It will be a short night for Cup fans. At 4.00 pm New Zealand time, 4.00 am in Germany, the final of the Prada Cup begins. The British Ineos Team UK and the Italian Luna Rossa Team will face each other. A maximum of 13 races will be sailed, whoever wins seven times first will be the best challenger and will compete against defending champions New Zealand from 6 March. The Prada Cup final can theoretically last over a week.
And it promises to be an exciting one. The last time Ineos Team UK and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli competed against each other was in Round Robin 4 in a match in which the lead changed hands nine times and victory was only decided in the final metres. It could therefore be a long and hard-fought series.
However, the rivals are far from being in the same condition as when they parted company three weeks ago. The Brits have already qualified for this final after the Round Robins and have used the three-week break from racing to improve their boat. They had already made enormous progress in terms of boat speed and handling in the three weeks since the Christmas Race and up to the start of the Round Robins.
However, it is unlikely that the current leap in development will be just as significant. In fact, there had already been speculation that the British hadn't shown everything they were capable of in the Christmas Race. This is probably true, but it was not to confuse the opposition. "We knew that we had weaknesses in some areas and already had the solutions," says design engineer Rolf Vrolijk, who advises the British team. "But we didn't have the time to make the modifications before the Christmas Race and we had to compete with known weaknesses."
Time is a crucial factor in the British campaign from the outset. They were not involved in drawing up the class rules like Luna Rossa and the New Zealanders. This gave them a development advantage. "We were always about six to seven months behind," said Ineos skipper Sir Ben Ainslie.
It will therefore be interesting to see whether his team can make similar use of the three-week break from racing. There were still some deficits, particularly in light winds. "We know that we have to be faster in light winds," said Ainslie. "That was a kind of Achilles heel for us. Luna Rossa performed particularly well in light winds."
"We worked very hard during that time and our team stuck to the task of getting every ounce of performance out of the boat," said Ainslie. "It's been a tough time, especially for the land team. Over the last ten days we've been back on the water trying to up the intensity and make sure we're fit."
However, the British team is penalised with a yellow card. Even before the start of the round robin, the Italians had successfully protested against a sail system used by the British, which was allegedly not in accordance with the rules. This is a trim line for operating the mainsail, which is passed through a hole in the sail from one side to the other. However, holes are prohibited. The mainsails of the Kraken foilers consist of two foils lying next to each other, in other words two mainsails. If air could be sucked in between them, the profile could be influenced by a kind of air cushion. This is forbidden. However, the hole in the British boat did not serve this purpose, which is why it was not classed as performance-enhancing by the surveyors. Nevertheless, it did not comply with the rules, which is why the Italians won their protest and the British were given a warning.
The negotiations in this case are still ongoing. However, in order to get rid of the yellow card, the Italians have to agree, and it is very unlikely that they will give up this advantage. In the event of another offence, the Brits face disqualification from the race in question. That could well be a decisive one in the final. "That's the game. We will go into the Prada Cup final with our eyes wide open in terms of some tactics," said Ainslie.
But the Italians were not idle either. Team Director Max Sirena: "At the beginning of this campaign we were a bit behind in speed in strong winds, maybe because we didn't have many windy days when we started with boat number two. "Once we finished the round robin we started to work with the boat in more wind and now we feel pretty confident about the wind conditions. When we raced in the semi-final on Friday, it was the windiest day we've sailed and we used that day to develop the way we sail the boat. And we were really happy with the performance."
Since we last competed against Ineos Team UK, we have put new foils, a new modified mast and a new set of sails on the boat and also put a lot of development into the software systems," said Sirena. "And we have made great improvements in communication. Especially on board, as we made a lot of mistakes in the last race and we want to try to come out of the final with one less mistake than Ineos."
Two races are on the programme for Saturday and Sunday. There will then be a two-day break before two races are scheduled again from 17 to 21 February. The possible 13th and final match would then be on 22 February; however, the final could also be over on 19 February if one team manages a 7:0 sweep.
Incidentally, the upper wind limit has not been raised from 21 to 23 knots, as originally planned, but remains unchanged. All races will be broadcast live free of charge and can be viewed on the Cup website , on Youtube and Facebook to track. No extra app is required for mobile devices. Replays will be made available on these channels immediately after the end of each race.
Lars Bolle
Chief Editor Digital
