His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain was treated to a real spectacle on day one of the Louis Vuitton Cup with desperately close racing and some very interesting take-aways in light-airs. The King took to a hydrogen powered foiling support vessel to get a close-up view, on the racecourse itself, of the opening two races of the day where the French Orient Express Racing Team came out with fire in their belly and scored a thrilling win against Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
For the French, short on time in the AC75, this was a vital win with Kevin Peponnet, port helm exuding a newfound confidence, saying: “We are feeling really positive. We didn’t win both races, but the goal was to at least win a race today. We felt that Alinghi Red Bull Racing have more weaknesses than Luna Rossa, so a win was more achievable – it was good to win this match. Then against Luna Rossa we felt we were in contention and although we lost, we have come away from that race feeling like we definitely have the potential to win against the big ones – and we haven’t discovered the full potential of our boat yet.”
Maxime Bachelin, port helm on Alinghi Red Bull Racing remained upbeat after the loss to Orient Express Racing Team, saying: “For sure it’s not the best start for the team, we are always expecting to be winning races every day, every race, so not great to start with a loss, but I feel that we have a strong team so we will come back with more things to work on, if we lose it means that we need to learn some stuff, and so we will learn and be back stronger.”
His Majesty stayed onboard the on-course hydrogen support vessel for what was billed as the blockbuster re-run of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta Final between Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli – and it didn’t disappoint. Early advantage went to the Italians but some brilliant lee-bow sailing out by the starboard boundary on the second upwind leg by helmsmen Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge, took the Kiwis into a lead that they never lost.
Speaking afterwards, Andy Maloney, one of the onboard Flight Controllers and Trimmers for Emirates Team New Zealand talked through what was the move of the day to get ahead saying: “Another great race against the Italians and really, really, happy with how we sailed that race. We stuck with them when we needed to and took a few opportunities to split and get back into the race. Then on that final tack, they tacked in a position that we thought we could just live with on their hip long enough to hold them to the layline and then did a pretty nice tack out of there as well and just managed to squeeze them off it.”
Francesco Bruni, coming ashore with a one-win, one-loss record, gave his assessment of the day saying: “We can take a lot of positives from the match with the Kiwis. We got away well, and we were leading the match so not super happy when they passed us. But to be able to fight closely with the Kiwis is a good sign. It is not easy to win against them, we know, and we will have to review the mistakes we made.”
The third race of the day saw drama at the start with NYYC American Magic falling off their foils before even having a chance to enter the pre-start box and gifting INEOS Britannia a clear start. Different headsails strategies were in evidence between the boats but the British were never headed despite the Americans closing the gap to just 14 seconds at the finish line. Close and dramatic, the race summed up the day.
Sir Ben Ainslie came ashore, pleased with the win saying: “It was a nice win for the team to get one on the board early on. American Magic had a few issues at the start so we had a big old gap there and we didn't feel like we sailed a particularly great race in terms of either defending the lead or finding the right balance and the groove in the boat, so we spent a bit of time after racing just trying figure that out, particularly on the manoeuvres which we know are so key in these conditions. I think it’s a positive result but plenty to work on.”
Paul Goodison, port helm on NYYC American Magic gave his precis of a difficult day saying: “It was really tricky today. We were making the jib call on the left side of the course and we were seeing 12 to 13 knots and so we set up for a full power race with a J2 – which would have been at the top of its range if the breeze had stayed in. Then when we came across to the starboard end of the line for the start, we saw five to six knots wind speed and it was too light to manoeuvre. So we shot ourselves in the foot there but after that it was impressive how we pulled ourselves back together and kept on chasing, chasing, chasing. At the end we were only one bad manoeuvre away from getting past them. We are bitterly disappointed. We wanted a win today and we are going to have to take a good hard look at what went wrong in the start box. But there is plenty positive to take away from how we sailed the boat and how we managed to keep clawing it back in conditions that were hard to come back in.”
The final race of the day saw Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli take on the hard-driving Orient Express Racing Team who showed today the enormous potential that they have in their AC75. Some smart match-racing tactics on the opening windward leg, and the ability to adopt a super-high mode off the start line, gave the Italians a slim advantage that they held to the end, but the French kept them more than honest over the six-leg course.
Francesco Bruni, took the positives from the win against the French, and spoke specifically about the decisive tactics off the line by his co-helm Jimmy Spithill, saying: “That’s a move we have been playing many times and we had a good start thanks to Jimmy as he pulled the trigger nicely off the line and then we were in control. It was not an easy point as the French showed some good speed in those conditions. We are very happy to get that point because I think they are a team that can win races for sure. I think that proves that there are no easy races.”
The opening day of the Louis Vuitton Cup first Round Robin certainly didn’t disappoint, and the mood dockside amongst the sailors was all about the bigger picture and getting points on the board. Three more days of racing are set and with a similar forecast we could well continue to see upsets on the back of tight match-racing, multiple passing lanes and close finishes. This is getting very interesting.
Footnote: With racing concluded, there was an incident dockside at the Emirates Team New Zealand base that the team issued the following statement about saying: “While retrieving the AC75 from sailing today the crane failed while lifting onto its cradle and landed heavily. All team members are safe. The extent of the damage will be assessed as soon as possible.”