One and done. Years, millions, reputations and pride on the line.
That’s the fear and the reality hanging over both the American Magic and Alinghi Red Bull Racing camps after another two winless matches on the waters off Barcelona. Results after the second day of the Louis Vuitton Cup’s first-to-five series leaves both teams now one loss away from elimination. The utter dominance of their rivals, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team and INEOS Britannia respectively, in the day’s steady wind conditions was telling. Comebacks are entirely possible in the America’s Cup—take San Francisco in 2013—but the British and Italian teams are simply sharper and only getting faster. Only hope and belief can change the momentum of this series.
In a building southwest wind and a sparkling Mediterranean racecourse off the Barcelona city front, the racing got underway with INEOS Britannia and Alinghi Red Bull Racing. On their first looping tack from the starboard entry, Alinghi was off their foils, struggling again to execute tight maneuvers. The Swiss were up and flying again with a minute to go but were now compromised and fully exposed.
INEOS starboard helmsman Ben Ainslie locked a giant target on the side of Alinghi’s Boat One as they jibed to port and hunted them—as he should. The Swiss were chicken-winged with turbulence boiling around their foils, unable to finish the turn.
If not for the maneuverability and control of Britannia at 35 knots and the hardened wits of Ainslie, there would have been a pile of AC75 carnage, but the Brits were able to safely jibe away on both foils, leaving Alinghi floundering and nearly capsized. INEOS Britannia shot off the line alone and despite a hard push by the Swiss over the next 23 minutes, there was nothing they could do to get back into the match. INEOS sailed a seemingly flawless race, and it was as simple as that.
The final delta was a 2m:20s win and another giant point for the British.
An even start for American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in their first match was a good first step for the Americans, but Luna Rossa was faster across the line and used its notorious high mode to flick American Magic off its hip. Once again, the Italians were in control from the first boundary.
Luna Rossa owned the first cross by a good 80 meters and promptly faced the Americans as they tacked off the right boundary. American Magic managed to hold a high line and live just enough on Luna Rossa’s hip to keep the race close and bring it back to the middle of the course for more options.
Luna Rossa nailed its port layline to the right-hand gate mark, bore away and put the first marker at 13 seconds. Perfect down the run, the Italians padded their lead as they turned through the leeward gate with American Magic 15 seconds behind. As Patriot skid through the turn, dragging both foils through the water, it was the one mistake they could not afford. The high-speed two-board turn was a move that port helmsman Lucas Calabrese, a mid-series replacement for injured Paul Goodison, had yet to do, said Tom Slingsby, after racing. And it was a mistake that cost them dearly. The Italians were now gone and free to sail the racecourse as they pleased, winning the race with a 540-meter lead.
With INEOS Britannia enjoying starboard entry in the third match of the day, they loosely hunted the Swiss who set up early for their final approach and ultimately started at the pin end, opening up the entire starting line for INEOS to run the line at full speed before the turn up. The British were free to accelerate, advance up the course at pace and control the race straight from the first boundary tack, bouncing the Swiss back to the boundary at every chance. After three covering tacks, the British had Red Bull Racing fully in their rearview mirror.
Through the first gate, INEOS exited with a 15-second lead and piled on the meters and the seconds over the course of the run, and then did the same up the beat to pad their lead to nearly 500 meters, 36 seconds. A 50-knot exit from the weather gate put a stamp on their dominance of the match. Their lead grew to more than a kilometer to put into the books another clinical win for the Challenger of Record.
Once the NYYC and Luna Race was live, the best breeze of the day ensured a lively race and the two teams delivered the best match of the series. American Magig, on starboard entry, went straight to the chase, pushing the Italians into the bottom corner of the start box. Luna Rossa jibed out; American Magic tacked. Luna Rossa was close to locking out the Americans, but got early and ceded the better start to the Americans. A simultaneous tack at the left boundary had both boats flying across the course at 38 knots. At the next boundary, Luna Rossa had them blocked to leeward with no options other than a tack. That set the Italians up for a clean layline into the gate and a slingshot into the lead with a 6-second advantage. The advantage was 175 meters as they intersected on the run, but American Magic hooked into a wind line to take a sizable piece from the Italian lead.
In what might have been the one and only visible boat handling error of the day the Italian’s one-board high speed rounding through the leeward gate had them sliding as they made the turn and the lead was now down to 11 seconds with a split out of the leeward gate. In a blink, the race was back on with American Magic making inroads. There were 150 meters to the Italians on the first cross up the next leg and at Gate 3 there were only 11 seconds between them, then 8 seconds through the second leeward gate. The potential of American Magic and Patriot was finally showing itself on the open course and the delta was reduced to 3 seconds at the final upwind gate and another split.
From opposite sides they intersected again, only 61 meters to the Italians. Slingsby rallied his team: “A couple good maneuvers and we’re past him,” he said over the headset as Patriots cyclors gasped in the background. The two boats converged one final time at the bottom of the course, American Magic on a strong starboard angle. For spectators and American Magic fans alike, there was a fleet sense of …maybe… but Luna Rossa confidently crossed with 40 meters between them and struck the finish a 2-second delta. Two heartbreaking boatlengths.
An American Magic press release issued after racing said the team united and Slingsby’s message was clear: “I had a meeting with the guys and said: ‘Look guys, we’re losing by a couple of seconds each race and we’re making mistakes.’ If we weren’t making any mistakes, I’d say it’s as good as done,” But the fact is we’ve made mistakes every single race, and we’ve just got to tidy it up because there’s no place for mistakes anymore; we’re match-point down, but I’ve personally seen how quickly these things can change, so I’m confident in our team.”
