Two races down and facing prompt elimination with a win for INEOS Britannia, expectations were high for more pre-start aggression from the Italians of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the 11th and decisive match of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. Yet, as they have many times in the Final, the Italians ceded control of the Match before the start, allowing the British to dictate the outcome of the final approach, and from there, the entire race.
Onto the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match go the British to face Emirates Team New Zealand, who have been licking their chops and sharpening their knives on the sidelines since the Louis Vuitton Cup’s Round Robins. Six decades have passed since a British team has sailed in the Cup Match, and it’s been 173 years since they first lost it, so the pressure is indeed now on the INEOS Britannia camp to finish to deliver and right the wrong of long ago. Oh, how the Royal Yacht Squadron would love to have the Cup returned to Cowes.
An America’s Cup Worthy Performance
It is said that the America’s Cup is a long march of progress toward perfection, and today on the waters off Barcelona INEOS Britannia took a giant stride forward. With winds holding in the 15-knot range, which was believed to be the sweet spot for Luna Rossa, port helmsman Dylan Fletcher kicked off the Race 11 with a high-speed port entry and a familiar approach of sailing high in the starting box, looping around and pursuing the Italians as they, once again, straight-lined to the right-hand start box boundary before jibing back.
After jibing around the bow of Luna Rossa and setting up comfortably ahead and to leeward, the final wind up was put into the hands of master Ben Ainslie who knew he was safe from any late charges. At 15 seconds, he put his foot on the accelerator, paralleled the line and turned up to start with a good 3-knot advantage and the ability to transition between high modes and speed modes until the Italians were forced to tack away 20 seconds later.
Following the Italians across the course, it was then Fletcher’s turn to show why he earned the starting helm opposite Ainslie. With a marginal cross and hardly a boatlength between them, Fletcher and the foil trimmers turned the boat and completed tack right where they needed to be positioned. Luna Rossa starboard helmsman, Jimmy Spithill, attempted to dive to leeward and get a hook but failed, and tacking away put the Italians promptly in a gaping 100-meter hole that was impossible to dig themselves out of.
INEOS Britannia, now having proved throughout the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals that they could preserve a lead when they had it, were then surgical with their defense, herding the Italians when they wanted and shutting down any and all passing opportunities. Leaning on their cyclors through every covering tack and jibe, bear away and turn up, the British boathandling was crisp for most of the race (but not perfect).
INEOS had essentially locked down the race until mid-way through Leg 4, when a split at the leeward gate gave Luna Rossa one final shot at making a pass. There was only a boatlength between them when INEOS crossed on port near the top course and rather than cover their opponents the British continued to the right boundary, allowing the Italians their first bit of real leverage.
Approaching the windward gate on starboard tack was the play they wanted, however, hedging on more wind in the top-right corner of the course. And in a show of confidence in their boat handling, Ainslie called for a tack-bear away around the right gate mark, a high-risk move given the wind was only 13 knots at the top of the course. But they pulled off the maneuver with Italians being able to bear away, less than a boatlength behind.
Jibe-for-jibe the British covered the Italians down the run, extending with each turn until leading through the final leeward gate with a 9-second lead. Another split for the Italians wasn’t enough, however, and over the course of the next two and final legs, INEOS would do no wrong to win the race by 17 seconds and let the celebrations begin.
The common theme of post-race interviews from both sides was that INEOS Britannia had made the biggest improvements since August. Ainslie had been saying all along that they would be bringing more improvements to their AC75, and the result was a reliable platform free of major breakages, and a sharper chemistry within the sailing team. Momentum begets momentum, and that had been advancing the British all along.
Did they have a faster boat? Impossible to say, but it wasn’t slow in the Final. Did they sail better?
Spithill says so. “The British out-learned the rest of the challenger fleet,” he said once ashore and amongst family and friends, goggles off and revealing the red-eyed sting of Luna Rossa’s 7-4 loss. “They took a bigger step than anyone else and peaked at the right time. We were beaten by a better team.”
It was a solemn interview for Spithill, who shared that he was “at the end of the line,” with his America’s Cup career, ready to pass the mantle to the next generation of Italian sailors that had won the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup a week ago. “That’s it for me,” he said.
Luna Rossa Team Director Max Sirena suggested that the team would continue with the blessing of its patriarch and patron Patrizio Bertelli. “The positive thing is that we keep going,” he said, with or without him. And his only hope was, should INEOS prevail against Emirates Team New Zealand, that they continue to improve the event and get more teams for the next edition, which will certainly remain in Europe with another cycle with the AC75s.
Bringing the Louis Vuitton Cup to eleven incredibly close races against the Italians has given the British squad a level of race preparation they require to meet the defenders on October 12, and that is the point, but concluding it before going all the way to 13 races also gives INEOS a larger window to reset and get on with the larger task at hand.
“We’re under no illusions of how hard it will be against the Kiwis,” Ainslie said. It’s back to work on Monday, added INEOS’s Luke Parkinson.
As Fletcher was concerned, “the pressure is high and we’re loving it all,” but more tellingly, he’s “looking forward to getting into the developments for the Cup and even bringing more speed there.”
