The rumour mill was silenced this morning at the Press Conference on the eve of the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals with confirmation by Sir Ben Ainslie that INEOS Britannia had selected Alinghi Red Bull Racing as their opponent in the first-to-five series. The British team also selected starboard entry in their first encounter against the Swiss and chose the second start of the day. The British team’s decision was very much a signal of the belief in their momentum, built after topping the standings at the end of the Round Robin series.
The four skippers left in the Louis Vuitton Cup had attended the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, formerly known as the Estadi de Montjuïc, the revered stadium of the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, for a chilly early-morning photo-call with tension in the air ahead of the INEOS Britannia decision.
For Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the surprise runners-up in the overall standings having led comfortably before some extraordinary final day turnarounds, their opponent will be NYYC American Magic. The Americans meanwhile, will be looking for a reset after a roller-coaster set of results through the Round Robin stages.
Building vital consistency, especially into their manoeuvre execution will be absolutely critical but they face a super-tough challenge in the Italians who they have never beaten – neither in this tournament nor at the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta.
Racing starts on Saturday September 14 and is scheduled to continue through to Monday 16 September, before the first planned Reserve Day on Tuesday September 17, with two races planned for each semi-final per day.
With the series expected to be tight as all teams step forward in terms of technique and technology, the schedule allows for racing to run through to Thursday September 19, plus there are a further four Reserve Days, if required, spanning Friday September 20 to Monday September 23.
Talking about their selection choices, Ainslie alluded to the considerable debate that had gone on within the team, saying: “It’s not a decision that we take lightly, with the whole team getting involved - the data analysts looking at the performance of different teams, we’re looking at the weather forecasts with the meteorologists, and even things like the unfortunate situation with Paul Goodison, who is a good mate of mine, so all of these sorts of things go into a decision.”
Arnaud Psarofaghis, the super-calm skipper of Alinghi Red Bull Racing took the decision very much in his stride, saying: “I am quite pleased, actually, to race against INEOS Britannia. They showed great performance in the Round Robin, and if we want to win this thing then I think we need to learn from the best – and I think that they are the best team to get us ready to get through the semi-final and the final.”
Asked who he would have picked given the choice, Arnaud responded immediately: “I think I would have picked Ben as well.”
For Jimmy Spithill and Tom Slingsby, two former team-mates in the America’s Cup-winning programme of 2013 and now adversaries for a spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, the rhetoric built through the Press Conference.
Spithill, whose Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team was given a reality check by events at the end of the Round Robin stage, cut a measured but still confident figure on stage and said he is looking forward to the racing: “I really see two very evenly matched teams. It’s actually a very exciting prospect to go up against Tommy (Slingsby) and the American team. We have a lot of respect for them, as we have for everyone involved in the competition. It will be one hell of a match and it’s why we do it. You want to go up against the world’s best and we believe they’re a fantastic team. It will be an awesome semis.”
Tom Slingsby, moreover, echoed the competitive mood in the air and spoke on behalf of the NYYC American Magic Team saying: “We’re really excited. Obviously, we didn’t know Ben’s pick, but we’ve been quietly preparing for Luna Rossa, thinking that’s the way it may go."
"We’ve had a lot of really good races with them, they’ve got the better of us in the Round Robins, but we had some races there where we were ahead, and we were back and forth a lot, so we believe we can do well in this match. We’ve got to trust in our processes. It’s going to be a really exciting battle.”
The battle-lines are drawn now. This is the tough knock-out stage as the competition comes to a head. A place in the Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, the gateway to a chance at challenging the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match in October, is on the line.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. The pressure is amped for a fascinating regatta.