Semi-Final Day 3 16/09/24 – Lifeline Monday as Swiss and Americans win to keep their Louis Vuitton Cup dreams alive
Sport has a funny habit of throwing up surprises and 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, the opening race of the day between Alinghi Red Bull Racing and INEOS Britannia got underway 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.
Speaking afterwards, a delighted Arnaud Psarofaghis, skipper of Alinghi Red Bull Racing emanated relief, saying: “INEOS did a really good race in the beginning and then they fell off their foils on the left boundary. When we got there we had a bit more pressure and we could manage to tack, the guys did a really good job and really focussed on the manoeuvre to make sure that we nailed them as much as we could and that put us back in the game. From there we kept on fighting because we were racing more against the time than against INEOS Britannia. Anything can happen in the next few days, it doesn’t look so great for the breeze, so we’ve got one win, still in the game and we keep pushing.”
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.
“I guess it’s the only slight upside – not that you ever wish anyone to lose – but from a difficult day for us the fact that had they won and been through to the final they would be able to get a couple of extra days under the belt in the shed. So I guess it evens things out and it’s still not done. We keep saying internally that it’s not done until you get those five wins.”
Asked how the team have been feeling in this Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final, Ainslie added: “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 whilst trailing on the second upwind leg, clicked into better pressure on the right boundary of the course and came back with starboard advantage, and having closed significantly, seized 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 whilst 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.
Speaking dockside afterwards Tom Slingsby, helmsman of NYYC American Magic, summarised the day saying: “It was a good race. The start was close. The boat felt really good. We have been making some changes, and in those light conditions that were kind of a weak spot for us a week ago, the boat feels as good as it ever has in those conditions. That’s exciting and we are going to try to be faster again on Wednesday.”
Asked whether he was surprised by Luna Rossa’s tactics at the leeward gate, Slingsby offered: “Yes I was. I would have thought the play there would be to go and shoot for it, but then turn up. We were fast into that mark, and I decided that as long as I gave him room, we were always going round the front of them.”
As the team came back to base, supporters cheered wildly but Slingsby remained focused and piled the pressure on the Italians from his perspective saying: “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.”
Conversely, it was a chastened Francesco Bruni, port helm on Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli that bemoaned the penalties incurred today, saying: “We definitely didn’t get the best out of the day. We felt that definitely two of those penalties were clearly for us and we are not judging very well the few centimetres here and there but it can happen, you can have a bad day, we just have to learn from the mistakes and then look forward and get better for the next one.”
Talking about the mark rounding that effectively ended their race, Bruni added: “We felt that we were overlapped inside the zone and so we had the rights on the mark, and they forced us to do a very tight turn which was not our proper course, but clearly the mistake was to go for everything or nothing, it would’ve been better just to go around the other gate and keep the race open. It was a bad judgement in that moment, but there will be good moments and bad moments and that was just a bad moment.”
With super light winds prevailing for the rest of the afternoon, at 1710 the race committee announced the abandonment racing for the day. The Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals will continue on Wednesday September 18 with two more races planned for each pairing.
A day of upset and intrigue today in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals where you can never discount the improbable.
Semi-Final Day 2 15/09/24 – British and Italians move to match point in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals
Stellar conditions on a stunning Sunday in Barcelona, brought the crowds out at the Fanzones and Race Village and gave a truly global audience a thrilling spectacle of top-class racing in the dynamic AC75 yachts. As the sun sets on a glorious day, the points table shows Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INEOS Britannia, after scoring double race wins, just one point away from eliminating their opponents and securing their places in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final.
Such is the brutal nature of a competition where famously “There is no Second” – the simple fact is that for Alinghi Red Bull Racing and NYYC American Magic, they will both be eliminated from the tournament if they lose just one race tomorrow afternoon. A harsh reality for sure, but there can be no complaints at the level of skill, technique and technology that the British and Italians are displaying out on the crystal waters of Barcelona.
With winds gusting above 18 knots and recorded speeds on the racecourse in excess of 50 knots (92.6 Km/h), today saw the best racing coming between the Italians and Americans. In the first race Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli were fired up from the start and eclipsed the hard driving Americans immediately off the start line, going on to capitalise on small boat-handling errors by the Americans and securing vital boat positioning through outstanding race management, to win by 26 seconds.
In their second race of the day, and with NYYC American Magic fighting for their lives, it was nip and tuck all the way over six legs of the course. Everything ultimately came down to a brilliant call to cross the Americans by Italian helmsman Francesco Bruni in the final 100 metres of the last leg, that secured a slender two second victory and relegated NYYC American Magic to the last chance saloon.
