Cup Spy: Plenty of surprises on opening day of Louis Vuitton Cup
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 29 Aug 2024 09:22 BST
29 August 2024
Luna Rossa and Emirates Team NZ go head to head - Louis Vuitton Cup - Day 1 - Barcelona - August 29, 2024 © Ian Roman / America's Cup
A week is a long time in politics, and even longer in the arcane world of the America's Cup.
The opening day of the Louis Vuitton Cup produced plenty of surprises, and a big lift in the standard of racing and reliability from what was seen a week ago.
Sailed in a light onshore breeze that never made it into double digits, the first start was delayed several times waiting for the breeze to reach the required minimum.
After 30 minutes delay the first of 30 races in the Round Robin Phase of the Louis Vuitton Cup got underway.
Widely expected to be the team eliminated after this phase of the competition, the French team Orient Express Racing led from start to finish in the opening match beating off the more fancied Alinghi Red Bull Racing, stretching out to lead by 48 seconds around the final mark, but had that chopped back to half that amount by the finish. But on the water that was still a hefty 550 metres.
There was more pressure in the breeze at the top of the easterly oriented course, which had its start line close to the shoreline off Port Vell - where the teams are based.
It also seemed that the left hand side of the course was favoured - and that is where the French headed, clocking up a 155metre lead at the first mark - which in the context of what happened later in the day was not that substantial, and the French did well to defend it.
They were not so adept in the final race of the day when the French came up against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. The Italians, had been beaten earlier in the day by Emirates Team New Zealand, and were probably out to make a point. They showed no mercy to the French bailing them up into the left hand corner and then tacked away to enjoy a clear and increasing breeze as they sailed quickly established a lead of of 300 metres on the water, and 27 secs around Mark 1.
But it wasn't all smooth sailing for the Italians, who had their rudder wash out in spectacular fashion on Leg 4 of their match against Orient Express. The aerating rudder foil threw up powerboat like wash mid-gybe, and the two helmsmen temporarily lost control of the rudder. "I felt it go and handed it over to Checho" quipped starboard co-helmsman Jimmy Spithill. Francesco Bruni regained control without the aerobatics seen from Alinghi Red Bull Racing after a similar rudder issue.
In the second race of the day, Emirates Team New Zealand trailed Luna Rossa for two legs of the six leg course, before having a close cross with the Italians midway up on the right hand side of the course. The Kiwis threw in a nifty tack under the Italians as both AC75s tacked simultaneously. The Italians, which are believed to have fitted a slightly smaller rudder, drifted sideways slightly after the rudder aerated slightly, as the New Zealanders squeezed up on a higher sailing angle.
The Italians fell into the Kiwis sail turbulence and had no option but to play follow the leader around Mark 3, rounding only 6 seconds astern. That margin increased to
just over 20 seconds at the next two marks, but faded to 12 seconds or 200 metres at the finish.
In the light 7-8kts it was surprising to see the AC75s hitting 36-38kts downwind - five times windspeed.
One of the questions to be answered today was whether the AC75s would suffer the foiling lapses that punctuated the racing in the 2021 America's Cup in Auckland, as the raceboats wallowed in displacement mode after running into holes in a light breeze.
American Magic were the only team to suffer this fate, and dropped off their foils before the start of the third race of the day, against INEOS Britannia, who in contrast to their foiling problems in Auckland three years ago, looked to be untroubled in the light winds.
American passed to windward of the line, eventually got foiling over in the left corner of the course, and then returned to restart and resolve a penalty, and started 700 metres behind the Brits who were flying up the first leg at over 30kts. And were untroubled until they got onto the final leg, when the US team cut their lead from 48secs to 24 secs, after sailing the last half of the leg at a substantially faster VMG than the Brits.
Emirates had the misfortune to drop their AC75 during the haulout process after racing.
For updates on the story click here
Full race video
Race summaries and Margins
12:12hrs UTC: Wind is too light to start - is being pushed back a minute at a time. Wind hard to read but is about 6kts in start area.
Race 1: Orient Express vs Alinghi Red Bull Racing
12:46hrs UTC: Race 1 starts - split tack start FRA first across at port end. Lead Alinghi by 140metres in first 25% of Leg 1.
Mark 1: 3m 55sec FRA leads by 27 secs
Mark 2: 7m 50secs FRA leads by 13 secs
Mark 3: 12m 25secs FRA leads by 46 secs or 546metres - went to the left corner got more pressure - boats doing 37kts downwind in 7kts of windspeed
Mark 4: 16m 15secs FRA leads by 33 secs. Lead varying on Leg 5 to 375 metres at the top.
Mark 5: 20m 55sec FRA lead by 48secs. Both sailing at 31.8kts margin on Leg 6 is at 548 metres
Mark 6: 24m 55sec FRA lead by 24secs and win Race 1 - same as France did in Race 1 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Bermuda over Artemis Racing (SWE)
Race 2 Luna Rossa vs Emirates Team NZ
1323hrs UTC Race 2 starts ITA leads across the start line going for port end led by 17 metres just after start. Boats take opposite sides halfway up course Luna Rossa gone right, Kiwis left.
