Alinghi Red Bull Racing kicks off competition with a win

Alinghi Red Bull Racing marked the start of the 37th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta with a victory over the French Orient Express Racing Team in the first match race of the event. While the Swiss Challenger had a solid start on Day 1, the team remains focused on keeping the momentum through the next weeks of competition.

It has been a week of emotions for Alinghi Red Bull Racing, with a rig failure just two days prior, but today the team showed up strong for their first race in the AC75. After a solid start which saw BoatOne taking the lead as they crossed the line at over 45 knots, the Swiss team sailed a match race with minimal mistakes, keeping the French boat comfortably at bay through clear comms and calmly executed manoeuvres. For much of the race the French lagged by around 13 seconds, but the Swiss extended that lead in the final leg, crossing the finish line 36 seconds ahead. Tomorrow Alinghi Red Bull Racing will again compete in the first match race of the day, opposite NYYC American Magic.

Bryan Mettraux, Trimmer/Controller: “The goal is to treat a day like this as if it's just another training day. It's the best way to keep doing things as we did in the past. It was a beautiful day on the water, with really nice conditions. We had a great match against the French but we're still improving our way of sailing the boat, continuing to understand how it works.

We know that there are a lot of people working hard to give us the chance to sail these boats and it's great to see them all here when we dock out. The energy and the atmosphere was amazing.”

Théry Schir, Cyclor: “Today was my first competition since last racing in Tokyo. I’m really happy with the result today, because it's the first official race we’ve done and it’s the first win. It felt amazing to be on the start line and feel the pressure again. We still have a long way to go, so we have to stay calm, but it's a positive thing to go into tomorrow with the mindset of knowing we're able to do it. We are so pumped for what’s to come!”

Rodney Ardern, Sailing Team Manager: “The guys identified that they had the start under control and then executed their pre-race plan pretty well. They sailed the boat fast with good communication around the course and managed to extend their lead, so it was a good day.

I think everyone's happy to get off on the right foot. We've got to meet all these challengers a few more times, so it's early days, of course, but we got a little bit of a gauge. We can see that we make mistakes, and everyone else is making mistakes, so we need to minimise those.”