It was a day of pure grit and determination, punctuated by smiles and whoops of unbridled delight from the race winners, as the Group B Invited Teams of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup got four fascinating races completed on a tricky Barcelona racetrack that challenged the world’s very best women’s sailors. The talent and technique on display was extraordinary, whilst their racecraft defined this racing as being top-class.
This has to be one of the toughest series to win with Group B split by just six points from first to fourth place, and in a fleet where literally every team is in with a shout of taking race wins, the fight for a spot in the Semi-Finals is going to be intense throughout this eight-race series.
After a short delay for the wind to arrive, racing got underway in marginal conditions. The first race was decided on the last downwind, with Team Andoo Australia starting the leg in the lead, closely followed by Sail Team BCN and Swedish Challenge powered by Artemis Technologies. As the bottom of the course approached, the wind shut down and final gybes to the finish line off the boundary laylines were nervous affairs with the Australians and Spanish both agonisingly falling off the foils.
Sweden were the ultimate beneficiaries after managing to stay foiling for longer than the others and following some clever positional work and precise sailing they dramatically crash-gybed off the foils as they crossed the line to score first blood.
With the wind filling and starting to oscillate the second race saw Team Andoo Australia really show their class. Having secured the lead at the first windward gate, after reading the shifts on the right side of the course up the first beat accurately, they extended quickly and never really looked back over the rest of the race.
Leading at one point by over 1,000 metres, Olivia Price and Laura Harding brought the Australian boat home supremely to win at a canter. Behind them, Sail Team BCN scored vital points in second, with JAJO Team DutchSail following up in third.
What we then saw over the next two races was a masterclass of starting, fleet-racing, and AC40 technique from the Dutch team – helmed by Odile van Aanholt and Willemijn Offerman. Despite limited time in the boat, they proved their outstanding sailing talent by winning third race after a hard-fought battle with Sail Team BCN and then stretched away in the fourth and final race to build a commanding lead good enough for them – despite a late charge from Andoo Team Australia – to take their second win of the day.
The back-to-back race wins by JAJO Team DutchSail puts them at the top of the standings on 27 points, closely followed by Sail Team BCN helmed by Silvia Mas and Neus Ballester in second on 24 points. Team Andoo Australia sit in third place on 23 points, but these three podium teams will all be aware of the threat of the fourth placed Swedish Challenge powered by Artemis Technologies crew who are breathing down their necks with 21 points.
Odile van Aanholt, skipper of JAJO Team DutchSail came off the water, delighted with how the team sailed, saying: “Sailing the AC40 is already the biggest gift you can get, and such tight racing. We had to keep our eyes out because there was a lot of windpuffs and sometimes only eight knots at the bottom of the course and 13 knots up top – so a lot of changes, but we kind of like those.
“We made a good progression today so we are very happy. We celebrated on the water today like there’s no tomorrow, just with all the happy vibes and because we take every win when we can. We’re just happy to be here and happy to sail this boat. I think we’ll take the same game plan as we had today into tomorrow.”
Talking about what it feel like to be competing in the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, van Aanholt added: “It’s super cool. It’s dawning on me more and more how special it is. I think I feel very lucky that I’m born in this generation where I get this chance. On the other hand it’s quite frustrating that it has taken this long.
“In Optimist sailing you can see that when there’s no physical advantage, girls can do just as well as boys and in Olympic sailing I also feel very well treated and we’re definitely equals. I think in big boat sailing, when physical attributes are of no importance why not? I also get why not because we’ve never sailed these foiling boats so I think it’s great we’re getting this opportunity now and it’s all about closing that gap towards the men. I feel we should only get the opportunity when we’re really good enough.”
Silvia Mas, skipper of Sail Team BCN and a sailing hero in Spain spoke about the tricky conditions saying: “We are super happy. Today was our first day racing of the competition. It was up and down with the wind but I think we managed well on the manoeuvres, but we had two not that good when we fell off the foils, but overall very happy with the team.”
Talking about the significance of the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup, Mas commented: “This is opening the doors to all women and to everyone that is dreaming. We’ve been waiting so long for this moment and now to be able to be part of here, is almost something I can’t imagine, just super special.”
Olivia Price, skipper of Andoo Team Australia stepped ashore and spoke about the strides that the team have been taking to put in such a solid performance, saying:
“We have been working on our communication quite a lot, Laura (Harding) and I are two skippers, and we’ve competed against each other in the 49erFX for the last three years, so we’ve never been on a boat together until the AC40. She joined our program just before the Olympics, so we had to work really hard on that communication, we worked on it in the SIM where she was driving and I was communicating and vice versa. We really tried to up the level and we do see the benefits of that structure that we put in place. Now it’s about putting that together and executing the race plan as well.”
Talking about the day, Price added: “It was a fantastic day out on the water and we are just so excited that we were able to put a good performance together. Obviously we left a lot of points out there but so did everyone else. This is the first race day and there’s plenty more to come. These boats are wild and they are the most fun sailing boat I’ve ever sailed in my life. To be able to do this is incredible and bridge that experience gap between us and the AC75’s, this is the first step and something I’m super passionate about, but to have Australia back in the America’s Cup is something very dear to our hearts.”
All to play for in Group B of the Puig America’s Cup and with the potential for strong wind and big wave conditions later in the week, the Race Committee have announced a change in the schedule, bringing forward Group B’s scheduled races on Wednesday October 9 to Tuesday October 8.
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