America's Cup: thunderbolts and lightning as Swiss score crucial win

Rain clouds coming off the mountains to the north of Barcelona produced some challenging and dynamic conditions with enormous shifts in the wind on day one of the Louis Vuitton Cup second Round Robin - the stage of the Challenger Selection Series where every race really matters. It’s ultra-serious from here on in with the immutable fact that for one team on Sunday, if everything goes to schedule, their Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup dream ends and they are eliminated. A harsh reality.

Tension was palpable at dock-out with flag-waving supporters sending off their teams with unbridled enthusiasm ahead of some high-pressure racing – none more so than in the opening race of the day between Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Orient Express Racing Team. The Swiss, winless from Round Robin 1, were imperious from the start, building a massive lead and capitalising on a French mistake that saw them off the foils on the first upwind leg.

The Swiss never looked back, offering no passing lanes or ways back in for Orient Express Racing Team and sailed smoothly over six legs to secure a morale-boosting win that could be absolutely vital at the end of this regatta in the case of an undecided tie-break. Win number one for Alinghi Red Bull Racing – and right at the moment when it mattered most.

An elated and relieved Maxime Bachelin, helmsman of Alinghi Red Bull Racing came ashore, praising his team saying: “It's a great way for us to start for the week. I think we did it quite well, we like these shifty conditions and heavy wind, so I think we did what we really wanted to do. We were quite down last week after the results, now it's a good reset and we’re very happy with the performance of the team on the boat-handling and, as well, the speed looks way better than what it was in the past, so we are very happy.”

For the French it was a hard loss to take but Quentin Delapierre, the skipper and sailing figurehead of the campaign, still sees a way forward saying: “We had a technical issue, which is quite unfortunate, and we were just fighting with the boat in the starting box and also really struggling in the first tack. We didn't lose this match fairly. It is what it is. This is the Cup, it's part of the game and honestly, the confidence is still really high. We know that we will improve again during this week, we can win all the matches, so we just have to stay really positive. Everything is possible this week.”

These two teams are now fighting it out for a crucial spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final with all to play for in the coming days. Two other teams that are enjoying a tight battle, came head-to head in the second race of the day with Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli facing off in a fascinating encounter. There doesn’t appear much to choose between these two other than racecraft and boat positioning, which today Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni nailed to perfection onboard Luna Rossa right at the start.

Gassing the Kiwis in the final approaches to the line and forcing them into a low-speed tack that saw Emirates Team New Zealand off the foils, gave full advantage to Luna Rossa, who survived a nervy sky-rocket broach on a tack exit to lead at every mark. Drama, however, ensued on the final downwind to the finish with the weather deteriorating and rumbles of thunder heard close by, when a lightning strike was spotted hitting the water just a few hundred metres ahead of Luna Rossa on their way to the finishing line.

Sensibly the Race Committee called an almost immediate halt to racing, awarding the win to Luna Rossa whilst Emirates Team New Zealand was scored a DSQ for going far outside the boundary as they headed off the racecourse in an effort to avoid the incoming weather. Both boats dropped sails immediately and fast-towed back to the Port Vell.

Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was full of praise for his cyclor team who he credited with delivering the power that enabled them to start like they did against the Kiwis, saying: “All credit to the boys on the bikes. That start required all the oil we had and will probably ever use. To be able to do that is a real sign of strength. It's good to get one up against them, we’ve had a few great races, and the boys were really able to out-muscle them today and that that's the main goal. I've seen all the hard work our cyclors have been putting in, and when they get going, they're like a bunch of wild animals, it's frightening actually - they've definitely broken a few bikes! It's just another great race against the Kiwis, we expect nothing less when we're going against those guys and unfortunately for us that'll be the last one for a while but let's see what happens in the rest of the rounds now against the Challengers."

Speaking afterwards about the pre-start and how Luna Rossa got the jump, Peter Burling, skipper of Emirates Team New Zealand shouldered the blame saying: “A bit of a mistake on my behalf, just letting them sit a little bit too far forward, and I didn't think they’d be able to accelerate quite as well as they did, and then we ended up in a really tricky situation once they did get over the top of us. Once you blow off a foil and it's not got flow attached to it, everything gets really weird and you end up with strange angles. But all in all we were pretty happy with how we set up in the pre-start, we made them do something and we just weren’t able to finish it off, but then really happy with the way we were sailing around the racetrack. It felt like we were coming back into them, but it was so one-sided to the right, that every time we tried to take a bit of a split or create a bit of leverage to the left, we would just evaporate the hard work that we had done and it was really hard to make a pass.”

A dramatic conclusion to an interesting two-race day. The Swiss magnificently handled the pressure and gained considerable momentum in their campaign whilst the Italians have accelerated theirs, at last decisively taking the scalp of the Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.