With motivational speeches delivered and celebratory send offs from their respective bases in Barcelona’s Port Vell, both American Magic and Alinghi Red Bull Racing stepped back into the ring to fight their campaign-saving match on the third day of racing at the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals. Pick the preferred cliché—do or die, one and done, now or never, fight to live another day—and any one of them would be appropriate for the moment.
And as it was in the beginning of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the forecast for winds teasing the bottom of the raceable wind range elevated stress levels even more so for the American and Swiss camps. Neither had been particularly strong in the light-wind races earlier in the Louis Vuitton Cup series, and the potential for mistakes and displacement sailing was extremely high, inviting another and new cliché: fly or die.
Into the first pre-start of the day was Alinghi Red Bull Racing entering on time on port as INEOS Britannia was in the water struggling to get foiling, a sign of more to come. The Brits entered slightly late, circled high and came back trailing Alinghi from above the line. Jibing back to start early allowed Alinghi Red Bull Racing to push the British to the end of the line, dipped and turned up to start a fraction early, picking up an OCS penalty by the length of its long foil arm.
A prompt tack away cleared the penalty but sent the Swiss to the right side of the course, where the wind was notably lighter. INEOS Britannia owned the cross by a good 50 meters, controlled the first leg without pressure from the Swiss. Clean turns in conservative sailing kept the British comfortably out front, seeing them through the first gate with a 40-meter and 17-second lead.
With slightly better pace downwind, INEOS was through the next gates with a 400-meter lead. Their runaway advantage evaporated immediately, however, when they reached the left course boundary and failed to foil through the tack. With INEOS Britannia stuck in the water and unable to accelerate, the Swiss rounded through the gate with just enough speed to pull off a foiling tack at the boundary. And in a blink, Alinghi was in charge of the race on Leg 3, establishing a lead that carried them through the finish with a win—with both boats in displacement mode and finishing just inside the race-time limit, thanks to a shortened course by the race committee.
Then came the match that American Magic was desperate to win to turn their fortunes around. With just enough wind to start the race, American Magic entered on port at 34 knots. Luna Rossa circled back from the left side of the starting box and American Magic’s Tom Slingsby, in the starboard cockpit, took one attempt at hunting the Italians with a port-starboard cross. Luna Rossa got past without issue, which allowed them to set up high and the Americans well ahead of their timing. To leeward and a good 2-knots slower, American Magic was pinned and Luna Rossa simply climbed over the top of the Americans.
With simultaneous tacks at the boundary American Magic attempted to sail low and fast to leeward of the Italians silver boat. Luna Rossa played a tight cover until American Magic was able to break the cover and get to the middle of the course and a cross-course split. Still Luna Rossa nailed its first layline and was through the gate with a 17-second lead, splitting sides again. Luna Rossa owned the first downwind cross and a 190-meter lead and was clinical with its jibes.
Through the next gate, Luna Rossa had a clean rounding to the left and American Magic right by 17 seconds still. American Magic came back from the right and jumped into the lead, with a tight cross and the Italians picking up a penalty while ducking Patriot. The Italians easily burned off the penalty and reclaimed the lead on the next cross, but when they met again, Luna Rossa, on port, tried a close cross and the umpires had their finger on the penalty button with an easy call. The boats met again at the get with American Magic with a 20-meter lead and only 2 seconds between them and another split.
From opposite sides of the course, American Magic owned the cross by 27 meters and even speeds on the run. At the next intersection American Magic had an easy cross, sailing their best light-air race of the series. At the first downwind gate, American Magic, on starboard, had a straight shot at the right-hand gate mark (looking downwind) and were clean through.
Luna Rossa entered the zone first and tried to force a penalty on the Americans but Slingsby knew exactly what to do, giving the Italians plenty of berth and cruising through to leeward. The hairpin turn for the Italians was too much for their foils to handle, and they were off the foils and stuck at the bottom corner of the course, unable to build enough speed to tack at the boundary.
With a course all their own, American Magic stretched their lead to a leg and a mile and ultimately a 2-mile win, keeping the series alive and ready to fight another day.
“It was a good race,” said Slingsby after the only race of the day—the second being postponed when the wind dropped below the limit. “The start was close. The boat felt really good. We have been making some changes, and in those light conditions that were kind of a weak spot for us a week ago, the boat feels as good as it ever has in those conditions. That’s exciting, and we are going to be faster again on Wednesday. I think the hardest win is the first one and now we are off and running. If you look at the four races they have beaten us, it’s by a total of 50 seconds over them all – and we just beat them by a lap. So, yes, we are confident.”
