It was a day of tie-breaks and heartbreaks on Monday (9 September) as the round robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup drew to a close. For INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, it was unbridled joy as they secured the top spot in the challenger standings after a dramatic race-off with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. For Orient Express Racing Team, the late challenger from France, unfortunately their regatta is over after a loss to the British, but they bowed out with grace and style.
With so many permutations at the start of the day, all eyes were on the winds in Barcelona as a building southerly thermal filtered up the Mediterranean and produced just enough to get racing underway.
From the very start, INEOS Britannia looked sharp with Sir Ben Ainslie’s team dispatching the French, and thus closing down immediately one of the day’s permutations, after a runaway race where Orient Express Racing Team did their level best to come back into late on. The British showed composure to cross the line after six legs with a 71-second winning delta.
Speaking afterwards, a deflated Quentin Delapierre, the outstanding skipper and sailing figurehead for the French team, took the defeat well and in perspective. “I do think that what we built together with the sponsors and with the whole of the team is getting stronger and stronger, and for sure the ambition is to come back,” he said. “But if we come back, we will need to come back stronger and faster. I think we were missing a bit of an edge in this competition and also some practice in the pre-start and the close calls.
“Overall, I think what we achieved together is pretty significant but unfortunately, we were not able to get inside the semis. We built things together. We worked hard on it. We were in the mix, so it is an achievement but not enough. Hopefully we will be back.”
Dismay aboard Orient Express Racing Team as the French challenge comes to an end | Credit: Ricardo Pinto
Following France’s defeat, the remaining semi-final spot was secured for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who took on the then overall leaders, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, with the odds seemingly stacked in the Italians’ favour based on previous performances.
However, just ahead of the start, Luna Rossa sailed outside the far-left boundary with a technical issue, unable to lower their starboard board, and were disqualified by the race committee. Alinghi Red Bull Racing started cleanly and were immediately awarded the win, but the knock-on effect was a tie in the standings at the top, requiring a race-off between the Italians and the British.
That wasn’t before Emirates Team New Zealand executed a dominant performance against NYYC American Magic who brought in Lucas Calabrese on the port helm today. After a fall off the foils in the pre-start, and a further fall off again on the penultimate leg of the course by the Americans, the defenders sailed off to a flattering two-minute-and-37-second victory and finished the round robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup topping the overall six-team standings.
The next time we will see Emirates Team New Zealand racing will be in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match on 12 October and all eyes will be on the technology they may deploy in the coming weeks.
With palpable tension in the air, the race-off for top spot between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was a thriller, sailed in marginal conditions just above the wind limit with both boats avoiding each other’s wing wash in the pre-start dance.
Sir Ben Ainslie brought Britannia into the starboard end of the line bang on the starting gun to control both the windward position and starboard advantage and never looked back. Gaining on almost every leg of the course to record the British team’s second win in as many races against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, it was a dominant performance and a serious marker of intent for the rest of the tournament.
Speaking dockside, a clearly delighted Sir Ben spoke on behalf of the whole INEOS Britannia set-up: “It’s another great step forward for the team. We had a really good day the other day in some breeze, so to up the performance in the lighter stuff is an area where we’ve been struggling a little bit, and the team have been doing a really good job trying to figure that out, the set-up of the boat and how we’re sailing and operating it.
“It feels like we’ve got some really good momentum and I’m delighted for the whole team again — not just us as sailors but the shore team, the designers and engineers, both here and back in the UK — so a big day for the team.”
For the remaining four challengers, the Louis Vuitton Cup now moves on to the semi-final stage. INEOS Britannia now hold all the aces and can select both their opponent and the side of entry for their first race. Whoever they pick, be it the Italians, Americans or Swiss, they can be sure of a blockbuster battle where the first to win five races will secure a spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. All will be revealed at the pre-race press conference on Friday (13 September) before racing begins on Saturday.