Speaking afterwards, Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Luna Rossa and the epitome of competitiveness, praised his team and revelled in the sporty nature of the contest saying: “The boys did a very good job today – very, very, consistent and we knew we had to try and take some steps forward after yesterday. There was a bunch of stuff we weren’t happy with and so it was good to come back out today and put it all together.”
“We’re just taking one race at a time whether we’re four up or four down. It’s really the same process, same preparation, we’re two very evenly matched teams. You see that on the racetrack where there’s just little things here and there that are going to make the difference. Two good ones today, but we were under the pump in that last one.”
Tom Slingsby, helmsman for NYYC American Magic knows the scale of the task that is ahead of the team to stay in the competition, and was ruing the small mistakes of the day, saying: “I’d prefer to win and it be a terrible race for the spectators than lose and everyone love it. We’re competitors and athletes and it’s brutal to lose close ones because there’s so many ‘could have, should have, would haves.’ We did a couple of bad tacks. We did a bad bottom mark rounding. I just sit there and stew over our mistakes and it’s kind of what I’m doing right now.”
Asked what the team can do to improve overnight ahead of tomorrow’s decider, Slingsby was clear: “It’s pretty obvious our weakness is our flight control system. We can get a little high, we can get a low, sometimes we struggle in manoeuvres, we might slip a bit sideways, and we might touchdown – those decisions on the flight control system were made a year and a half ago, so it’s not an easy fix. We can get better. We can do a better job. We can make less mistakes, but it’s not easy.”
“I just had a meeting with the guys and said: ‘look guys we’re losing by a couple of seconds each race and we’re making mistakes.’ If we weren’t making any mistakes, I’d say it’s as good as done. But the fact is we’ve made mistakes every single race and we’ve just got to tidy it up, because there’s no place for mistakes anymore, we’re match-point down but I’ve personally seen how quickly these things can change, so I’m confident in our team.”
Following a dominant performance yesterday, INEOS Britannia were determined to maintain a building tide of momentum that is feeling somewhat unstoppable at the moment. Two races, and two outstanding performances from the British sees them also at 4-0, but they survived what can only be described as a ‘near miss’ in the pre-start of the first race of the day against Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
After some initial circling attempts in the pre-start area, the Swiss fell off their foils, only to recover but lose control whilst on the give-way port gybe as Britannia hunted them down, at speed, on the right-of-way starboard gybe. Smart sailing from Sir Ben Ainslie avoided a collision and allowed the British to sail off unopposed to a two minute and 20 second victory.
A slightly closer tussle ensued initially in the second race of the day, but ultimately the result was the same. INEOS Britannia showed her power to extend on every leg of the course and record a 48 second win. The British now stand just one race away from making the Louis Vuitton Cup Final.
Dylan Fletcher, gold medallist and port helm on INEOS Britannia, spoke about the incident in the pre-start where the two boats came near to a collision, saying: “I don’t ever want to be any closer! I don’t think the boundaries (between the boats) quite dissected, but it was interesting. It’s very challenging in that much breeze, with the (pre-start) box size, we did circle and they obviously matched us, and it looked like they tried to pick us up after their tack but fell off the foil, so it was an opportunity to go for the kill. We were quite surprised when they chose to turn down and then I think they lost their rudder. Luckily, we still had ours.”
“We’re focusing on each day as it comes and certainly just trying to keep the boat going faster. We’ve just got to keep getting better and we know that in the history of the Cup it’s the boat that progresses and gets the fastest that wins. You don’t have to be the fastest at the start, you just need to be the fastest by the end. So, we’re just focusing on ourselves and working hard.”
For Maxime Bachelin, the young Swiss port helm on Alinghi Red Bull Racing, the reality of what is unfolding as they stand match-point down and facing a possible exit from the competition tomorrow afternoon is dawning, but there’s still a strong fighting spirit as he spoke for the team, saying: “To sum things up I would say we can make no mistakes anymore. The way we feel is that the only way is forward and so let’s push for tomorrow. There is only one point left so we cannot lose, let’s go for it.”
Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final resumes tomorrow at 14:00 CET with up to two races per pairing. For the sailors and their support teams sitting at 4-0 down, it is set to be a long night as they dissect and analyse every aspect of their performances. For the British and Italian teams at 4-0 up, it’s now all about trusting in the process and delivering the knock-out blow.
Manic Monday awaits.
