Christmas Race: America's Cup: The British have a speed problem

The second day of the Christmas Race confirmed the results of the first day with four races. Unlike before, two teams sailed alternately against each other, i.e. Emirates Team New Zealand against Ineos Team UK twice and Luna Rossa against American Magic twice. The New Zealanders clearly won twice against the British, in the other encounter each team won once.

There were some really exciting pre-start duels and match race situations, especially in the third race when the Italians and Americans handed each other three stop penalties. It's really worth watching the races in the replay this time.

All races of the second race day

But what also stood out again was that the British have a speed disadvantage. Yesterday's results were not very meaningful because the Brits dropped out twice. The reason was the failure of a battery, which is part of the equipment provided by the organiser. Battery power is used to adjust everything in the water on the AC75 foilers, i.e. the foil arms and the trim tabs on the main foils and rudder. The sails are operated manually. Yesterday, the rudder and the foils failed on the Brits.

The team from the island was able to finish both races against the New Zealanders, but had no chance of winning. Even in the second meeting between the two, when helmsman Ben Ainslie managed to get the New Zealanders off the foils before the start and thus secure a lead of 700 metres, the New Zealanders had already made up for this after the first cross and the downwind leg. Obviously the British are losing a lot in the manoeuvres at the moment, coming very deep out of the tacks and having both foils in the water for a long time. After the races, Ainslie expressed his satisfaction with the crew's work, but also let something like resignation regarding the boat speed show through. When asked what his team could do to improve the speed, he replied to the presenter: "Do you have any ideas?"

But Ainslie wouldn't have become one of the best sailors in the world if he didn't immediately switch back into attack mode: "We still have some work to do. We'll be working over the next week to close this gap."