Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta: in review

It was the first opportunity to see the new generation of AC75s yachts in action and the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta last weekend certainly didn’t disappoint with a thrilling crescendo that saw Emirates Team New Zealand crowned as winners. As the Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, and with a team brimming with experience, they are the benchmark, but the Challengers are coming, and the Defenders certainly didn’t have it all their own way.
The Louis Vuitton Cup starts on Thursday August 29 with the opening races of the first Round Robin, and for all the Challengers, it is now or never. Every point matters and the time to excel is now. The teams will all want to hit the racecourse and post scores on the board to get a jump-start and gain that all important sporting elixir of ‘momentum.’ Expect fireworks on the water and no holds barred action from the very first start.

Let’s take a look at all the teams in review and check in on the positives and negatives:

Emirates Team New Zealand

Ahead of the final day of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, Emirates Team New Zealand had a 100%-win record. Then, with the wind shifting to the east-south-east and in a challenging, short chop sea-state they faced down NYYC American Magic who really showed their potential and boatspeed in the conditions to score the Kiwi’s first loss. Nathan Outteridge and Peter Burling both mentioned how tough it was to get in phase with the breeze with Peter commenting after the last race: “It was just incredibly ‘phasey’ and tricky to quite work out the exact way to go, with both boats gaining and losing so much and even on that last downwind we finally got one phase right and won by 20-25 seconds after a pretty close top mark. It’s just all about getting those phases right and sailing the boat in the right place.” The Kiwis have speed in their platform, as they proved in the more predictable Garbi conditions earlier in the regatta, and the sailing team have accuracy in their match-racing execution particularly in the pre-start with plenty of moves up their sleeves. The trick for the Kiwis now is to align their boat development, particularly in their aero package (sails) with keeping race sharp. After the win, there was no exuberant elation onboard. They know they are in the fight of their lives to Defend the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Undoubtedly a positive regatta for the Italians who can feel more than comfortable in the platform speed of their AC75 and the overall mechanics and logistics of the team, which is first class. They are performing very well in every department. Where they will be frustrated is in the final execution against Emirates Team New Zealand, which was surprising for a team that has trained so hard and developed a comprehensive pre-start playbook and overall tactical game-plan. The analysis, particularly of the final race, will be intense and the helms will no doubt be re-playing the various scenarios with their coaching team in the simulator ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup. For Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli it is all about fine-tuning of technique, but they can feel reassured by the outstanding performance of their Flight Control and Trim team of Umberto Molineris and Andrea Tesei who looked more than cool under pressure. Development will continue throughout the coming weeks and Luna Rossa will get faster for sure. It’s a mighty challenge for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.

NYYC American Magic

A third-place finish for the Americans in a regatta of highs and lows, but a real sense that they are on the right track and there’s plenty more to come from their radical AC75 platform. Shoreside the body language is all positive whilst on the water, when the wind shifted on the final day, suddenly their design philosophy showed its awesome potential. Terry Hutchinson, Skipper and President of Sailing Operations gave a revealing interview at the end of the regatta, saying: “Those are the conditions that we've been working towards and optimising towards. We turn into a much different weather pattern here in September and so it's interesting to see potentially the cause and effect of the ballast that all the teams have chosen and where they're located. Some of the things that we see we're encouraged about, and some of the things that we see in the others when they're going really well, you can kind of see the subtleties of when it goes really your way or if you're in your conditions. I think we're still trying to figure out our strengths and weaknesses. The Defender set a pretty hard mark, their boat’s very good and I think the Italians are equally as good but what you see is that all the teams are very close to each other and you're not going to be able to spot anybody a lot of distance off the start line and expect to pass them.” Reliability will be something that the team will laser-in on ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup aligned with ongoing development. This is a team that everyone is watching closely.

INEOS Britannia

The Challenger of Record talks a lot about ‘marginal gains’ and for sure, their coaching team of Rob Wilson and seven-time match-racing world champion Ian Williams, will be looking at improved execution on the racecourse and accuracy. Sir Ben Ainslie mentioned in a number of post-race interviews that the team were searching for more “horsepower” in their muscular AC75 platform and with resources aplenty we can expect to see the British come out in the first Round Robin with technical improvements. Dylan Fletcher, the port helm on Britannia, certainly exuded an upbeat tone after the regatta reflecting the over-riding feeling of no panic in the British camp, saying: “I think it's been good, and we tend to take a lot of positives. Yes, we only came out with two wins, but it felt very close to four, so I think there’s good momentum within the team and just looking to build on that for the Round Robins.” Britannia certainly showed glimpses of her potential, particularly in the win against Alinghi Red Bull Racing and the sailing team showed resilience to come from behind against the French in their final race. Equally encouraging was their course speed against the podium teams despite being behind, so it really is a case of ‘marginal gains’ now if the British are going to go deep in the competition. Plenty of resources for the team to call on, the British have painted themselves as the ‘dark horses’ of the Louis Vuitton 37thAmerica’s Cup.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing

A dismasting two days before the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta was not the best preparation for the Swiss but they bounced-back quickly through outstanding team-work and shore team effort and showed no lack of pace on the racecourse aligned with some very slick match-racing manoeuvres. However, the scorecard doesn’t lie and one win from five races leaves room for improvement all round. The suspicion dockside is that the radical-looking ‘BoatOne’ is heavily optimised for specific and incoming wind conditions in September, something that coach Pietro Sibello confirmed in interview saying: “On the design side, it is always a matter of trade-off, and you have to choose your window. We have a window clear in mind (I'm not going to tell you!), and for sure there may be a team that is good enough to have a wider window but let's see, for sure we know where we stand and we know where we have to improve and we have a big team on our backs to push us, so we are good.” Manoeuvre execution will be something that the sailors will be looking to improve on, but the Flight Control and trim team of Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz can take a lot of positives away from their combined performances during the regatta. Arnaud Psarofaghis and Maxime Bachelin have an intuitive helming relationship, but it will be imperative for the team to score early wins in the first Round Robin to get the momentum they need to progress to the semi-finals.

Orient Express Racing Team

A difficult regatta for the French who scored only one win, by default due to a breakdown on NYYC American Magic, but there are green-shoots of optimism with the sailors beginning to get to grips with their rapid AC75 by the final day. A tight race against INEOS Britannia over five legs, certainly showed the inherent potential both in the design and the sailing talent onboard, and the team will be looking to build on that into the first Round Robin. It’s an uphill task, almost a vertical learning curve, for the team that has had the least time of all the Challengers both on the water and in the simulator, but they proved in the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta that they are more than capable of taking race-wins and are certainly not lacking in tactical ability. Kevin Peponnet, port helm on Orient Express Racing Team, knows the challenge ahead for the sailors, saying: “We feel confident in straight-lines both upwind and downwind but now the key is going to be the manoeuvres and to be strong on the start, so we have to work more in the simulator and on the water with boat-handling too in order to come back stronger in the Louis Vuitton Cup.” Difficult but not impossible, Orient Express Racing Team need to be scoring early points in order to progress further in the competition.

The scene is set, and the time for talking is all but over. The teams will assemble for a Press Conference on Wednesday August 28 ahead of the first Round Robin, and then we’re straight into action on Day One of the Louis Vuitton Cup on Thursday August 29.

The opening day sees a blockbuster rerun of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta Final with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli against Emirates Team New Zealand. Other match-ups include Orient Express Racing Team against Alinghi Red Bull Racing, INEOS Britannia against NYYC American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli against Orient Express Racing Team.

Everything to play for. As the famous saying goes: ‘To win the America’s Cup, first you have to win the Louis Vuitton Cup.’