foil
04:43lifting it up and down
04:45Yeah, you've had to learn how to sail an F50 you know the last couple of months
04:49I guess what has been sort of like the biggest thing that you have had to learn?
04:54Is it the style of the F50 racing like the 12 boats, really short races, is it having to lead a team?
05:01Like what for you I guess has been the biggest step up?
05:04Yeah of course I think the communication for me has been one of the biggest challenge
05:10and the way to communicate with the team and to really lead the team around the race course
05:16is something that it's very very important, it's key in this sport
05:21And I guess like you don't have a lot of time to communicate because things are happening so fast
05:25so as a driver you have to know what to say and when to say it
05:28that it's going to like everyone's going to know what it means
05:31Yeah exactly, we have been working quite a lot on our playbook and which word to use in every situation
05:38Lots of code words
05:41We have too many
05:43Too many code words
05:44No, but of course it's a learning process
05:47we keep on learning and keep on updating our list of words
05:53I guess when everybody's coming into a gate mark together
05:57and some people turning left, some people turning right
05:59you have to give room to some people, you have to ask for room
06:03it must get pretty hectic
06:05Yeah, of course, but what we, I was used to look at the CGP on TV
06:11I haven't missed any event since so many years
06:14and sometimes what you see on the TV is say, oh okay
06:18they take decision and then they, but the decision that you take and you realize then on the TV
06:25has to be taken so much in advance once you are in a boat and you have to put together all the six guys on board
06:32and prepare some guys to live or to throw the manoeuvre
06:35so it needs a lot of anticipation
06:38this, this is a key of this racing events
06:42Most of the time things are going well, but as a driver, do you know when things are going bad?
06:46Like I guess we see these big nose dives on the television or the foil ads
06:51when you're holding the wheel, does it feel like you're, there's just no grip anymore?
06:55What is it like? Do you, do you know when it's going wrong?
06:57Or all of a sudden there's just water all in your face?
07:00Most of the time you know that something will go wrong
07:03Of course you, you kind of realize it from how the manoeuvre starts
07:08but yeah, I think the most important thing is to reset
07:13even when we crash or there's no damage to the, to the guys or to the boat
07:19just to reset, focus again and try to do the best performance from this point
07:26And in a pre-start you obviously have to line everything up
07:29we were talking about it before
07:30but in a pre-start I guess we always talk about how important the start is
07:35obviously trying to hit the line at go with speed
07:38how hard is it to actually line everything up to execute a perfect start?
07:42It's a, yeah, it's a long process
07:45it comes from, from the entry, what would we call entry, you know
07:48once we pass below the line and then we set up at the, at the wall
07:53at the bottom of the, of the box
07:56and yeah, then we talk and try to find a strategy to, to come through
08:02always there are boats that have different strategies and different plans
08:06some they are in advance, some they come from behind with speed
08:10so yeah, every time it change
08:13but on the other side we relate quite a lot on the wing screen
08:17which sometimes provides perfect information
08:21and sometimes they are influenced by the current or by other factors
08:26that we cannot take in account
08:29and, and that comes back the, the feeling of the sailor, you know
08:33to, to be at the right time, on the, on the right spot
08:37So I guess as a driver you've got to be really good at communicating
08:40you've got to have good feel as driving the wheel
08:43you've got to be good at processing a lot of information
08:47and making decisions
08:48so you've got quite a bit on to do as a driver
08:51but do you really enjoy it?
08:53Absolutely, yeah, always, when I go away on, on the Sunday night
08:58I can't wait, I say myself
09:00why, I want to do two more hours of sailing
09:03Awesome, well thank you so much for talking me through the role of the driver
09:06and everything you do out on the racetrack
09:08it was, um, good, good to hear and good for everyone at home
09:11to learn a little bit more about the behind the scenes and the wheel
09:14Thank you
09:15We've got plenty more explainers on our Sailor GP YouTube channel
09:18so don't forget to subscribe and thanks for watching
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