A tricky day for the Race Officers at the Louis Vuitton Cup who managed to get two races completed before the wind shut-down to below the 6.5 knot lower limit average across a zephyr-laden course and caused the racing to be reluctantly cancelled ahead of the start between the Italian and American teams.
Mother Nature had more than a say in the first completed race of the day with Alinghi Red Bull Racing falling off their foils almost immediately in the pre-start box after a slow first gybe into significant wing wash behind the crossing ‘Patriot’ of NYYC American Magic. With it being almost impossible to speed-build enough to get flying on the foils, the Swiss were left frustratingly in displacement but kept resolutely calm onboard.
At the start, the Americans were unopposed, sailing on the foils and stretching into an enormous lead that they clung to tenaciously with some superb boat control from helmsmen Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison aligned with even better flight control from Michael Menninger and Andrew Campbell. It was a race, however, that never felt over with much jeopardy across the racecourse on all four legs.
With the Race Committee shortening the course length repeatedly and eventually calling for the finish at the end of leg four (of a possible six) with the time-limit of 45 minutes a factor, the boats were at one stage in displacement, off their foils in sync, desperate to attain flight. Both teams sailed high angles boundary to boundary in a search for zephyrs of Barcelona onshore breeze and although both managed to get back in the air, it was brief and precarious.
The Americans though, had built a massive lead of almost a leg and ghosted across the finish line, again off the foils, to score their first win of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Alinghi Red Bull Racing picked up some new breeze at the top of the course and held it all the way down the final leg, flying high, sailing brilliantly but with a losing delta of two minutes and 58 seconds.
Talking after racing, Tom Slingsby was upbeat but realistic about the conditions, saying: We had a little bit of breeze when we started the race, and we had got them off the foils so we were thinking ‘okay we should be able to just cruise around the racetrack.’ But the wind started dying and dying and went from sort of 7.5 to 6.5 knots and then we were getting patches of five knots at times. When we fell off the foils going down the last run, I started trying to do the mental maths: If I sail 10 knots at 120 degrees and he is now on the foils, how long is it going to take him to catch us. Those conditions are so stressful and I'm glad we had a big enough lead to put points on the board. It's really hard in these conditions to feel like you're getting momentum. Even though we got the win today you are always on the edge where one little mistake and you are off the foils and it’s race over.”
Speaking about the missed race with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, Tom added: “Luna Rossa, they're a tougher task. With all respect to Alinghi Red Bull Racing, the Italians seem to be the form challenger and they'll be very tough to beat – especially in those conditions.”
For the Swiss, the competition is proving tough after an opening day loss to Orient Express Racing Team and again today, but Arnaud Psarofaghis, skipper of Alinghi Red Bull Racing, remained positive, saying afterwards: “Tricky day today just between the wind limit and a fair race on the racecourse, but we like tricky races. If it had gone our way, it would've been a slightly better taste, but it was interesting. We made a mistake on the entry, American Magic did a good job to slow us down, and the race was not over from there as we knew that something could happen, and we just tried to fight our way back. Unfortunately, we had some really light breeze at the bottom of the course and then we just tried to get back on the foil. It's only two races, two losses. I think everyone can do something strange one day and for us it was today.”
The second completed race of the day saw INEOS Britannia race unopposed against the non-sailing Emirates Team New Zealand. The schedule and the rules dictated that Sir Ben Ainslie’s British team needed to complete the starting sequence and begin the race before the Chief Umpire, Richard Slater called the win for the British.
Dylan Fletcher, helmsman on the port side of INEOS Britannia, came ashore looking forward to an improving weather picture on Saturday and two scheduled races against Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Asked how the team were preparing for those two races, Dylan commented: “I think we’re just building on the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, where we had maybe bit of luck on our side in the start against American Magic, but we've been preparing a lot in the SIM with our starting coach Ian Williams, so looking forward to the fight."
Talking about the damage caused to Emirates Team New Zealand last night, Dylan was looking forward to welcoming the Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup back, saying: “First and foremost just very happy that everyone was safe, and although the boat was damaged, their health and safety was all good, but very unfortunate for them it sounds like they'll be back on the water tomorrow so they have obviously done a good job of turning the yacht around, and the damage can’t have been too major.”
Emirates Team New Zealand issued a statement after racing had concluded today, saying: After a thorough examination the team have been relieved that the damage was not as significant as initially expected. “There was a big scope of work to figure out where the damage was and how to fix it. The structural damage is reasonably significant, but it was all stuff we can repair to the hull.” said structural engineer Dave Olsen. “You wouldn’t say we were lucky because it was a bad afternoon, but compared to what it could have been we are feeling very thankful for sure.” The work has been relentless behind the boat shed doors by a highly skilled group of boat builders that have embraced the challenged presented just 24 hours ago. “The shore crew and boat builders are world class; they turn this stuff around really high quality and really quickly. They are all putting big hours, and we will get this boat back on the water and racing again.” The team are aiming to be back out on the racecourse tomorrow, Saturday 31st lining up again for their next scheduled race.
The schedule to catch up on the two lost races today has been announced by the Race Committee with six races scheduled for Saturday 31st August and the two missed races today to be raced at the top of the programme.
Conditions are forecast to stay light but slightly improve for tomorrow’s racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup opening Round Robin with the first start scheduled at 14:00 CET.