The 37th America’s Cup Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, and arch rivals Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli rolled their AC75s from their garages early this morning in Barcelona to face one another again, each having advanced through the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi Finals last week with strong performances. And as the wind whistled off the Mediterranean and through their respective team bases at 20 knots and waves pounded the seawall there was a real and heightened sense that the Louis Vuitton Cup Final would deliver some of the fastest and most compelling races yet.
And when the two teams met, with the wind hovering near the top of the allowable wind range, it was INEOS Britannia entering on starboard and Luna Rossa on port, two-boards down, and commencing the dance. Luna Rossa went hell bent to the bottom right corner of the starting box for a well-paced run at the starting line, with INEOS charging from behind, but too late to engage. As the two charged for the start, INEOS was pinned to leeward and wasted no time bailing out to start on port, essentially handing the Italians the start and an immediate control of the race.
Luna Rossa owned the first cross by two boatlengths and set themselves in a position to control the remainder of the race. In the big sea state, however, controlling the AC75s at their limits was an obvious challenge for both teams fighting foil cavitation and rudder grip. Still, Luna Rossa closed the race with a nearly 800-meter and 47-second win over 27 minutes of racing.
The Louis Vuitton Cup Final races are eight legs—two more than the races sailed in the challenger series thus far—and with 40-knot averages upwind and downwind—the demands of the power teams to keep the boats in balance were incredible.
“The windiest we’ve ever raced,” said Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s port helmsman Francesco Bruni after racing. “We were solid in the start and recovering from little mistakes.”
The most notable handling challenge for the Italians was on the downwind Leg 4 where Bruni’s opposite, Jimmy Spithill, warned over the onboard communications of a “bad one here on the bow.” The boat got loose and Spithill reported that he was “getting some big slides” and stalling on the rudder. Bruni responded with a suggestion to fly lower, which comes at a greater risk of touching down, but with a quick reset the Italian’s silver rocket was on rails the remainder of the race and a good knot faster on average.
INEOS Britannia’s starboard helmsman Ben Ainslie was frank with his assessment of the loss, admitting they’d “made a mess of the start,” and were struggling with cavitation issues as well. But his plan for the day’s second race was obvious even before conferring with the coaches: “We gotta get in front and stay in front.”
And that’s exactly what they did for the day’s second match, which finally got underway when the wind limit dipped below 21 knots long enough to satisfy the race committee.
This time, with an on-time port entry, INEOS Britannia circled high in the start box while Luna Rossa circled low, allowing the British to come push from above and dive to leeward on the final approach with better speed. While it was an even start, Ainslie had just enough pace and angle to get to the left boundary in control.
Simultaneous tacks had the British in a strong position to windward as both boats straight-lined to the middle of the course. Luna Rossa’s next tack was perfectly matched and covered and the Italians were forced to break away, freeing INEOS to transition from defense to offense with the wind shifts and opening up a 130-meter and 7-second lead through the first gate.
With both teams more settled into the conditions, INEOS’s Dylan Fletcher and Ainslie executed a strong race that had them in rhythm with the wind shifts and making big gains on the downwind legs, at times sailing deeper and faster pad its comfort margin. But the Italians were never far behind and the final delta was only 18 seconds, bringing the first-to-seven series to one-all and a reset for racing to resume on Saturday following a reserve day.
