Head down, deflated and stewing in his starboard cockpit onboard American Magic’s Patriot, helmsman Tom Slingsby knew exactly where and how the New York YC challenger’s win-or-go-home race unraveled on Day 5 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals. There had been plenty of mistakes in the series that put the team into its 4-3 deficit, but this one mistake well and truly did them in. And ultimately it was Slingsby’s call.
Winding back from this crucial moment at the top of Leg 1 of its eighth match against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, American Magic had the stronger start. It was a similar scenario as their previous starts with Luna Rossa: they were to leeward, crossing the line at full speed and bow forward, a position that had the Italians promptly tacking away. The American’s tacked soon after to minimize any leverage and keep the race close. It was a less than perfect tack, certainly not as good as that of Luna Rossa with a much higher exit speed. Still, with a favorable wind shift American Magic controlled the race into the first cross and followed the playbook, tacked above the Italians and bouncing them back to the right.
There’s a known danger in engaging in a tacking duel with Luna Rossa, however. Their boat handling and down-speed maneuvers was their strength throughout the Preliminary races, the round robins and the Semi Finals. When the Italians came back, at full speed, from the right hand boundary on starboard for the next intersection, it was Slingsby who had the best view and the call of whether to cross and cover or duck and gain the starboard advantage at the top of the course.
Luna Rossa’s Francesco Bruni, in the silver boat’s port cockpit, knew he had the upper hand, and called the intersection perfectly. Shifting to a high mode as the boats came together made the American cross more difficult. The tack countdown cadence from Slingsby was far more rushed than normal, the turn was sharp and fast, and American Magic completed its tack with roughly 25 knots of exit speed. Luna Rossa, in its speed-build mode and pegging 35 knots, simply drove to leeward with 6 knots more boat speed, gave a hint of a luff and flicked the Americans away. Luna Rossa was then able to carry on to the left-side boundary, tack on an easy layline and sail away to its berth in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals.
Given the strong performances of the Italians throughout the Louis Vuitton Cup races, they were certainly the favorites. They are difficult, if not impossible, to pass once comfortably ahead and they are, in the words of Emirates Team New Zealand’s Grant Dalton, the one challenger the defender fears most. Their pairing with American Magic in the Semi Finals rather than Alinghi Red Bull Racing, which fell handily to INEOS Britannia, not only produced compelling races, but gave the Italians the race practice they need before meeting INEOS in the finals on September 27.
“As a team, it’s been tough the last few days as the Americans fought back and brought themselves back into the semis,” said Luna Rossa’s Jimmy Spithill after racing. “But that was an important thing to go through. That sort of pressure, that hardship creates character in the team and will serve us well into the Finals.”
Slingsby, the American Magic ace starter, was clearly missing his opposite helmsman Paul Goodison, who was replaced by Lucas Calabrese. Calabrese was thrust into an extremely difficult environment and was improving day by day, but the chemistry was nowhere near the level of Spithill and Bruni. “The highs and lows of this sport are crazy,” Slingsby said after racing. “I genuinely believed we’d make a comeback…it’s brutal right now, but you hold your head high, lick your wounds and congratulate the winner. Paul falling down a hatch on the boat—you could never imagine that would happen.”
The first-to-seven Louis Vuitton Cup Finals now features two of the most experienced Cup teams in Luna Rossa, which has been trying to win the America’s Cup for more than three decades, and INEOS Britannia, which is now on its third consecutive challenge under Ben Ainslie (Bermuda, Auckland, and Barcelona). The AC75s of these two teams are different enough that each will have its strengths and weaknesses in different conditions; INEOS Britannia is quick in more breeze but not as nimble as Luna Rossa at the bottom of the wind range and Luna Rossa’s Achilles Heel has not yet been exposed.
The early exit of American Magic leaves the New York YC’s syndicate contemplating its future, but an emotional Terry Hutchinson, President of Sailing Operations, at least hinted after racing that the team would remain intact for another cycle. “It would be a shame to stop because we have such a good nucleus to the team,” Hutchinson said, “and yet we have to make sure it’s done in a way that’s right for winning but also manageable from the spend.”
