Back in August when the Louis Vuitton Cup got underway with the Preliminary Regatta and the early semis, the general consensus was that to get to the America’s Cup Match, the challengers would have to get through Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. And while that may well still be true, today on the waters off Barcelona, the helms, trimmers and cyclors of INEOS Britannia saw it a different way: To get to the Defender, you just have to get in front of the Italians.
After five days and eight races, the series was tied with four apiece, the pattern of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final being that each team would win one of the two races, and each new day was essentially a new start to the series. That all changed today on the sixth day with INEOS Britannia posting two impressive wins, swinging the momentum firmly toward the Brits.
Having survived the over-range conditions of the previous day with two white-knuckle races testing the limits of the platforms, today’s races presented a far greater challenge with strong easterly winds pushing white caps and waves against and off Barcelona’s sea wall. This was the sort of sea state that earns the foil trimmers their paychecks and tests the power of the complete foil and hull package.
INEOS Sets The Stage in Race 9
Race 9, started in 15 to 17 knots with Luna Rossa on port entry with INEOS entering, jibing and following the Italians to the right side of the box. Once the Italians did their turn to run down the boundary INEOS set up the Italians right and at first denied Ainslie his attempt at a hook, and then pushed them deeper into the box before allowing them to turn up and make their run for the start. From behind, the Brits had 30 seconds to push the Italians to the line before they ultimately tacked away for a split start, the Brits jumping to an immediate 17-meter advantage and 8-knots better VMG.
From opposite boundaries they returned, the Italians having executed a better tack to own the first cross by a half-boat length. INEOS’s Ben Ainslie was happy to duck and get to the advantaged right side of the course. This time, off the boundaries, INEOS had the better of the tacks and crossed by the same boat length.
Bow-to-bow as they converged at the top of the course, both boats tacked and split, and here is where the British padded their lead with a smoother, deeper bearaway, a perfectly executed jibe at the boundary and consistently better VMG at the top the leg. At their next intersection, INEOS had stretched its lead to 100 meters and hooked into puff that shot them down the run and into the leeward gate with a 205-meter lead.
The Italians threw everything they could at Ainslie and his co-helmsman Dylan Fletcher, trying to bring the race to the middle of the course at times and creating wide leverages, but the wind shifts were subtle and, as Francesco Bruni would lament after the race, they were under range with their jib selection, which making the boat difficult and cranky to sail in the conditions.
Were it not for one anxious moment on the downwind Leg 6 when Ainslie lost control of the rudder, INEOS Britannia put up a stellar performance to take first blood for the day.
Race 10 Reboot For Luna Rossa
With a regroup and a jib change, INEOS had port entry for Race 10 and was well across the box before the Italians entered late, circling to leeward as the Brits sailed high, tacked and lazily circled behind the Italians to follow them to the bottom corner of the box. Jibing just to windward of Luna Rossa, INEOS was slow out of the jibe and Luna Rossa went for the hook but couldn’t make it stick, so instead, turned up to set up to windward of the British and push them down the line with 38 seconds remaining.
Once again, INEOS had the better of the starts, a knot faster and all the room in the world to sail whatever mode they wanted: building speed, then climbing and then doing it again until they were able to shed the Italians off their hip.
At the first intersection, less than 2 minutes into the race, INEOS crossed and faced the Italians, bouncing them to the right, while they smoked off to the left corner and into the next shift, a leftie that had them into the first gate with a 75-meter lead.
Jibing boundary to boundary with a downwind boatspeed advantage that appears to be their strength, the British more than doubled their lead into the next gate and essentially locked down the race from there, transitioning between sailing the course and covering when they needed to upwind, but sailing away on the runs.
“It was a fantastic performance by the team today,” said Dylan Fletcher after racing. “It’s been frustrating with this stalemate each day, and it feels like so many of the races were close to ours, so to break it today and have a nice solid performance against them feels good. The sea-state picked up quite a lot from the warm-up with the mistral blowing the swell in with waves that were really short, and quite breezy again so it was certainly a hard day for the pilots.”
Now facing a one-race elimination, Bruni told the media on shore that he was relaxed and focused on the next opportunity to even the score, which will come Friday afternoon, after a welcome chance to reboot, study their opponent, and prepare a strategy for lighter winds.
“We know the position very well. It’s not something that we like but sport is sport, and you have to accept it when you lose. Today we lost in the field, no breakdowns, nothing, we just didn’t execute a couple of things and then also didn’t sail very well. It was very close racing, really tough conditions but for me we still have a good chance of doing it and we definitely are not feeling the pressure. We know that we can do it and that we have to just sail the best we can now.”