Semi-Final Day 1 14/09/24 – Ruthless execution from the British and Italians in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals
The business end of the Louis Vuitton Cup began today under bright sunshine on the stunning waters off Barcelona, with the first day of the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals seeing two utterly ruthless performances from the top two Challenger teams to emerge from the initial Round Robin series – INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
On a shifting and tricky day, with a seven to 13 knot wind coming in across the Mediterranean from the south-south-west, it was time for the superstars of the sport to shine – and they did so with clinical execution. With Sir Ben Ainslie’s selection of the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing tight racing was expected, but apart from some initial exchanges in the pair’s opening race, it was all one-way traffic in favour of the British.
‘Britannia’ looked to have the horsepower that the team were demanding early in the competition, both upwind and downwind, and in both races the British were able to stretch into enormous leads that were never challenged. Two race wins from two and INEOS Britannia are on a roll after a performance the likes of which haven’t been seen by a British boat in living memory in the America’s Cup.
Speaking afterwards, Dylan Fletcher, Olympic gold and silver medallist and port helm on INEOS Britannia, confirmed that confidence was building in the team, but remained measured about their performance, saying: “We’ve been working hard since the Round Robins, a massive effort from the shore team to get Britannia ready for the semis, and it feels like we’re building some good momentum. It was a very tough day out there, with the breeze up and down, we weren’t really sure and it was difficult to know what jib to be on. So we are happy to get through it and I’m sure Alinghi Red Bull Racing are going to come out fighting even harder tomorrow.”
“We’ve been working hard on the manoeuvres and the big feature has been tacks for us, as we kind of felt like our gybes have been basically good for a while, but we’ve been looking at our tacks and they’ve been getting better. I think, for me, the key thing is just consistency, just building that consistency, and then being able to look out – heads out of the boat.”
For Arnaud Psarofaghis, skipper of Alinghi Red Bull Racing, it was a very different set of emotions, with the young Swiss staying positive despite the heavy losses today, saying: “It was tough conditions. We made mistakes for sure, but we tried what we could to come back. We took some wrong decisions in the first race when the right side was paying, and then in the second race just before the start we went into a lull in the breeze and then from there it was game over. INEOS did a really good job. We just need to stay focused, fight every day and you never know what can happen.”
In the other Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final match-up, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli faced down the challenge of NYYC American Magic who have been on the back-foot since the injury to their port helm Paul Goodison and some momentum-sapping performances at the end of the Round Robin series. The racing was tight, with the Americans taking control early in both matches through some brilliant sailing from Tom Slingsby, but then small manoeuvre errors just crept in when it mattered most. When behind, Luna Rossa’s helmsmen Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni kept the races tight and the Italian team took their opportunities with both hands when they presented themselves.
The final tally at the end of a thrilling opening day shows Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli at 2–0 in the standings, but Francesco Bruni was keen to highlight just how close he felt the racing was, saying: “The conditions were super hard, a real struggle today out there. It was very hard to have a read of the pressure and the performance of the boat, and it was so shifty and puffy. It was really a strange day, a very different day to what we have seen so far in Barcelona, so it was something completely new for probably for all of us, and we just managed to get the best out of the day, but wow it was very fatiguing.”
Tom Slingsby meanwhile bemoaned the execution errors but still very much feels that the team are getting closer and have more than a chance of success going forwards, saying: “We’re really happy with the way we sailed. The guys did an amazing job, but to lose two tight ones, it hurts. We’ve made some improvements to the boat and it feels a bit better, a bit more reliable. We feel like we are right in the race. We know that it could have gone either way today and we are excited heading into tomorrow.”
Asked about momentum in the team, Slingsby added: “It feels like it’s going in the right direction. To think about where we were even a week ago, now it feels like we’re closing in, we’re catching them. They can overtake us, but it feels like we can overtake them as well now. In the past we haven’t really found a way past them, today it felt like we could do that. So, look, we feel like we are in the hunt, we are confident, we started well today, we can still make some improvements, and it’s going to be a race.”
The opening day of racing provided lead changes aplenty, falls off the foils and some of the best tactical and technique sailing so far in the competition. The winners, INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, received a shot of pure momentum today, whilst for the losing teams it was back to the bases and a long evening of analysis.
Racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals resumes tomorrow in Barcelona with two more races for each pairing. The beachfront Fanzones are packed, the Official Race Village in the Port Vell is buzzing, match racing in the world’s greatest high-performance yachts is intriguing, and Barcelona is fully alive to the beat of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. Sunday could be a telling day on the water.
