America's Cup: Turnaround in the Cup duel - two victories for "Britannia"
Tatjana Pokorny
· 16.10.2024
The sailing conditions were difficult on this fourth day of racing in the 37th America's Cup match: a summery light southerly wind that was just above the 6.5 knot minimum at the start of the race. Plus a confused and unpleasant wave. The story of the fifth race is quickly told in this context: The New Zealanders, who had recently performed so flawlessly, fell off the foils in the pre-start and were sent downwind by "Britannia" in a helpless position before she initially tackled the race course solo.
Falling off the foils
Ben Ainslie saw his team as being involved in the fact that the Kiwis made the "small mistake" later admitted by Peter Burling, which led to the belly flop of "Taihoro". America's Cup chaser Ainslie said: "In the end, we forced them to gybe in the Vostart dialdown. They didn't have enough speed for that."
However, the additional downwinds created for the opponents a little later were no longer a targeted action. Ben Ainslie said: "It just happened because we also had to stay on the foils. It wasn't easy with so little wind and so many waves."
"Britannia" reached the first windward gate in this race after just under 6 minutes with a lead of 2:15 minutes. The crew led by helmsmen Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher sailed the America's Cup course in a focussed and lonely manner at the front. The Kiwis were able to reduce the gap of more than 1.7 kilometres to 1 minute and 18 seconds by the finish. They never had a real chance in this race after the pre-start mishap.
That was a real shocker by our standards, a race we'd rather forget." Blair Tuke
New Zealand's trimmer Blair Tuke, 2016 49er Olympic champion and 2021 silver medallist together with helmsman Peter Burling, explained the pre-start annoyance in race 5 in more detail in an interview: "That was tough. The pre-start phase was already over before it really began. That was a pretty big mistake on our part. The wind was very light in the opening phase. It was very difficult downwind because you could get stuck on the back of the waves. And of course that's exactly what happened..."
America's Cup: British rocket gains starting advantage
Blair Tuke described the scenario that led to the crash as follows: "We had to kill time so as not to be too early. And then when we pressed the shutter release, we just got hit by two really nasty waves. We probably made a little mistake too - you should never bring the boat into a slow jibe. Yes, that was a real shame. We shouldn't have done that."
Race 6 in this New Zealand-British duel for the America's Cup was more competitive. After an almost equal start at the pin end, the British came rocketing off the line with ten knots more boat speed. New Zealand's co-pilots Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge then attacked the obviously faster "Britannia" incessantly. However, their British rivals Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher parried all attacks and were not fazed by their own touchdown on a gybe or by a couple of not quite so snappy tacks.
Just how evenly matched this encounter was was shown, for example, by the gaps at the turning marks. At the first windward goal, "Britannia" had a 6-second lead. This grew to 16 seconds by gate 4, but then narrowed again to 7 seconds by gate 7. And it was precisely these 7 seconds that remained until the finish. The data also signalled an almost balanced picture: "Britannia's" top speed was 42.3 knots, "Taihoros" 42.2 knots.
That was an amazing race." Peter Lester
In terms of average speed, "Taihoro" was just ahead of "Britannia" (34.8 knots) at 35 knots. However, the Kiwis' small gain was not enough to overtake the "Britannia", which had earned its winning lead after the lightning start on the first section of the course. Ben Ainslie, Dylan Fletcher and their team brought their AC75-Foiler home victorious after 28:13 gripping minutes of racing and a highly exciting final downwind ride with a lead of only around three and a half boat lengths.
First British double success in the America's Cup for 90 years
For the British, it was the first time in over ninety years that they had won two races in an America's Cup match. In 1934, Sir T.O.M. Sopwith's "Endeavour" had won two races before Harold Vanderbilt's "Rainbow" went on a winning streak and won the American-British encounter 4:2. Sir Ben Ainslie and his team-mates can also add this performance to the historic chapter that they are writing in front of Barcelona with the end still to come.
The comeback is on." Ben Ainslie
"That was a day for the team," said Ben Ainslie shortly after the successful powerplay against the New Zealanders, who had lost twice in a row. The 47-year-old CEO and skipper of his team answered the many questions about where the British team's consistent wins came from by repeatedly referring to the designers, the engineers and the shore crew. It was easy to read the mixture of joy and determination in his face, which was also evident on the way to his four Olympic victories.
Ainslie's interim assessment on the evening of the fourth day of racing, which brought plenty of new excitement to the Cup duel when some observers were already complaining of boredom: "The Kiwis certainly came out of the starting blocks strong. We had to keep the faith, keep working at full speed and find ways to improve. We definitely have a lot going on. The positivity and momentum we're taking from this day is massive."
Cup decision this weekend at the earliest
The following still applies at the America's Cup summit off Barcelona: the team that can win seven races first will win the silver jug that was made in 1848. The duel continues on Friday (18 October) with races 7 and 8. Click here for the broadcast from Barcelona from 2pm. A decision can be made on Saturday at the earliest.
