Start box drama as ETNZ extend to 3-0 in the 37th America’s Cup

There was ruthless execution on display in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match as Emirates Team New Zealand extended their advantage to 3-0 after forcing a penalty on the Challenger of Record INEOS Britannia in the pre-start period of the only race completed today in Barcelona.

Conditions were promising in the early afternoon, but forecasters were expecting a slow shut-down of the easterly breeze which, unfortunately, took place faster than expected.

With His Majesty King Felipe VI looking on from onboard the Spanish aircraft carrier ‘Juan Carlos I,’ race three of the first-to-seven-points series got underway on time with pressure patches dotted around the course yielding up to 11 knots and the average strength at around 8-9 knots.

With a two points to zero overnight lead the Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand were clearly in no mood to pass up opportunities and as both boats circled in the early stages of the pre-start it was a pre-ordained and clearly much practised move by the Kiwi afterguard of Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge that yielded an early penalty advantage.

INEOS Britannia had sailed into the box on port gybe before executing something of a trademark move – heading up after crossing the incoming Kiwi boat’s bow before tacking around above the start line to try to get on their rival’s stern. However, as the British came down below the line on port gybe they were confronted by Emirates Team New Zealand coming directly at them on starboard – and as the right-of-way boat.

As the gauge between the boats quickly closed INEOS Britannia were required to give room, but they were late to do so, and the yachts got so close that their foils were overlapped. Both boats protested before, moments later, Chief Umpire Richard Slater penalised the British team with a ‘get-back’ penalty of 75 metres.

Despite expending the penalty quickly by giving up the necessary distance after the start, the INEOS Britannia helmsmen Sir Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher would have known, even at that early stage, that this would be a hard race to get back into.

Try as they might, the British were met with a doggedly determined Emirates Team New Zealand crew that allowed their opponents no possible leverage as they covered tenaciously throughout the three laps of the 27-minute race.

The Kiwis gained on every leg, picking the wind pressure beautifully across a tricky easterly facing course that was peppered with pressure patches that came and went indiscriminately. As the race wore on and the wind dropped to around seven knots, Emirates Team New Zealand’s delicate flight control balance and superior speed out of tacks and gybes saw them extend out to a 52-second victory. INEOS Britannia will take heart from similar straight-line speeds between the boats but the Kiwis have good pace in the manoeuvres and a super-smooth style all around the course.

Emirates Team New Zealand marched forward to 3-0 in this first-to-seven series with all the assuredness of a champion team at the very top of the sport of sailing. As Defenders of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup they have been virtually faultless so far in this series. For INEOS Britannia, the scale of the task ahead of them is clear, leaving them looking to quickly reset and perhaps hope for different conditions later in the week.

Sadly, for the thousands of spectators in Barcelona that had packed the Race Village and the nearby free-to-enter Fanzones at Plaça del Mar and Bogatell beach, the armada of boats around the racecourse, as well as for race fans around the world watching the global broadcast, the fourth race of the series had to be postponed to tomorrow, Monday October 14, after the wind faded away as had been accurately predicted.

Nathan Outteridge, port helmsman for Emirates Team New Zealand was pleased with how the series was unfolding, saying: “Obviously we're pretty happy with the performance of the boat. We looked at the performance yesterday and saw that we were making gains in the tacks, so we thought we would play that game again today. We've done a lot of work on the performance of the boat and also how we sail it in the manoeuvres. Very happy to get the win and it always helps when your nose is in front off the line.”

Asked if the team feared a comeback by the INEOS Britannia team, Outteridge added: “There's definitely a lot of respect for INEOS. We've seen that they are a very good Challenger – the sailing team are really good sailors and the boat performs really well. So we're not going to give them an opportunity to get some fresh air in front.

"Obviously they’ve got a good group behind them analysing both their own performance and their competitors, but don’t you worry, we’ve got plenty of people in our building keeping tabs on their performance and ours. There’s not a day that goes by where we're not trying to make our boat go quicker as well.”

INEOS Britannia Skipper Ben Ainslie maintained an air of determination, summing up the day saying: “I think it's a much closer relative performance but through the races they've done a brilliant job when they've been in the lead of defending and finding the right moment to extend a little bit. Obviously, it has been tough for us, but we’ve kept it relatively close. It might look like there's a big gap in performance, but I don't think it's actually that big and we know that we can still make gains.”

Asked where he felt improvements could be made, Ainslie explained: “Clearly there's a lot of technique in sailing these boats well: the set-up of which sails are put on the boat, the depth and how you trim the sails, and I think it's lots of little things.

"We shouldn't be disheartened, the performance is close, clearly they’re going well on the upwind and through the tacks in particular, but we will keep analysing that and will keep pushing. Tomorrow is a different day and no way are we going to take this lying down.”

INEOS Britannia are in a fight now to shift the momentum in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match their way, whilst Emirates Team New Zealand will be determined to apply maximum scoreboard pressure by continuing to chalk up the race wins. It’s the first crew to seven points who will lift the America's Cup trophy, but this 173-year-old competition has seen plenty of upsets as well as stunning comebacks from seemingly impossible situations, throughout its well-storied history

Will we see more of the same in this current edition? Tomorrow both teams know they will need to be at peak performance for what is scheduled to be a single-race day starting at 1410 CET.