Cup Spy: Louis Vuitton Cup - Day 3 - Italians impress and Covergate continues unabated
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 31 Aug 19:14 BST
1 September 2024
Emirates Team New Zealand - Louis Vuitton Cup - Day 3 - Barcelona - August 31, 2024 © Ian Roman / America's Cup
An ambitious program of six races was ordered for Day 3 of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was not achieved.
Light easterly breezes prevailed again, testing the crews in a way they had probably not envisaged before the regatta.
Today was all about low speed foiling, which seems to be a ridiculous statement when we saw AC75s on occasions sailing at four and five times the windspeed.
The always impressive Emirates Team New Zealand was back on the water after an amazing hull repair. The Kiwis had an uncontested race after Orient Express sailed off to the side of the course, and again did not compete for reasons which were not disclosed. The French retired and the race was called off on Leg 3.
Of the five races sailed, most were decided by one competitor coming off their foils.
Generally the problem was one of navigation and positioning - with most being found wanting at at the bottom of the course - as we saw yesterday with American Magic - when the crews had to make the decision as to whether they were going to stay foiling or try and get around the mark.
The foiling issue was compounded by the fickle breeze being stronger at the top of the course touching 7-8kts, and 6kts or less at the bottom.
One of the features of foilers is that in a low windspeed they can look very impressive down wind, sailing at high speeds, but as the wind pressure drops, they are forced to sail higher and higher angles, until they are not making any progress to the mark.
The situation has been described as like trying to cut a piece of wood with a blunt saw. On occasions in Bermuda we saw AC50's sailing back and forth, on foils but being unable to head down wind - and eventually the time limit ran out.
The first race of the day was the best, between two teams who competed in the 2021 America's Cup. It was the only one in which there was a lead change - on Leg 3 when Luna Rossa was able to get a flick the right way on a couple of windshifts and turn a 3 second deficit into a 20 second lead at the next mark. The Italians who look the sharpest of the Challengers, scored their third win of the regatta.
Where the Luna Rossa was particularly impressive was their ability to thread the foiling needle downwind - requiring superb coordination between the flight controllers, sail trimmers and helmsmen - with the cyclors providing some impressive grunt to keep the show on the foils.
Their smaller rudder which caused some grief yesterday, might have been their savior today with its lower drag.
The Italian's advantage came from their ability to be thinking several gybes ahead, and ensuring the AC75 was positioned to make a fast final run at the bottom mark, rather than get to within a couple of hundred metres and realise that none of their sailing angles was going to work, and they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
A couple of times we had the unusual sight of teams bailing out of a difficult mark rounding situation by tacking instead of gybing - a desperate move but it avoided another splashdown.
Overnight there will be plenty of analysis underway as teams look at the race data of their boat, and others, to determine their minimum foiling speeds and sailing angles. We hope to have some analysis on this on Sunday or Monday.
Covergate continues.
The team rule experts will also have plenty on their plate overnight.
Covergate, or the Rule Enquiry over the legality of the honeycomb covers used by American Magic to shield their recumbent cyclors, hasn't gone away.
The Rules Committee have now issued three draft interpretations, on the initial count, and appear to be debating the issue with the competitors, via the Official Noticeboard. One of their interpretations runs to three pages, and is now out for the fourth round of proposal from competitors.
Some would say that the lunatics seem to be running the asylum.
In addition, another three variations on the same theme are also in the Rule Enquiries process.
And a second front has been opened by one team who wants to be able to mount a fairing piece on the deck of their AC75.
The situation is now completely out of hand, and should have been shut down before the start of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Surprisingly American Magic seems to want to continue with the risk of getting an adverse decision, and Disqualification which usually follows.
Is the risk really worth the reward?
Of course the other protagonists have nothing to lose, and one would have thought that the New York Yacht Club, of anyone would have learned the lessons of 1983.
Sail-World's Coverage of Day 3 of the Louis Vuitton Cup - August 31, 2024.
Race Summaries:
Race 7: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs American Magic
Luna Rossa enters on time at the port end.
Split tack start with American Magic heading left and leading by 95 metres. USA Tacks to cover ITA and leads by 180metres. Boats split tacks USA continuing to work the left. Both come back to cross. Margin drops to 80 metres as boats separate.
Mark 1: 04m 17sec - USA leads ITA by 2 secs. Split gybes - when they cross ITA has lead of 80metres.. ITA opens out to 100metres, but USA closes and effects a lead change.
Mark 2: 8m 10 sec: USA leads by 3 secs. But ITA plays the shifts and corners and emerges with a 150metre lead.
Mark 3: 12m 14sec: ITA leads USA 20 secs which gets stretched to 200 metres as they head down Leg 4.
Mark 4: 15m 25sec: ITA leads by 20 sec - stretched out to 200 metres on Leg 5. AC75s sailing at 28kts - 30kts upwind. Margin out to 180 metres.
Mark 5: 19m 22sec: ITA leads by 25sec - margin now 200 metres on Leg 6. Extended to 350metres as Luna Rossa takes the right hand side and then gybes for the finish.
