The widely publicised first race of the Louis Vuitton Cup, in which two boats were at the start, was a flop. It was foiled and sailed well, but there was no excitement. In the pre-start phase, Dean Barker, the skipper of Team New Zealand, "strangled" his counterpart Chris Draper on Luna Rossa in the best match-race style to thunder across the line at full speed two boat lengths ahead in the safe leeward position.
The Italians were still able to maintain a reasonably respectable gap on the first lap, but the Kiwis were simply far superior in every respect and won by an almost unbelievable 5:23 minutes with a race time of just 45 minutes. Embarrassing: Without any visible problems or defects, Luna Rossa did not manage to finish within the time limit of five minutes (after the winner crossed the finish line). It may be that the strongly rising tide was playing havoc with the Italians, but it is well known that this course offers very few overtaking opportunities as long as no-one makes a mistake, which is why the starts are so important.
The course of events was reminiscent of the last Cup in Valencia, where the boats also sailed fast, but were simply too different in terms of potential to generate any real excitement. Despite this disappointing performance, Luna Rossa, who essentially operate the type of boat that served as a test platform for the New Zealanders, are considered to be stronger than the still tinkering guys from Artemis, who have not yet moved an AC72 a metre on foils.
If this performance gap persists, the prospects for the elimination and the sponsor Louis Vuitton, which is reportedly demanding up to three million US dollars of its invested money back, would not be rosy. Even the two skippers were embarrassed by the questions after the race. "We sailed a good room ...", said the contrite-looking Max Sirena from Luna Rossa. "It's a bit different with two boats..." began Dean Barker, laughing nervously.
Summary Luna Rossa v ETNZ
We can only hope that the balance of power will equalise to some extent so that we can soon see races that actually deserve to be called that. Putting off until the start of the Cup final on 7 September, as the organisers have already done was heard repeatedly would probably test the patience of the audience and sponsors to the limit.
The exhibition race continues today, but only with one boat, that of Team New Zealand. Because opponent Artemis is still tinkering.
