When Emirates Team New Zealand entered the start box on port entry of Race 5 of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, INEOS Britannia was charging at them in a good puff, with 30 knots of boat speed and their target locked. And in the split-second decisions that these AC75 helmsmen must make, there were only two choices for port helm Nathan Outteridge—go for the marginal cross or jibe for safety.
And it was Option B that was the New Zealander team’s undoing, entering the jibe below target speed, turning straight into light spot and through their own disturbed air.
“It was a downwind spiral once we knew we weren’t crossing,” Outteridge said after racing, admitting that they were a few seconds late and slow to enter, which set up the chain of events and had them off the foils and watching INEOS Britannia sail circles around them before starting alone and sailing to their first race win and halting what was fast becoming a Kiwi sweep.
It was the start of a momentum-shifting day for the British Challenge of Record, desperate to turn their series around and rewrite their Barcelona story. And while a win is a win, it was also a day where the New Zealanders can look back at the obvious mistakes.
Self-inflicted wounds aside, the Kiwis are plenty fast.
INEOS Britannia was a third of the way up the first leg by the time Emirates Team New Zealand was up to speed and chasing. The delta through the first gate was a healthy 2m:15s, by far the biggest lead of the America’s Cup matches. With both boats free to sail the course as they wished, it was, as INEOS’s Dylan Fletcher told his teammates mid-race, a “time trial.” In other words: sail the course as fast as possible.
“Once you get to a certain point ahead of the other boat it’s challenging to control them,” said INEOS trimmer Bleddyn Mon. “So, you have to race your own race, which is especially hard when it’s tricky conditions like we had today; that means looking for the pressure and getting on the right shifts as nicely as you can.”
It was the same time trial for Emirates Team New Zealand, which shaved 16 seconds off the British lead on the first downwind leg and then another 22 seconds on the next, and then 8 more by the time they were through the final gate. When it was all said and done, INEOS’s 4-minute head start was reduced to 1m:18s.
A Momentum Shift for INEOS
With a wind increase to 12 knots for Race 6 of the Wednesday doubleheader, both teams delivered another interesting pre-start, one that Mon said they had practiced in the simulator, one of the hundreds of possible starting scenarios.
This time, INEOS entered on port and Emirates Team New Zealand went straight from starboard entry into jibing and pursuing the British. INEOS tacked high then tacked again with the New Zealanders mimicking their every move. As both boats paralleled to the right boundary, INEOS pulled off a quick jibe that the Kiwis were late to respond to, opening up the door for the British to roll the Kiwis and make a straight and clean run to the start.
It was a humbling moment for the New Zealanders, but they knew exactly how they’d let their rivals get off the hook.
“What we saw today was how difficult it is to win races,” Outteridge said after racing. “If we had just jibed half a second or a second early, and they can’t roll us, then we’re luffing them out of the start. “So, they did a great job to pull off the jibe and build speed quickly to get across us.
“We were a little bit late on our jibe and our timings to defend that,” he added. “We’ll review that and next time make sure we’re on the good side of that one.”
Immediately tacking away, the early advantage went to the British, winning the first cross by nearly three boatlengths. The next cross was a similar margin, and a good indication that this race had the makings of another sword fight.
With a split at the first gate of only 6 seconds, INEOS doubled their lead initially on the first downwind leg, but there was only 9 seconds between them through the next gate. As both teams worked the wind shifts up the beat, each essentially sailing their own race to minimize maneuvers in the confused and steep waves, there was still only 9 seconds difference through the windward gate once again.
It was 16 seconds at the bottom of the run when Team New Zealand lost control of their rudder through the split turn, but with one favorable shift that went their way they were breathing down the necks of the British again, bringing the race back to boatlengths.
On this seventh of eight legs Emirates Team New Zealand well and surely had Ben Ainslie and his co-helm Dylan Fletcher looking over the shoulder as they loosely covered the Kiwis who were goading the British into a tacking duel.
Only 7 seconds separated the two through the final windward gate, and following a split, the jibing duel was eventually brought to the middle of the course with the Kiwis gaining on every exchange, reducing the British lead to two boatlengths until INEOS was able to clear the finish for a 7-second win.
“We’re back in it,” Fletcher said in celebration.
“We really needed that,” Ainslie said after racing, acknowledging that it has been 90 years since a British team had won a race in the America’s Cup Match. “It’s a long way to go in this and we just want to make sure we keep that momentum going now and keep making gains, and if we can do that we can take it all the way.
“We’re not here to just win races, we’re here to win the America’s Cup.”
