After a near two-hour delay waiting for a southerly ‘Migjorn’ thermal breeze to eke its way above the wind limit of 6.5 knots, finally racing got under way between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli just after 4pm CEST on Saturday (28 September) on the second day of their epic first-to-seven-points Louis Vuitton Cup Final series.
At the beginning of the day it was one all, by the end of the day the score was the same, after a thrilling race was timed out with both boats in displacement mode when the wind cruelly shut down on the fifth leg of the six-leg course.
For the fans shoreside at the Race Village and the crowds at the fan zones in Plaça del Mar and Bogatell, plus the huge armada of spectator craft that took to the water on a stunning Barcelona Saturday, there were faces etched with both excitement and frustration.
Questions, though, were answered with INEOS Britannia showing impressive light-air speed, coming off the line to windward and holding a mighty high mode all the way to the left boundary, creating enough gauge to cross and cover Luna Rossa’s first tack.
The finalists make a splash in close quarters | Credit: Ricardo Pinto/America’s Cup
From there, the British helming duo of Sir Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher sailed like the champions they are, creating big problems for the Italians with wing-wash and then clicking into a beautiful right shift as the first leg came to an end.
Rounding the port gate marker with a 19-second lead, a rare tactical error saw the British caught in a wind hole that gave away their lead almost immediately to the hard-charging Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni on Luna Rossa.
However, an equally spirited fightback was on midway down that leg as Britannia’s deep angle sailing off the wind came to their rescue. After powering over the top of the Italians and forcing them to gybe away, the British were back in the lead and it was one they built on steadily over the next two-and-a-half legs — until Mother Nature intervened.
On the final windward leg, the breeze closed down at the top of the course to some three to four knots putting both boats on the knife edge of falling off the foils. After a scary moment for the British that they just managed to recover from, it was the Italians who fell into displacement after tacking off the left boundary.
Soon after, INEOS Britannia suffered the same fate after tacking at the right boundary. Both crews kept calm and tried to build the speed required for the foils to ‘bite’ and get flying, but the reality was that the race now was against the clock as the 45-minute time limit ticked away.
Frustratingly for the British, who had looked good for the win today before the wind shut down, time ran out while both boats were sailing slowly down the final leg and the race was stopped. Shortly afterwards the race committee sent the yachts home for the day.
Dylan Fletcher, port helm on Britannia, took away a lot of positives from the day: “I guess just a frustrating day in terms of waiting around for that breeze and it was flirting with us the whole time at the wind limit. Obviously we then got the green light, but I think it dipped below the limit pretty quickly [afterwards].
“We take good confidence about our performance over the Italians, but a different day tomorrow in different conditions. It feels like we’re making really nice gains with the yacht and finding more performance like in tacking, and in that way it’s all good, but I think you can never rest on anything in this Cup. I think we’ll be okay and we’re looking forward to tomorrow already.”
Crowds at dockside watch the post-race press conference | Credit: Ivo Rovira/America’s Cup
Francesco Bruni, the port helm for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, came ashore grateful for the race timing out, plus plenty of take-aways for the Italian team: “Between the boats today it was hard to pick up on any difference between performance profile because the wind was so puffy and shifty.
“We didn’t have a great start, but we managed to stay close and to find our moments. But it was not an easy race. Today was actually a lot of learning for free because we could’ve lost a point, but we will take the luck.”
Asked whether he was surprised at the performance gain that INEOS Britannia have made through the competition, Bruni added: “No, I’m not surprised because I knew it was going to happen. We all knew that they were going to improve, and they did improve. I still think that we can definitely sail better than what we did today, and it’s going to be a tough final, there’s going to be a lot of hard moments and good moments.”
There would have been interesting debriefs in the British and Italian camps on Saturday evening about relative speeds in light breeze. INEOS Britannia certainly put down a serious marker today and the momentum may have swung slightly towards the British. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli will be looking to derail that train on Sunday 29 September when the breezes are expected to be in the 12-14 knot range. Hang tight — this is an unmissable series.
