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.