In a closely fought race that rewarded the most marginal of gains, Emirates Team New Zealand took one more point in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match on Monday afternoon (14 October) in Barcelona, with a fourth consecutive victory over INEOS Britannia that advanced them to within three points of victory in this first-to-seven series.
It was a tough loss for the British, who came out with a very different pre-start game-plan, electing to disengage from any potential penalty-inducing close calls and instead trusting in the outright speed of their yacht Britannia to try to outmuscle the Kiwis in a straight line. It was a tactic that initially appeared to work.
INEOS Britannia came off the start line to windward with two knots more boatspeed and then matched Emirates Team New Zealand’s pace to the boundary, where they were able to first execute a leebow tack on the Kiwis to force them to quickly tack back to the left, before making a cross on the next tack as they exited the left hand boundary.
On the next convergence, the British allowed Emirates Team New Zealand to duck and head to the right of the course. From there, sailing in clear air and benefitting from a slight pressure build out of the upper right quadrant, the Kiwis eked their way back level with the British boat as the windward gate approached and squeezed in a tack in front to block the challenger’s route to the right hand mark.
The British tacked away and the two teams rounded opposite windward marks at precisely the same time. On the downwind, when Emirates Team New Zealand gybed before reaching the left boundary and came back across on the right-of-way starboard gybe, to make the slenderest of crosses. A protest from INEOS Britannia that they had been ‘hunted’ by the Kiwis was quickly dismissed, and it was from there that the Kiwis started to build a lead they would never relinquish.
On this six-lap course, with the wind hovering around 10 knots and a dull cloud cover, Emirates Team New Zealand put on a masterclass of front running, taking metres of leverage at every opportunity and defending the right side of the course upwind tenaciously.
There was little the British could do other than play the middle and left of the course upwind and by the final windward gate, after some textbook covering, the Kiwis rounded with a 24-second lead before sailing an assured downwind leg, going boundary to boundary and executing their gybes with pace and poise to cross the line at speed to record a 23-second victory.
Peter Burling, skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand, gave an insight into the Kiwi psychology and approach, saying: “We’re excited. We keep feeling like we’re getting better and better. We’ve got a few things to do to the boat in the shed overnight and we’re not going to sail tomorrow but it’s about just keeping the pressure on. We feel like we haven’t really got to our best yet, we’ve still got plenty to come and we are excited by the challenge.”
Asked if the team looked forward to changing conditions later in the week, Burling added: “It’s been just this light bumpy conditions the whole time so I’d love to see a bit more variety. It’s obviously a completely different wind range to what they got in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, but yes, we’re ready to go across the board.”
Dylan Fletcher, port helm on INEOS Britannia, reflected on the small margins saying: “We just focused on getting a good start. It was really nice, we squeezed them off and got the first proper cross, but couldn’t quite keep them behind — which was frustrating.”
Emirates Team New Zealand celebrate their fourth win of the 37th America’s Cup Match | Credit: Ian Roman/America’s Cup
Talking about what can be achieved over the coming 24 hours, Fletcher said: “We’re looking at everything and we know they’ve been looking at our data. They’ve had a big advantage looking at all our onboard data since the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, so it’s nice that we are finally able to do that with theirs. We’re looking at that and seeing what they’re doing better and I’m sure they’re looking at us still and seeing what we do better. It comes down to fine margins and we’re getting faster every day.”
Asked about the mood in the team, Fletcher was upbeat and determined: “I think that people have been doubting us from the start, but we’ve proved people wrong all along the way and we feel like we can take this to them, and we’ll just see how it goes on Wednesday. It’s disappointing but there’s a lot of belief and it’s not over yet.”
With Tuesday 15 October being a designated reserve day, these two teams will return to racing action on Wednesday 16 October for two more scheduled races. Before then, both teams’ performance analysts and data engineers will crunch the numbers relentlessly, while the coaches will be deep-diving on the tactics and looking ahead to the new fresher conditions expected later in the week.
The scoreline doesn’t lie and 4-0 to Emirates Team New Zealand means the mountain INEOS Britannia have to climb is a steep one, but the recent history of the America’s Cup shows that no series lead is big enough until the job is fully done.
The closeness of both the racing and the relative performance of the two yachts means there’s a strong possibility that the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match could well have plenty more to run.
