After a month of boat-on-boat match racing in AC75s in Barcelona during the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series, fans of fleet racing finally got their taste of AC40s playing in anger this week. But those at the controls of these fast 40-foot foilers were not the starting sailors of the America’s Cup Challengers and Defender, but rather the next-generation stars looking to make a name for themselves on the international stage. Where the AC75 contests could be described as big rigs racing around an oval track, the 40s were more akin to kart racing, and these hungry young sailors were certainly driving them like they stole them.
The Unicredit Youth America’s Cup kicked off with a qualification series designed to seed teams from two divisions: one division featured squads associated with Cup teams and the other division consisted of invited teams. The top three from each group advanced to the Semi Finals, which took place today and delivered four thrilling high-speed races.
In the fleet from Group A were the top-ranked team of from the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli camp, the practiced squad from the New York YC’s American Magic, and the British sailors of INEOS Britannia’s Athena Pathway development program. In Group B were the youngsters of Australia’s Team Andoo and the locals of Barcelona BCN, as well as Sweden’s Artemis Technologies. The Swedes emerged from the Group B qualifiers as clear favorites having been beneficiaries of Artemis’ state-of-the-art simulator and access to its own AC40 for training.
While the Swedes were the Group B favorite going into the day and the Italians were the clear favorite among the As, as racing got underway in 15 knots and flat water, it was anyone’s opportunity to shine.
Artemis battled its way to a win in the first race with starboard helm Oscar Engstrom sharing with the commentary team that he was happy to have beaten the big teams, but especially the Italians. American Magic, which struggled to get into the mix, posted a fifth.
In the next start, three boats were over early, opening up the course and allowing the Luna Rossa squad to pull off a late port-tack start behind the fleet. They immediately sailed into a right-side advantage with American Magic in hot pursuit, but thirteen minutes later, American Magic scored its first race win after an aggressive but clinical match race with the Italians.
Luna Rossa skipper Marco Grandoni acklowledged in his post-race interview that the Americans were surprisingly quick, and for the Americans’ part, starboard skipper Harry Melges IV reported that their first-race game plan was wrong and they devised a different plan of attack between races that worked much better.
The third race had American Magic in the mix again, lurking in third while the Italians match raced the Swedish team up the first beat. Through the first gate, the Americans had briefly taken the lead and were perfectly in control at 40 knots—until they weren’t and flubbed a jibe that cost them a few places. In the end, Luna Rossa notched its first win, followed across the line by the British and then American Magic.
That finish order set up a critical final race for the Americans and British, tied on points and the Italians assured a berth in the two-boat match race final on Thursday with the first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals between Luna Rossa and INEOS Britannia. The Swedes, however, were only one point back.
The Italians were OCS at the start of Race 4, but were free to tack from the starboard end of the starting line and sprint to the favored right side of the course while bleeding off its OCS penalty. Meanwhile, American Magic, which started down near the leeward end, was buried in the second row beneath the Australians and forced to promptly tack and take the sterns of the entire fleet.
Sweden had a perfect start and was well in control of the race before one bad tack had them in crawling displacement mode and watching the fleet sail past at 30-plus knots upwind.
Once they were able to against the grain of the fleet, American Magic was able to pick its way back to the front to engage with and then shut down the British on the final upwind leg. A third-place finish secured their place in the finals against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
The Italian sailors, helmsmen Marco Gradoni and Gianluigi Ugolini have serious talent behind them in trimmers Rocco Falcone and Federico Colaninno and are eyeing the match-race format keenly against Harry Melges and Kyle Navin on the steering wheels and flight controllers Severin Gramm and Finn Rowe. “Definitely a lot of pressure but we’re ready for it and you know we’ll go home and do our homework over the next couple days and for sure,” Navin said after racing. “We’ll be ready to roll.”
