While the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match itself is well into the future, real AC75 scrimmaging gets underway next week with the third and final Preliminary Regatta. While challengers and defender alike have been training and testing on the waters of Barcelona for the past several months they’ve been keeping close tabs on each other, but that’s about it.
This first showcase regatta of the summer is as much of a dry run for the race organizers as it is for the teams to settle into race-day routines and measure themselves and their platforms against one another. There are no points to collect, and there is no seeding scheme for the upcoming Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series at the end of the months. Seeding for the LVC Round Robins is based on results of the first two Preliminary Regattas sailed in AC40s. This is simply a full-fleet affair with the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand in on the action as well.
Racing starts on the afternoon of August 22 with a single Round Robin where all teams will race each other in one-on-one match races with four races each day, before the top-ranked two teams will progress to the winner-takes-all final match race on August 25.
For those teams who perhaps find themselves off the pace at the end of the preliminary, there is still time to get fast, as development continues apace, and while the results don’t count, there’s no denying the psychological impact of a good or poor result.
“If you are lacking speed or performance in a maneuver, if it is technique based, then you can make a pretty big change quite quickly,” says INEOS Britannia coach Rob Wilson. “On the performance side, depending where it is, it takes time with these boats, they’re big bits of kit so it takes time to move things forward, but if it’s purely in your settings then you can change it quite quick but if it’s fundamental equipment then it can be quite long lead times but for sure there’s room to make gains and losses.”
A significant focus among all the teams of this Barcelona edition has been on the likelihood of light winds and challenging sea states, which dictated the AC75 designs with a high priority on low takeoff speeds and continuous flight. The long-term wind forecast looks to be on the light side, with sub 8-knot winds and a flat sea state, which will, no doubt, be welcomed by the teams in this early go around.
While Barcelona will be the place to be for the pomp of opening ceremonies on August 22, Cup spectators elsewhere can tune into the official race broadcast each day starting at 2:00 pm (14:00 CEST) on the America’s Cup Facebook and YouTube pages, as well as www.americascup.com. According to race organizers, full replays are available immediately after the racing concludes.
