Conditions were pitch-perfect in Barcelona for the seventh day of the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the wind clocking round to the south-south-west and delivering a breeze that topped out at 17 knots and an off-axis swell – challenging conditions that saw the big sailing names perform. It was a highly significant day for INEOS Britannia who showed every ounce of their potential, scoring first a win against Alinghi Red Bull Racing and then inflicting the first Challenger defeat on Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli with a clinical display of pace, power and racecraft from Sir Ben Ainslie’s team.
Barcelona was simply stunning with the backdrop of the city and the ongoing Puig Vela Clàssica Regatta plus the magnificent sight of the 3,770-ton displacement, four-masted Juan Sebastián Elcano naval training vessel – one of the iconic ships of the Spanish Navy. Shoreside the free-to-enter Race Village in the heart of the Port Vell and the Fanzones out at Bogatell and Plaça del Mar were packed with spectators enjoying the late summer sun and the outstanding facilities to make watching the Louis Vuitton Cup, a real pleasure.
On the water, the racing was scintillating from start to finish as the breeze filled and afforded some of the best racing seen so far in the Louis Vuitton Cup. INEOS Britannia showed all of their potential in the breeze with an initial commanding win over Alinghi Red Bull Racing early in the afternoon, whilst Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli stayed ruthlessly determined and edged a close race with NYYC American Magic.
The showdown of the day, though, was INEOS Britannia against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, where the British dominated right from the start and negated the high-mode that the Italians can deploy to such devastating effect on initial drag race off the start line. Having navigated this trap and seizing the lead, the British never looked back, although a small nosedive on a gybe exit on the final downwind leg to the finish was a reminder of the fine margins between success and failure in these AC75s. INEOS Britannia survived and slapped a 25 second defeat onto Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli to secure their passage to the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Ben Ainslie, skipper of INEOS Britannia, was delighted with the team’s performance saying: “It’s a great day for the team, we all know the America’s Cup is a bit of a battle to try and get the maximum performance out of these boats and for whatever reason we haven’t really done a great job of that so far, but today in those conditions we set the boat up well and showed what it’s capable of. We haven’t really raced that much in that sort of swell and breeze strength but it certainly felt like we got it hooked up in that stuff and it was going well. We did a nice job on that right hand side and if you’ve got a bit of extra speed, it makes the tactics look pretty good and we’ve got to keep looking to find those gains and take each day at a time.”
Jimmy Spithill, starboard helm for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was sanguine about the team’s first loss against a Challenger but gave praise to the British team, saying: “They had good performance today – we were impressed. I think we’re going to see the whole fleet have strong points, everyone’s going to have their pros and cons in various conditions and yes those guys looked good today.”
As the current leaders amongst the Challengers, Jimmy was asked who they might pick to race in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final but would give nothing away saying: “I don’t know how the math works at the moment. Obviously we’re through, but I think for now we will just go out and try to win tomorrow and then we can weigh up the options for the semis.”
For the Swiss and French meanwhile, it was a tough day at the office for both teams and they remain locked in battle for the final semi-final spot but with the Swiss holding a slender one-point advantage. Orient Express Racing Team came in with high hopes today of securing a win against NYYC American Magic and, despite it being close right to the finish, it was the Americans who recorded the win, leaving Quentin Delapierre knowing that it’s do-or-die tomorrow in their race against INEOS Britannia: “I honestly think it was our best race so far, for two reasons: that was the first time we sailed the boat in those conditions, and the first time we took a start (started a race) in those conditions. We didn’t have any unforced errors or big mistakes so it’s really encouraging. I hope it’s not too late. Hopefully tomorrow will be a great day for us and we will be able to push hard on the Brits. I think tomorrow will be lighter, which is quite good news for us.”
NYYC American Magic secured their berth in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals with their win against the French, but Tom Slingsby knows there’s plenty of development and technique work to be done before the knock-out stage, saying: “Really it’s consistency with us, our manoeuvre consistency needs work, some manoeuvres are as good as anyone and then we have some bad ones and it gets quite tough to sail tactically when you don’t know what you’re going to do in the manoeuvre. You want to tack on them, but then there’s the thought that the more you throw at them, the closer you are to a bad one. But if we can chip away at some small things we can make some big improvements. I think we sailed pretty well against Luna Rossa, but then in the next race against the French we were quite wobbly.”
Talking about a possible Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final against INEOS Britannia, Slingsby set the scene saying: “They are getting better and the way they came at us yesterday when we had a nice lead and were able to chip away at us, and then what they did today to Luna Rossa, that’s really impressive. Their rate of improvement has been a little higher than us recently, but we’ve still got time, and we’ll try to get on a roll because we know we can beat them. They’ve improved but we’ve got to improve quicker.”
Succumbing to the loss against the British and then a second loss to Emirates Team New Zealand today, Alinghi Red Bull Racing looked to be struggling for horsepower in the breeze and waves. Maxime Bachelin, port helm took a modicum of positives away from both races but knows that it will be a tricky final race against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli tomorrow saying: “It was quite a tough day for us. We were expecting a better performance from us in the waves, so we are a bit disappointed I would say. Tomorrow is just one match, and we will go for it and try to win this one as we can see that Luna Rossa is beatable.”
Andy Maloney, trimmer on Emirates Team New Zealand, commented about their uncustomary ragged start but clinical race execution thereafter against the Swiss, saying: “We didn’t get off to the best start and I think that was probably our biggest mistake in the race. It was tricky conditions to sail the boat and great practice for us out there in that stuff, that’s really what we need to work on. Everyone’s got great boats and great packages, so we know it’s going to be a lot about the pre-start and that first exchange off the line, trying to predict the first shift, who’s going to win on the first interaction – that’s going to be a lot of the race so we’re really focusing on that. Today we didn’t quite nail that, but we will go back and look to see how we could have done better.”
If the schedule is completed, Sunday’s racing will see the final spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final secured. It’s a straight deal – Orient Express Racing Team must beat INEOS Britannia to draw level with Alinghi Red Bull Racing. For the Swiss, they will guarantee their spot if they beat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli but will face a race-off if the French finish tied on points.
Do or die. This is it.
@americascup
