A warm and humid Wednesday (16 October) in Barcelona yielded southerly thermal breezes of 7-11 knots for two absorbing races in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match that saw INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, take back-to-back victories to move the scoreline to 4-2 and halt the early series momentum that had been building in favour of Emirates Team New Zealand.
For the British, it’s the first time in over 90 years, since 1934, that they have won two races in an America’s Cup Match. Back then, Sir T.O.M. Sopwith’s Endeavour scored the first two wins before Harold Vanderbilt’s Rainbow came back strongly and clinched the series 4-2. History was certainly being made in Barcelona this day.
The opening race got under way on time with the wind above the 6.5 knots lower racing limit and a lumpy, bumpy residual sea state that made it challenging to keep the AC75s flying consistently. In essence, this race was decided soon after Emirates Team New Zealand dialled into the starting box from the port end. They were on time, but without the speed to comfortably cross INEOS Britannia’s starboard gybe entry. The onboard decision to gybe around saw Taihoro lose speed and drop into displacement mode.
Still on their foils, the British crew made sure to apply maximum wing wash on their rivals, as they first powered over them to windward on port and then once again on starboard as they started, leaving Emirates Team New Zealand struggling to speed build on a long displacement port tack towards the right boundary. Uncontested, INEOS Britannia shot out into a lead of over 1,700 metres before the Kiwis could get back up and flying. From that point on, for the British the race was all about staying on the foils.
The Britannia sailors coaxed and cajoled their boat around the next six legs and by the time they bore away at the final windward mark, they had a lead of one minute and 29 seconds — over half a leg ahead. Emirates Team New Zealand were in full catch-up mode throughout the race and they closed the time-gap steadily, but it was never going to be enough unless the British fell off the foils. That didn’t happen and after nailing three gybes on the final downwind leg, the British crew crossed the finish line to take their first win in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match by one minute and 18 seconds.
With the series now at 4-1 in favour of the Kiwis, the second race suddenly had a significance and resonance all of its own.
INEOS Britannia came in from the port side and immediately there was pre-start aggression from both teams. After crossing the Kiwis, the British went into their customary tack to take themselves above the start line and were followed closely by Emirates Team New Zealand who had set up as the hunter. A peel away to the right by the British saw both boats close running to the boundary, with Britannia pinned out to windward and trying to outrun the Kiwis to leeward.
A protest appeal from Emirates Team New Zealand was quickly denied by the umpires before the crews disengaged at the boundary and INEOS Britannia gybed first to head back to the line. Emirates Team New Zealand initially set up in a leeward position, looking to hold the British boat out, but in the final 20 seconds Britannia was able to power over the top, forcing a rethink in starting strategy for the Kiwis.
As the clock ticked down to the start, Britannia aimed for a high-speed pin end start, while Emirates Team New Zealand elected to tack off onto port and get to the right of the course. Starting with 10 knots of extra boat speed, the British sailors grabbed an early positional advantage that they were able to capitalise on to maintain their lead over the next eight legs.
Emirates Team New Zealand applied maximum pressure throughout, keeping the delta down to no more than 16 seconds at any gate rounding, but an uncharacteristic mistake in the final approaches to the leeward gate cost valuable time and distance, and meant passing was always going to be difficult. For the Britannia crew, the focus was on precise manoeuvre execution and despite slipping up with one poor touchdown gybe and a couple of slow tacks, the British sailed a textbook match race, minimising their manoeuvres but never allowing the Kiwis to get leverage anywhere around the course.
Emirates Team New Zealand’s Blaire Tuke talks to the media after the day’s action on the water | Credit: Ian Roman/America’s Cup
After eight enthralling legs, the British fans who packed the Race Village and the beachfront fan zones at Plaça del Mar and Bogatell nervously watched the final run to the finish. Emirates Team New Zealand were closing fast from astern but the British made the cross of their bow on port gybe, sailed low and brought INEOS Britannia across the line to record a hard-fought seven-second victory.
Sir Ben Ainslie came ashore and reflected on what was an outstanding day for the British team, saying: “Big day, massive day for the team. We really needed that, and I can’t say enough about how everyone across the board responded to being four down — the designers, engineers, shore team all coming together to find those little gains, to up the performance out there on the racecourse and that’s what we got today.”
Asked what the difference was today in the performance of Britannia, Sir Ben added: “It’s just little things, it really is. These boats are so fickle in terms of how you set them up and the techniques of how you sail them. Going up against the Kiwis and seeing some areas where we were perhaps a little bit behind so full credit to the coaching team and the engineers trawling through the data trying to figure out how we can make some of those adjustments.”
Blair Tuke, port trimmer and flight controller for Emirates Team New Zealand reflected on a day where the team felt they left much out on the racecourse, saying: “They certainly came out well and to notch two wins against us in those conditions is a great effort by them. We will look back on today as a day where we let some opportunities slip.
“That first one was a real shocker by our standards: to get low speed on the port entry and then get into a situation where we couldn’t cross, or maybe could have, that was just one we would like to forget. The second start, we got into quite a strong position in my opinion and then probably let them off the hook there.”
Tuke expanded on the first race pre-start where the team fell into displacement, saying: “Well on the port gybe today, the swell was from behind from the south-east and you could get stuck on the back of the wave and that was exactly what happened.
“We had to kill time not to be early and then by the time we pulled the trigger we just got caught on the back of two real nasty set waves. Then there was probably a bit of mis-execution from us — you never want to put the boat into a low-speed gybe.”
Asked what positives the team took away, Tuke replied: “I think out of these situations you take comfort from the fact that the boat is going quick — and we definitely felt that way today. Even in that first race we were making gains and definitely felt the same in the second race. Obviously the ‘work-ons’ are in starting and making sure that even if we feel like we’re comfortable that we need to put in the final blow and make sure we pull off the final acceleration.”
With the scoreline at 4-2, the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match is now on a knife-edge. The early shoots of a comeback the British fans had been hoping for have materialised and the two British wins today have served to slow Emirates Team New Zealand’s early momentum.
Whether that is a permanent shift remains to be seen and with racing resuming this Friday 18 October, when two more races are scheduled, this fascinating battle in Barcelona looks all set to become an unmissable thriller.
