Three more wins for Louis Vuitton Cup

Barcelona, Spain (October 1, 2024) – The Louis Vuitton Cup Final between INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is starting to resemble the most tense of penalty shoot-outs. Every time one team feels they have the upper-hand, the other responds and at the end of another day in this best of 13 series, it’s all square (again) at 4-4.

For these final two America’s Cup challengers, the first to get three more wins will compete in the 37th Match against the Kiwi defender.

In a shifting ‘Garbi’ south-westerly breeze that tested the upper wind-limit of 21 knots, the first race got underway with INEOS Britannia coming into the start from the port end, crossing Luna Rossa and then tacking around to take the trailing position.

The Italians went deep into the pre-start box, hunted closely by Britannia, but then executed a fine – and very sharp – turn-up, catching the British by surprise to assume the windward position off the start line. Early advantage went to Luna Rossa who won the bow-to-bow drag race out to the port boundary, before executing a devastating tack right to leeward of Britannia and with meters gained immediately, they forced the British to tack away.

The Italians came over to the far-right side boundary on the stadium course, but moments before tacking there were onboard communications about dropping the port (left) foil arm. Once it finally dropped, Luna Rossa tacked and then faced the British who had closed up on a left wind shift and tacked onto the Italian layline into the port windward gate marker.

With the race incredibly even at this point, Luna Rossa went for a tack to the starboard marker and bore away hard at over 50 knots. Shortly after, though, the silver-hulled boat went into a sudden nosedive that brought the boat to an immediate halt.

Onboard cameras caught pieces of fairing around the jib track area on the port side coming off through the sheer velocity of the impact and Luna Rossa were forced to go head-to-wind as they tried to assess the damage. Their race was over.

But with no retirement called initially, to take the win INEOS Britannia was required to sail on and complete the course. But after two laps, while the British were on the fifth leg, the Italians announced their retirement and Chief Umpire, Richard Slater, awarded the race win to the British.

Immediately, Luna Rossa’s on-water support team and technicians jumped into action and boarded the yacht with reels of carbon fibre sheeting to effect repairs. After half an hour for repairs, the Italians’ ‘silver-bullet’ was ready for the second race which got underway after a short delay as the wind briefly tipped above the 21-knot wind limit.

After entering the starting box on port, the Italians led out to the far-right hand boundary, gybed and elected to trail deep to begin their set up for a time on distance run back to the line. INEOS Britannia ignored the gybe option and decided to head up for a tack, but it was a costly error as they broke the far-right boundary and were immediately penalized with a 75-metre ‘get behind’ penalty.

Luna Rossa, realizing their advantage, set up for the starboard end of the line marker buoy, forcing Britannia to take their stern and expend their penalty by slowing down. A tack on to port by both boats soon after compounded the British problems and handed control fully to the Italians. With a lead now in excess of 100 meters, Luna Rossa was in charge and not offering up anything in the way of passing lanes.

With the gusts up around 23 knots, Luna Rossa made no mistakes to win by 16 seconds to level the series, once again, at 4-4.

“The important thing was that the guys were able to effect a repair to allow us to race that second race,” noted Jimmy Spithill, starboard helm for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. “It was quite a large open area so it would’ve been a huge performance hit if the guys weren’t able to fix it.

“After a day like today, you can just feel the momentum starting to swing and again the team has really been under some pressure a few times now and every time it feels like we’re responding even better. So I think, as a team, we will really take that into tomorrow and if the weather plays its part, I think it will be two great races.”

Sir Ben Ainslie, skipper and Team Principal of INEOS Britannia broke down the day, ruing the error in the starting box: “In the second race we just had an issue which kind of put us out of position for the start, we weren’t where we wanted to be.

“In that amount of breeze, you can’t just throw the boat around or you’re going to wipe out or break something – so it really put us on the back foot. But we tried really hard, they had a great race and did a good job defending and I thought the performance was pretty similar today with both boats ramping up in that top end.

“Ultimately somebody has to get to that seventh win first – and that will be it. But there’s not much between the teams and we’re all either having slight issues or making mistakes and it’s making a difference. Other than that, I think both teams are sailing really well and pushing each other to the limit, which is great and what we want to see.”

Two more races are planned for tomorrow when there is expected to be a change in the weather as the current southerly conditions give way to a lighter, potentially shiftier, easterly airflow.

Viewing details – Race information – Results – Weather forecast

Following the publication of the AC37 Protocol and AC75 Class Rule on November 17, 2021, the AC75 Class Rule and AC Technical Regulations were finalized on March 17, 2022. The entry period was from December 1, 2021 until July 31, 2022, but late entries for the 37th America’s Cup could be accepted until May 31, 2023. The Defender was to announce the Match Venue on September 17, 2021 but postponed the reveal, finally confirming Barcelona on March 30, 2022. The 37th America’s Cup begins October 12, 2024.

Teams revealed to challenge defender Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
• INEOS Britannia (GBR)
• Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI)
• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team (ITA)
• NYYC American Magic (USA)
• Orient Express Racing Team (FRA)

2023-24 Preliminary Regattas
September 14-17, 2023 (AC40): Vilanova i la Geltrú, Spain
November 30-December 2 (AC40): Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
August 22-25, 2024 (AC75): Barcelona, Spain

2024 Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series*
August 29-September 9: Double Round Robin
September 14-19: Semi Finals (Best of 9)
September 26-October 7: Finals (Best of 13)

*Team New Zealand competes in the round robin stage only, but the results of their races were not included in the challenger leaderboard.

2024 America’s Cup
October 12-27: 37th Match (Best of 13)

For competition details, click here.

Additionally, 12 teams will compete in the Youth America’s Cup and Women’s America’s Cup.

Noticeboard: https://ac37noticeboard.acofficials.org/
Event details: www.americascup.com/en/home

Source: ACE, Scuttlebutt