Finish: 22m 17sec: ITA wins by 24sec. Bruni puts initial loss onto a bad tack coming off the start line. Both boats do 13 tacks total and 8 gybes for the race.
Race 8: Emirates Team NZ vs Orient Express
Both AC75s in the start box
The race is over before it started with Orient Express failing to start and Emirates Team NZ racing unchallenged.
French last seen off camera sailing at 2kts off the side of the left hand boundary. French given a boundary penalty and for failing to enter correctly.
French retire. Race is stopped on the start of Leg 3 and awarded to Emirates Team NZ.
Race 9: Alinghi Red Bull Racing vs INEOS Britannia
Alinghi Red Bull Racing off their foils gain in the pre-start after hitting turbulence off the British
Alinghi gets back on foils, but 900 metres behind INEOS Britannia
Mark 1: 03m 46sec INEOS Britannia leads Alinghi Red Bull Racing by 132 secs. Margin is 975metres
Mark 2: 07m 41sec INEOS Britannia leads by 114secs or 840 metres on the water. Wind said to be softening, but boats sailing at 28kts - margin extends to 950 metres.
Mark 3: 12m 22sec INEOS Britannia leads by 114secs and now out to over 1100 metres on the water.
Mark 4: 16m 15sec INEOS Britannia leads by 156sec. Brits are struggling to stay on foils as breeze lightens down to 6.5- 7kts. Finish line moved for Leg 6 to be 0.9nm in length
Mark 5: 21m 16sec INEOS Britannia leads by 146secs or 1200metres. But Brits struggle to stay foiling - sailing across the course - low VMG and INEOS comes off foils lead is cut to 400 metres. INEOS Britannia gets back up to 30kts and aims at Finish.
Finish: 26m 5secs INEOS Britannia wins by 84secs
Race 10: Orient Express vs American Magic
Wind very light. Both boats under tow to get foiling.
French enter OK. American Magic tacks around to stay clear of French turbulence. French in American Magic's gas sailing back to start line. Both boats struggling to stay on foils and sail to left of start line and dip and cross. French start 230 metres astern of USA.
Mark 1: 5m 01sec USA leads FRA by 41secs.
Mark 2: 8m 38 sec USA leads by 28sec or 300 metres. But French trim that back to 120metres half way up Leg 3.
Mark 3: 12m 46s USA leads by 13sec margin is 230 metres on the water. Both boats sailing at 33kts downwind on Leg 3.
Mark 4: 15m 51sec USA leads by 38secs after French came in fast and looked to be cut some margin off USA, however they were unable to get down to the mark, and sailed beyond the gate transit and gybed before coming back on port. The French were unable to get down to the right hand gate marker, and came off foils rounding the gate. American Magic cleared out, leaving the French sailing at displacement speed.
Mark 5: 20m 14sec USA rounds Mark 5 and heads off down the final leg which has been shortened to 0.8nm.
Finish: 22m 48sec USA finishes 2770 metres ahead of French who are still on the early stages of Leg 5. French scored as DNF.
Race 11: INEOS Britannia vs Luna Rossa Magic
Start postponed. Luna Rossa use 15min delay card to change jib. Start showing at 16m 18sec.
1501UTC Both boats enter the start box
INEOS Britannia led in with Luna Rossa just on their weather hip. Both crossed in a near even start sailing at 31kts. They split tacks after the start with Luna Rossa going to the right boundary and INEOS the left. They crossed with INEOS ahead and swapped boundaries. Luna Rossa came out with something from the left and the lead changed.
Mark 1: 3m 45sec ITA led GBR by 25 sec or 340 metres on the water.
Mark 2: 7m 25sec ITA rounded, but GBR landed off their foils and had to rebuild speed and then tack around, eventually rounding 2m 3sec after the Italians and 1100metres astern. AC75s sailing in 7-8kts of breeze and 30kts of boatspeed on Leg 3.
Mark 3: 11m 21sec ITA rounded 137sec ahead of GBR or 1375metres on the water.
Mark 4: 14m 42sec ITA rounded 114secs ahead of GBR or 950 metres on the water
Mark 5: 18m 37sec ITA rounded 90 secs ahead of GBR or 950m on the water. GBR sailing at 37kts downwind in 8kts of breeze.
Finish: 21m 28sec ITA wins 84sec ahead of INEOS Britannia.
No more racing today, Race 12 is transferred to Sunday.
Sunday's Program:
Match 12 SUI vs NZL
Match 13 GBR vs FRA
Match 14 SUI vs ITA
Match 15 USA vs NZL
Louis Vuitton Cup Points and Leaderboard after Day 3
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 reread 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 3:
Saturday 31st Aug
For the afternoon, winds around 7 to 10 knots from an Easterly direction should allow to get more racing in. Wind direction will start from the East and may trend to the right into a more South-East direction. Sea state will be relatively calm with waves around half a meter coming from the South-East direction 130° with a 3 to 4 second’s period. It will be partly cloudy with warm temperatures like the previous day.
Sunday 1st Sept
Forecast is a bit uncertain at the moment with possible rain around Barcelona at some point during the day. The afternoon should see light conditions to be confirmed.
Course Location:
Crew Lists:
Day 3 Videos:
Additional Images: