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 today