Mark 1: 3m 19secs ITA leads by 11 secs.
Mark 2: 6m 23 secs ITA leads by 5secs. Boats split with ETNZ going left. ITA tacks to cover when they come back lead 68 metres. ITA goes back to the right. Covers again on the cross margin 61 metres. ETNZ tried to live on Luna Rossa's quarter, and when they tack back ETNZ squeezes Luna Rossa out. Kiwis better in high mode but ITA probably affected.
Mark 3: 10m 26sec NZL leads by 6 secs. ETNZ extends led out to 192 metres downwind. Kiwis coming across very fast to Mark 4. Luna Rossa has to put in slow gybe before mark approach.
Mark 4: 13m 39sec NZL leads by 22 secs. Lead out to 250 metres. Boats split tacks ETNZ to left corner, Luna Rossa to right. 250 metres lead for NZL at Mark 5.
Mark 5: 17m 52sec NZL leads by 21sec. Boats sailing at 40 to 42kts on Leg 6.
Finish: 21m 7sec NZL leads by 12 sec.
After the race both crews said they were a little over-range, meaning they had an oversize jib. Italy lost grip in with their rudder in the crucial slow tack when ETNZ took the lead, with the Italians sliding sideways into the Kiwis and their turbulence. ETNZ also spotted a helicopter puff and was able to use that, while the Italians missed it.
Race 3: INEOS Britannia vs American Magic
USA came off their foils 1 minute before the start and was unable to recover before the start. Sailed over start line to left and got foiling, but was penalised. Brits stayed on foils and led off start by 700metres. Light winds at top of course. USA has a smaller jib than GBR
Mark 1: 4m 13sec GBR leads by 66secs. Separation out to 900metres on Leg 2.
Mark 2: 8m 8secs GBR leads by 62sec separation down to 600metres at start of Leg 3.
Mark 3: 13m 8secs GBR leads by 59sec. Brits speed drops to 22kts on final approach to Mark 3 by stays foilborne. USA drops to 18kt at the same spot but speed drops to 18kts and they touch briefly but recover. Margin 700 metres on Leg 4.
Mark 4: 16m 53sec GBR leads by 39sec and lead down to 300 metres on Leg 5.
Mark 5: 20m 54sec GBR leads by 41sec. USA sailing with a much faster VMG in the later stages of Leg 6 and cuts Brits lead down to 120metres at finish.
Finish :24m 16sec GBR leads by 14secs at finish for a great recovery.
Race 4: Orient Express (FRA) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA)
Both boats have J1 jibs set.
Even start with Orient Express having a narrow lead of less than 10metres as both head to the left hand boundary. Orient Express gets rolled by Luna Rossa exiting the boundary. The French have no option but to go back and their VMG drops to 10kts for a time - lead stretches to 290 metres.
Mark 1: 3m 43secs ITA leads by 27secs or 380 metres. Spithill asks for helicopter to be removed on Leg 2 "right on our wind".
Mark 2: 7m 10secs ITA leads by 34 secs. Orient Express has a glitch on finals approach to Mark 2, when mainsail did not go through and they sailed for a time with the jib properly set and the mainsail stuck to windward. Lead now 220 metres on Leg 3.
Mark 3: 11m 36 sec ITA leads by 26sec, or 535 metres mid-way down Leg 4. Luna Rossa had another rudder issue losing grip again for a significant period. They got it under control but did not lose much.
Mark 4: 15m 10 sec ITA leads by 56 sec. FRA appeared to get stuck in the left hand corner of the course and came out at a slow angle - accounting for the big increase in margin. margin 500 metres in Leg 5.
Mark 5: 19m 51 sec ITA leads by 51sec or 600 metres.
Finish: 23m 20 sec ITA leads with the margin over Orient Express blowing out to 84secs.
Series format
There are two phases of Round Robin racing, four races are scheduled to be sailed, with six teams competing and two of those will be sailing twice. The day's pairings can read from the graphic below.
Weather Prognosis:
America's Cup Weather Partner PredictWind has provided a dedicated Race Weather Center offering fans access to detailed daily weather breakdowns, live webcams and historical weather data to daily weather breakdowns written by meteorologists.
Forecast Race Day 1: This Thursday 29th, in early afternoon winds from the East should blow around 7-9 knots over the race course. During the afternoon the wind is expected to turn right and settle in a South-East direction with not much change in wind strength. Sea state will be relatively calm with 0.5 meter coming from the East with a 3 second period. The sky will be partly cloudy with temperatures reaching 26°C over the water and 29° over land.
Tomorrow Friday 30th, similar conditions are expected than the previous day. The winds from East/South-East will be light around 5 to 10 knots with calm sea and cloudy sky.
Course Location:
Crew Lists:
Additional Images: