Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 1
by Mark Jardine 26 Sep 15:42 BST
26 September 2024
What a day to start the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. 20 knots of wind, 25°C, sunshine and a huge swell. These are testing conditions in any yacht, but in an AC75 the sailors had it all on.
All the designers knew that Barcelona should deliver 6 to 10 knots at this time of year, so this was going to push these foiling leviathans to the limit.
To progress to the 37th America's Cup match, a team needs to reach 7 points, and the race length is increased from six to eight legs, or four laps.
Broadcast
- It was good to see wingwash introduced to the graphics, which helps to explain how the disturbed air from the boat ahead slows the opposition.
- The wind speed and direction arrows on the course overlay, which we saw added in the Youth America's Cup, are a great addition.
- The live wind speed was shown more often, which is useful. Personally I'd like it to be shown all the time, but I understand how the figures on screen could start to look like a dashboard.
- The accumulator percentage (pressure vessel for the hydraulic system) and wattage total of the cyclors gave great insight as to what the power people are generating for the team, and how they have to work during the manoeuvres to trim the sails.
Match 1: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs. INEOS Britannia
Luna Rossa entered the start area first from the port end, carrying on through to the right hand side, taking a slow arc round to starboard with both foils down, to set up for their time on distance approach to the start line.
The Italians then proceeded to dominate INEOS Britannia on the approach to the line, judging their pace to perfection and forcing the British team to tack away early.
At the first cross Luna Rossa were over 130 metres in the lead, and chose to sail all the way to the right instead of tacking directly on INEOS Britannia.
The lead at the top mark was 11 seconds, but the British boat briefly touched down on their bear away, allowing the Italian team to stretch out by another 100 metres. Luna Rossa were looking as smooth as their paint job, while INEOS Britannia seemed to be lumbering more.
The top speeds were staggering, with Luna Rossa recording 52.3 knots as they rounded the first top gate.
The lead stayed at 11 seconds at the first leeward gate, but while Luna Rossa's two-boards-down rounding was smooth, INEOS Britannia's rounding and tack resulted in a touchdown, wiping off all the downwind speed and increasing the Italian lead to over 300 metres.
The Italians' only mistake, if you can call it that, was briefly venting the foil on the second downwind leg, but they quickly got it back under control. A 500 metre lead dropped to 300 metres in a few seconds, demonstrating that races can never be counted as won until the finish.
After this point Luna Rossa were untroubled, rounding marks tighter than INEOS Britannia and sailing smoothly and fast, going on to win by 46 seconds
On Luna Rossa's one misstep, Checco Bruni said after the race, "We are fighting a lot with the sliding at times. You fly a little too high and you lose control pretty quickly. It's all about recovering quickly and the boys did very well doing that."
Ben Ainslie said, "We made a bit of a mess of the start, and they just had the legs on us."
On the conditions Ben added, "It's top end for these boats and we're red lining it."
The British team have it all to do now, with the Italians finding an extra gear in conditions that before today was perceived as INEOS Britannia's strong point.
Match 2: INEOS Britannia vs. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli
For the first time, the upper wind limit of 21 knots was passed during the wind reading period, leading to a couple of postponements. This is the very top end for these boats, so the stresses and strains on an AC75 yacht will be massive. Equipment failure, which we've seen in far lighter conditions, becomes an increasing possibility.
The jib choice was down to a J5, which is low profile and very small, and thankfully it is possible to depower an AC75 mainsail due to the twin skins of the sail, so it is still possible to sail these extraordinary boats.
After two delays the race was on. INEOS Britannia entered the start area perfectly with Luna Rossa coming in a little late.
The Italian team once again took a big arc near the boundary, with the British deciding to gybe inside, which proved wise as both teams ended up a couple of seconds late on the line, with INEOS Britannia closer to the pin end.
At the first tack on the boundary Luna Rossa briefly touched down, putting INEOS Britannia into the slimmest of leads at just 5 metres, drag racing across the course on port tack.
The Brits then landed a tack clean on top of Luna Rossa (forcing them to tack back on to port) and pulling out a hundred metre lead, with, crucially, two less manoeuvres into the top gate. Despite that, the lead was only seven seconds.
INEOS Britannia hit top gear downwind, with the concentration absolute, and vocalised by Ben Ainslie's reply to a question about the lay line from Dylan Fletcher: "You call it mate, I'm just locked in."
The lead was extended to 17 seconds at the first leeward gate.
Luna Rossa held on well up the second unwind leg, employing a useful high mode to sail off INEOS Britannia's hip and reducing the deficit back to seven seconds. There was no way to shake the Italian team off the Brits' back.
Downwind Luna Rossa's boat speed was faster, but INEOS Britannia had a slight VMG advantage, using a lower mode to extend their lead to 13 seconds at the second leeward gate.
The lead at the third windward gate was 10 seconds, extending to 15 seconds at the third leeward gate, suggesting that Luna Rossa is quicker upwind while INEOS Britannia has the edge downwind.
At the final windward gate the lead was 17 seconds, and the British team made no mistake on the final downwind leg to extend by a second and level the overall score at one point each.
If this is how it continues then we're in for a treat.