On what was billed as a potential day of elimination in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals, what unfolded turned out to be the complete opposite with both Alinghi Red Bull Racing and NYYC American Magic scoring race wins in difficult conditions, to keep their competition hopes alive.
With the lower wind limit of 6.5 knots being tested on a beautiful late summer Barcelona Monday (16 September), the opening race of the day between Alinghi Red Bull Racing and INEOS Britannia got under way after a series of delays with the sailors knowing that any fall off the foils would be costly.
Early positional advantage over the first two legs went to INEOS Britannia but as the British headed upwind on the third leg, everything was about to change. Forced to tack on the left boundary of the course, Britannia fell into a wind hole, came off the foils and down into displacement. The Swiss, sensing blood in the water, capitalised from behind by executing their tack on the boundary to perfection, riding high through the zephyrs to stay brilliantly on their foils and accelerated away to an insurmountable lead.
The race, however, wasn’t over and on the fifth leg of the course, Alinghi Red Bull Racing themselves succumbed to the perils of displacement, falling off the foils and finding that their new opponent now was the 45-minute race time limit. The clock didn’t win on this occasion and the Swiss ghosted across a shortened course finish line to secure a morale-boosting win.
For Sir Ben Ainslie, the loss to the Swiss was somewhat negated by Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli’s loss in the second race which means both the British and Italian yachts have to stay in race configuration to attempt to close out their semi-final pairings on Wednesday.
Asked how the team have been feeling, Sir Ben said: “It feels like we’ve still got more to come, definitely. We know we can sail the boat better, so that’s really positive, but then at the same time you can never get ahead of yourself in any sport — and certainly not sailing because like today, it just shows how quickly it can all unravel.”
The second, and what turned out to be final, race of the day was in the other semi-final with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli at match point against NYYC American Magic. This was a humdinger of a race with the Italians holding the early advantage, only to be over-turned by some dynamite match-racing skills from the American helming pairing of Lucas Calabrese and Tom Slingsby.
Tactical positioning was everything and the Americans, having split tactics while trailing on the second upwind leg, clicked into better pressure on the right boundary of the course and came back with starboard advantage, having closed significantly, to seize the lead. Penalties ensued further up the leg as the Italians crossed too close first behind and then ahead, but the crucial moment of the race lay at the end of leg four at the leeward gate.
NYYC American Magic called a brilliant port layline, coming in on starboard gybe to the starboard marker while Luna Rossa — with inside rights — tried to force a penalty in the zone around the mark. Unfortunately for the Italians, the move failed and on a subsequent slow turn-up into the wind, Luna Rossa fell off their foils as American Magic sailed around the outside of them high on their foils and at speed.
Game, set and the first race win to the Americans who sailed consistently and conservatively over the next two legs, high on their foils completely unopposed with Luna Rossa unable to regain flight, to close the race out and take the series to 4-1.
The UniCredit Youth America’s Cup will get under way on Tuesday 17 September | Credit: Ricardo Pinto/America’s Cup
As the team came back to base, supporters cheered wildly but Slingsby remained focused and piled the pressure on the Italians from his perspective: “I think the hardest one is the first one and now we are off and running. If you look at the four races they have beaten us, it’s by a total of 50 seconds over them all — and we just beat them by a lap. So, yes, we are confident.”
With super light winds prevailing for the rest of the afternoon, at 5.10pm local time the race committee announced the abandonment of racing for the day. The Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals will continue on Wednesday (18 September) with two more races planned for each pairing.
Tuesday (17 September), however, will see the start of the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup — one of the most hotly anticipated regattas of this fabulous summer of sailing in Barcelona — with fleet racing for the America’s Cup teams in the equalised AC40s starting at 2pm CEST.
