Ominous black clouds on the fringes of the racecourse in Barcelona were a fitting backdrop to one of the most tumultuous days of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Two teams departed their bases facing the potential of a one-loss elimination while the other two were confident and eager to lock down the series and get on with the business of tweaking boats and playbooks for the fast-approaching Final next week. And while there was certainty that Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s chances against INEOS Britannia were slim, no one expected that Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli would return to shore with a DSQ and a DNF on its scorecard. There has been plenty of luck to go around, and today American Magic was finally handed a bag full of the good stuff.
Race No. 6 of the series, with INEOS Britannia sitting on a 4-0 advantage over Alinghi, started similarly to most of the races to date: with Alinghi starting at the pin end of the line with a speed and distance jump on the British boat. The Swiss were first to the left-hand boundary but INEOS had already placed itself in a strong position to control the match off the boundary. With both teams tacking simultaneously, Alinghi was quickly punished for its first mistake: a poorly executed tack forced them to sail low to rebuild speed, surrendering the lead to the British, who were easily able to sail forward and faster, flicking the Swiss back toward the left boundary.
The first cross, halfway up the beat, belonged to INEOS by a good 100 meters. Two tacks later, the British were through the gate with a 20-meter and 6-second advantage and Alinghi hot on their transom. Through simultaneous jibes away from the right-hand boundary, INEOS lost grip of the rudder through the turn and was forced to sail high to rebuild speed, allowing the Swiss to sail over the top of the British and into the lead with impressive pace.
Big swells and unpredictable winds and shifts were making boat handling a challenge for both teams, but the British showed clear signs of difficulties with completing jibes on the downwind legs, which was later attributed to their mainsail selection—skipper Ben Ainslie shared after the race that they’d chosen their smaller mainsail expecting stronger winds.
With Alinghi now in control of the race and INEOS sailing across the course to rebuild speed, the Swiss’s advantage grew to nearly 300 meters as they were able to maintain far better VMG to the leeward gate. Their lead grew to nearly 800 as INEOS struggled to make progress down the course. The delta at the next set of marks was up to 1m:01 seconds and Alinghi was on its way to scoring its first race win.
Mother Nature said, “not so fast,” and soon enough INEOS was chipping into the Swiss’s lead on the next upwind leg to keep the next top-mark at 1m:01s. Still, INEOS’s downwind struggles continued, having difficulty jibing and exiting with enough speed to stay on the foils.
Working opposite sides of the racecourse the British were able to regain distance lost on the run and brought the race to within 1m:25 seconds through next weather gate, but again found it impossible to get downwind efficiently, allowing the Swiss to collect their race win and keep their series alive.
Then came Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and American Magic, fireworks and all, with American Magic getting a jump off the start, forcing the Italians to promptly peel away and escape to the right side of the course, where they lucked into a shift and more wind. The first cross, a close one, went to Luna Rossa’s starboard helmsman Jimmy Spithill with his offside helm, Francesco Bruni, assuring him with, “No problem.”
Luna Rossa was first through the gate with a 47-second advantage, but the right gate mark exit (looking upwind) came with a shift and a drop in wind speed that had the Italians making marginal progress down the racecourse. American Magic made an immediate gain on the right and took the the first downwind cross, but in the fading wind, both boats were essentially paralleling each other (aptly described by race commentator Shirley Robertson as “mowing the lawn.”)
Soon, both boats were either trying to get down the course or fighting to stay aloft. One American Magic jibe had them off the foil while Luna Rossa opted for downwind tacks, which was working to keep them on the foil but not helping them progress down the course. The Italians eventually had enough pace to roll past the Americans on the run, but they met again at the leeward gate, rounding simultaneously, essentially restarting the race.
American Magic led through the next cross by 40 meters, and then Luna Rossa owned the next as the lead seesawed back and forth as they battled to get to the top of the course. At the next decisive intersection, American Magic approached the weather gate mark on starboard, forcing the Italians from the left to sail low of the layline, which ultimately forced them to sail past the mark.
A botched tack for Luna Rossa made their situation even more dire, but soon enough American Magic was struggling to foil as well. Crawling downwind in displacement mode, the Americans had plenty of lead on, but only at the bottom of the course were they able to fly again and cross the finish line with the Italians still wallowing at the weather mark and eventually dinged with a DSQ for sailing more than 80 meters past the boundary.
While the match played out INEOS Britannia was busy on the sidelines changing to a bigger mainsail. An early-entry penalty for the British (port entry) had co-skippers Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher quickly shifting to Plan B in order to promptly wash away the 75-meter fine with a perfectly executed split-tack start on port.
The first cross went easily to INEOS Britannia, as did the second and the third, and the Swiss pushed them the entire length of the beat, keeping the race close and rounding through the first gate only 25 seconds behind. The heightened wave state continued to make maneuvers difficult and INEOS was far from perfect through its jibes, but managed to keep the boat on its foils while adding hundreds of meters onto their lead.
The collective willpower of the INEOS power team could be heard over the race broadcast as the British progressed down the course, leaving Alinghi Red Bull Racing stuck at the top of the course, off the foils and watching their first America’s Cup campaign come to an anticlimactic end.
With its fifth win secured, INEOS locked its berth in the Louis Vuitton Cup final, and everyone’s attention then turned to the final match of the day.
For this one, American Magic had the starboard entry and played through a masterful start to lead Luna Rossa across the line, and in a repeat of their first match of the day, Luna Rossa was flicked early to the right. First cross went to American Magic and both teams escaped to opposite sides of the course. At the first gate, American Magic was clear ahead and skirted a close mark-room incident that allowed them to round the left gate with a 7-second lead.
Luna Rossa, however, lucked into more wind as it peeled around the opposite gate, and had the lead in hand at the first downwind intersection. American Magic, refusing to cede the race to the Italians, regained the lead as they approached the leeward gate, foiling in on starboard and forcing another split. Still there was only 4 seconds between them.
Luna Rossa lucked into another shot of wind on the right side of the course, and on their next meeting had a good 100-meter lead and tacked to cover. In races past, Luna Rossa rarely, if ever, lost once ahead by such a margin and position, but with a heightened sense of urgency American Magic executed a perfect tack and sailed straight into stronger wind and shift.
American Magic was out front in the next cross, and as they approached the weather gate on opposite tacks at the next intersection, the race was well and truly bow-to-bow. Luna Rossa, on port, was first into the zone of the left gate mark (looking upwind), and American Magic was momentarily trapped between a potential penalty or fast, last-minute tack to the opposite gate mark.
As the race-saving moment, American Magic tacked and rounded the right gate mark; Luna Rossa tacked to round the left gate, into stronger winds and faster exit. As they met again on opposite jibes, the Italians had a comfortable cross and were soaring past the bow of American Magic when suddenly Luna Rossa’s highly-loaded traveler track failed with a loud bang, and their race came to a screeching halt.
One side of the track remained connected to the boat so the Italians were spared a potential dismasting or further damage to rig, sails and all the multitude of interconnected hydraulic elements. And while Luna Rossa assessed the damage, American Magic completed its victory lap to bring this epic battle of the rival challengers to 4-3.
After racing, Spithill assured the race commentary team that spares are at the ready and the shore crew would have the boat race ready for the next day. Slingsby was candid about his team’s new fortunes: “Luck went our way this time,” he told the commentary team, adding that all of American Magic’s races against the Italians had been close—races they could have and should have won.
Fittingly, as the American’s returned to base under tow with renewed momentum in the series, the ominous black clouds drifted away from the racecourse. What a wild and crazy it was off Barcelona, a day perfectly scripted for the sailors and fans of the American challenger.
