Monday, September 9, was elimination day in Barcelona as the Louis Vuitton Cup second round robin races drew to a close today. For the winless French of Orient Express Racing Team, it was simply do or die. For the defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, it was one last check-in with the fleet, and for the remaining four challengers that were all but assured passage to next week’s semifinal races, the task was all about time on the course and getting race sharp.
The sharpest of the second phase of the round robins has been INEOS Britannia, coming on strong and growing ever more confident in their platform after a rough start in the early races of the series. INEOS had the French to warm up with in another set of matches contested in sub 10-knot conditions. The Brits got straight to work in the pre-start, keeping their boxy AC75 on the foils and starting perfectly on time with more pace to weather of Orient Express.
Orient Express, as the leeward boat, was first to tack off the left boundary and naturally INEOS crossed, tacked to cover and make it hurt. Faster out of the tack and fully in control of the race, INEOS Britannia heeled to weather, dropped into another gear and sheared away from the French to boost their lead to nearly 140 meters in the span of seconds, an immediate gain that the French had nothing to counter with.
The Louis Vuitton Cup had its first casualty mere minutes into the race.
Orient Express Racing Team, scrappy, new and underdeveloped relative to the rest of the challenger fleet, was never long for the competition, but an eye-opening performance in the Preliminary Regatta rightly earned them a reputation as the Louis Vuitton Cup’s underdog. The America’s Cup is a long game, however, and the powerhouse teams were just getting started. It was only a matter of time before they dismissed the French challenger, which had promised to return.
“The whole team has been getting stronger and stronger, and our ambition is to come back,” said starboard helmsman Quentine Delapierre once the sting and reality of the loss set in. “When we do, we will have to be better, we were missing a bit of an edge this time.”
For INEOS Britannia’s starboard helmsman Ben Ainslie, suddenly sailing with a skip in his step, the win was tougher than it appeared in the morning’s marginal conditions, but their ability to keep Britannia in flight the entire race is a sign that subtle improvements are netting significant gains.
“It’s come a long way,” said Ainslie after the race. “We’re still figuring out how to get more performance and the communications are getting better. It’s good momentum for the team.”
With INEOS’s win to start the day, the table was set for a potential final-race sail off between the top-two teams to break a tie at the top of the leaderboard should Alinghi Red Bull Racing defeat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team in the day’s second match.
As if reading the script, Luna Rossa failed to start that match, however, citing technical issues with the starboard-side supplied Foil Cant System (the foil arm was stuck in the up position). Disqualified from the race, the Italians handed a point to the Swiss, setting up the sail-off between Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia.
But first, American Magic had a chance to close the round-robins on a high note in its match with Emirates Team New Zealand. It was bound to be a struggle, however, with American Magic’s starting port helmsman Paul Goodison sidelined with multiple rib injuries reportedly sustained while transferring sails off the boat after racing on Saturday. Goodison was replaced by Lucas Calabrese, who is plenty talented and experienced in the AC75, but the ask of him was high against the mighty defenders.
The match was ugly early with American Magic dropping off the foil while turning to start their starboard entry. Piling on the pre-start pain, they picked up a boundary penalty while trying to rebuild speed and get to the starting line. Fortunately, they had Patriot up on the foil as they finally crossed the line 30 seconds late, and managed to split the start on port tack, but still a good 3 knots slower than the New Zealanders on Taihoro.
Washing off the boundary penalty only made things worse, and when the two boats met on the first cross, the Kiwis were 170 meters ahead. That’s roughly 545 fleet, the length of an aircraft carrier, and in AC75 racing, that’s a lot of ground to reclaim against Team New Zealand.
The Americans lucked into a shift, however, and closed the race down to 50 meters on the next exchange, with a slight duck of the starboard-tack Kiwis. But Taihoro was first through Gate 1 with a 7-second jump. American Magic jibed shortly after the rounding and a slow and sharp turn through their own disturbed air had them exiting on a high-angle speed build, bleeding VMG to Emirates Team New Zealand who’s lead jumped to 200-plus meters.
A spot-on layline call into the leeward gate put the New Zealanders into supreme control, able to stay in phase with the big wind shifts and hitting the Americans with covering tacks and punishing them wildly out of phase. What was a manageable 31-second Gate 2 delta blossomed to 1m:21s through the gate in the next rounding.
As hopes dwindled onboard Patriot the Kiwis were a healthy 700 meters ahead on the final upwind leg and another touchdown tack for the American’s put one final and bent nail in their coffin. As the Kiwis were striking the finish line, the sailors of American Magic were yet to reach the weather mark and the 2m:37s final delta would stand as one of the largest deficits of the Round Robin races.
“We have everything that we need,” said American Magic’s CEO and President of Sailing Operations in a team-issued statement after racing, “so we’ll focus on the things that we need to focus on: good boat handling and consistent maneuvering. You know, all the obvious gains we can take and then getting the boat locked into mode as quickly as you can out of every maneuver.”
The loss cemented American Magic’s place in the bottom half of the final four atop Alinghi Red Bull Racing, leaving one intriguing order of business for the day: the sail-off between Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia. With the British on the rise and with one strong win on the day, and the dominant Italians finally proving to be vulnerable, this one was sure to be a taste more to come in the semifinals.
From its starboard entry INEOS Britannia pulled off a perfectly timed start at full speed with Luna Rossa to leeward and a good 2 knots slower off the line. INEOS got the early advantage and an easy opportunity to face the Italians off the left-hand boundary. With Luna Rossa bailing out for clear air, INEOS stormed away, hooked into a favorable shift and continued to hammer the Italians at every opportunity. With INEOS through the first gate with a sizable lead (18 seconds), the British sailors and cyclors laid down their best race of the series yet: clean boathandling and a strong defense to keep the Italian’s silver yacht in their rearview mirror.
INEOS Britannia, winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup round robin: it was a final result that even Ainslie himself seemed surprised with. But with the round robins now wrapped, it’s onto the semifinals where performance, development and pressure are ratcheted up another big notch.
