America's Cup: "Luna Rossa" races, "Britannia" defeats "Orient Express" in a battle duel
Tatjana Pokorny
· 01.09.2024
The match of the day this Sunday in the Americas Cup area off Barcelona was the encounter between Ineos Britannia and France's Orient Express Racing Team. In winds of around twelve knots, the French team roared into the starting box at a speed of 45 knots with great determination. The British team had a very early start in the almost equal start of both boats. After clearing the course, they were initially 100 metres behind. The French reached the first gate 13 seconds ahead of "Britannia".
"Britannia" with downwind strengths
On the second leg of the course, the British co-pilots Sir Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher-Scott played to their obvious downwind strengths with their team "Britannias". The Brits took the lead even before reaching the leeward mark. While they rounded the mark quickly and cleanly, the "Orient Express" lost some ground here. The French regained the lead on course section three. On the course to the windward gate, the British then set a turn too close to the bow of the French - Ben Ainslie did not criticise the penalty against "Britannia" after the race.
At the third gate, the French rounded the buoy with a 20-second lead over "Britannia", who quickly closed the gap of around 200 metres at the start of leg four. By the fourth gate, the lead of the spirited and fast-sailing French team had dwindled to twelve seconds. "Britannia" regained the lead about halfway through leg five. At the fifth and final gate before the finish, the Brits held an eleven-second lead. Downwind, they turned this into 16 seconds at the finish.
Hats off to the French. They had the least time on the water and put in a strong performance." Sir Ben Ainslie
"King Ben" Ainslie showed his unfiltered relief at winning this hotly contested duel directly after the race. The 47-year-old four-time Olympic champion and America's Cup winner with Oracle Team USA in 2013 said: "That was a race for the fans, a damn good race! We just messed up a bit with the time and the distance to the start line and then made a mistake on the course. All the teams are improving all the time. We're slowly getting there. Hats off to the French. They had the least time on the water and put in a strong performance."
Louis Vuitton Cup: Half-time of the round robin round
"Orient Express" helmsman Quentin Delapierre had a similar view: "We were close, but it wasn't good enough for the moment. But we will try to come back and have a great second round robin. It will be important for us to be more consistent. The Brits put in a really good race today."
Sunday evening marked the halfway point of the double round-robin round, in which each team meets every other team twice. The Louis Vuitton Cup will continue on 3 September. Until then, Italy's America's Cup chasers will be in the lead in the challenger classification WITHOUT the participating New Zealanders. Patrizio Bertelli's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team has beaten all the other challengers once. The Azzurri lead the standings with 4-0 points in their seventh Cup attempt since 2000.
In the Louis Vuitton Cup standings WITH the challengers, the Kiwis themselves are at the top with 4:1 victories. Their only defeat was due to their non-appearance against Ineos Britannia the day after the crane accident. They are followed by the Italians in this ranking of all six Cup teams, also with 4:1 wins. The Italian loss point resulted from their defeat against the Kiwis.
Best challenger so far: "Luna Rossa"
On Sunday, the speedy "Luna Rossa" won its duel against the Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing, which had clearly regained its strength after a series of setbacks. After unsuccessful starts and losing duels in a row, the co-pilots Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin and their crew presented a different, determined picture on Sunday. After a clean start, the Swiss initially held a narrow lead, which subsequently changed hands quickly and several times. Gate 1 was reached by "Luna Rossa" just four seconds ahead of the Swiss.
But then "Luna Rossa" increasingly roared away. However, the Swiss were able to close the gap again and again, fighting with all their might. By the fourth section of the course, however, the gap had grown to more than 500 metres. The Italians acted as if their "Silver Flash" still had an extra gear. Only when the Swiss were able to reduce their deficit to less than 200 metres by the penultimate section of the course and looked wide awake after a tough week did the Italians take them under loose cover. By the finish, however, the Azzurri had sailed 26 seconds clear.
Despite their defeat, the Swiss were in much better spirits than they had been the day before after the at times very exciting duel with the best in class among the challengers from Italy. Co-General Manager Silvio Arrivabene said in the evening: "Today we had a good start against probably the strongest team and certainly the strongest match racers in the fleet at the moment. We were able to stay in the game during the race, so I'm really proud of the guys."
It's a way of freeing ourselves from the last three days, which have been difficult." Silvio Arrivabene
Silvio Arrivabene also set the target for the second round of the round-robin competition up to the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals: "This regatta is all about beating the ones you have to beat to reach the next stage. That is completely open. We will be focussing on achieving that on Tuesday morning."
Arrivabene had the duel against the penultimate team in the intermediate standings in mind when he spoke: The Orient Express Racing Team had surprisingly defeated the Swiss in the first duel of the first round and has a fast boat in the form of the New Zealand "Taihoro" design sister ship.
The Confederates' encouraging match against "Luna Rossa" quickly made Alinghi Red Bull Racing forget their rather unfortunate start on Sunday. The Swiss had had to return to the harbour for repairs before the duel against New Zealand's defenders - an encounter with no points effect on the battle between the challengers for a place in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. The mast track on "BoatOne" had been damaged when setting the mainsail.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing: first mast repair, then hungry
The swell was too strong for a repair on the water. Although Alinghi Red Bull Racing carried out the repairs in the harbour at lightning speed, it was not quite enough to start the first match of the day on time. Because they were still more than 100 metres outside the course limits at the start of the race, the Swiss team not only received a penalty, but were also disqualified from the race.
The Swiss and the Kiwis demonstrated just how hungry they were for racing practice by nevertheless engaging in an interesting duel at times, but abandoning it before the finish. The New Zealanders later claimed a convincing victory in the final Sunday duel against NYYC American Magic. After a split start and a rather rare, not quite clean turn by the Kiwis, it was initially the American "Patriot" that reached goal one with a ten-second lead.
One section of the course later, after an exciting power play between two seemingly equal opponents, co-drivers Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison were still nine seconds ahead as they whipped "Patriot" round the next turning mark. At the second windward gate it was only five seconds. At the first meeting of the boats after that, "Patriot" once again had the bow just ahead. The Kiwis then utilised the better pressure on the left-hand side on the downwind section, came back with a starboard advantage and reached the last leeward gate with an eight-second lead.
"Taihoro" hard to beat on the water
They then pulled away, while "Patriot" rounded the mark too slowly with problems. The Kiwis relentlessly defended their lead of around 100 metres. At the last turning mark, their lead had increased to 16 seconds. On the home straight, Peter Burling, Nathan Outteridge and their crew flexed their "Taihoro" muscles once again. They crossed the finish line almost half a minute ahead of the Americans, who will have to step up their game if they want to snatch the "Bottomless Jug" from the commanding New Zealanders in just under a month and a half.
The day of racing, which the organisers called "Serious Sunday" with more wind than the previous day, showed several times how exciting the duels can be when evenly matched opponents are able to exert enough pressure. With top speeds of the AC75 foilers of more than 45 knots (85 km/h) on the water, the sailing show off Barcelona on Sunday was more exciting to watch than some of the merciless matches on the previous days. All teams will use the break day after the weekend to make further improvements.
The duels of the fourth race day in the replay
Louis Vuitton Cup, Day 4, Match 13 - Ineos Britannia vs. Orient Express Racing Team:
Louis Vuitton Cup, Day 4, Match 14 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli:
Louis Vuitton Cup, Day 4, Match 15 - NYYC American Magic - Emirates Team New Zealand:
