Cup Spy - Day 18 : Louis Vuitton Cup - Finals Day 4 - Another 50kt arm wrestle
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 30 Sep 15:20 BST
1 October 2024
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs. INEOS Britannia on Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race Day 4 - September 30, 2024 © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup
Day 18 of the Louis Vuitton Cup - September 30, 2024 - Finals Day 4
Commentary: Another day, another 50kt arm wrestle
Something new happened today in the Finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup - the racing started on time.
Barcelona turned on a beautiful breeze - a little west of south and a few knots less than yesterday.
It was a great day to push the AC75s hard - both teams topped 50kts in both races.
The statistics show both teams turning in the same or very similar average speeds and VMG's.
Not unexpectedly, with those numbers, today, INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli emerged with one win each. However putting it another way - Luna Rossa lost the first race and won the second.
A misjudgment in the prestart of the first race of the day - just over 30 seconds before the start - Italian helmsman Jimmy Spithill decided to bail out of a position on the leeward quarter of INEOS Britannia. Luna Rossa hit the Brits' rig turbulence on the way through, completely backing the jib and washing out the port foil in the process.
"We loaded the left foil too much, and it is a mistake for which we paid dearly," explained co-helmsman Francesco Bruni, speaking in Italian after the race.
Virtual Eye shows the Italian's speed dropping from 37kts down to 15kts in just 8 secs - while Ben Ainslie scooted away at 34kts to be 100 metres ahead as the Brits crossed the starting line. Spithill and friends hit the accelerator after the incident hitting 42kts in their run to the line, but with that sort of start and into a fresh breeze with flat seas the race was the Brits to lose.
INEOS did have one slip around Mark 6, when they, too, washed out their foils, sliding wide on the corner and almost letting Luna Rossa back in the race. Their lead dropped to just 48 metres or less than a couple of boat lengths, but they stayed ahead, and Italians sniffed their exhaust for a few metres before tacking for the favoured starboard boundary off the beach. From there, the Brits just shut the race down and made it impossible to pass, easing away from a 12-second win.
Spithill made amends in Race 6. He aced the start, getting high on the British - both were early - and both dropped their bows in the final seconds to hit the line at 39kts - with Luna Rossa sitting to windward and initially with half a boat length up on the Brits, who were able to break through on the drag to the port boundary.
The Italians were the first to tack, and Francesco Bruni, the portside helmsman, worked some magic to quickly open up a lead of a boatlength as they sailed to the beach. Then it was Spithill's turn when they tacked, heading for Mark 1. He drove the Brits into a position where they could only follow the Italians to the mark. They cracked 50kts in the rounding - and then it was another procession around the course. The Italians won by 17secs or 374 metres and squared the series.
From here, the Final is for the Italians to lose. The two AC75s are reasonably closely matched.
But the game has changed since the Round Robins and the Semi-Finals. The first boat to the first mark in the five races sailed to date has gone on to win the race. That is almost a tradition in the Cup.
Getting your bow ahead at Mark 1 is usually achieved by winning the start and avoiding penalties. This regatta looks like it will another decided by the Spithill factor, where the two-time America's Cup winner, who runs on self-confidence, gets the upper hand at the start, and it is usually race over.
The Italians went through a baptism of fire in 2021 when they dragged the Kiwis out to 3-3 before losing a couple of crucial races. At the post-race media conferences, Francesco Bruni, or Checco as he prefers to be known, made some interesting references to their frustrating battles with the Kiwi team. "It's like trying to drown a fish... underwater", he opined after one frustrating race. Later, he spoke of watching the home team always get a "Kiwi puff" after they were on Match Point and getting some private flicks of the Auckland breeze. There won't be any Kiwi puffs in Barcelona.
Another key lesson for the Italians in Auckland was learning not to get ahead of themselves and dreaming of the end prize. As Luna Rossa team boss, a mid-bowman in that 2000 Louis Vuitton Cup, said of the America's Cup, "it is my greatest dream and worst nightmare."
In this series, the Italians have shown the mental toughness to bounce back twice from real adversity. As Francesco Bruni remarked today in his Italian interview about their bounceback in Race 6, "I am confident because the boat seems to be going well. The team is strong. But we must believe in ourselves."
Top Olympic coach Hamish Willcox, who was with the Italian team in 2000 in Auckland, expects the arm-wrestle to continue.
"I think we're going to be trading blows to the end," he said after today's racing. "I think it's going to go to the wire for sure. It will be interesting watching both teams progress, and how they're going to handle it - on our side, we're just super excited about it," he added.
Like Max Sirena, Hamish Willcox was also with the Italina team in their first Louis Vuitton Cup in 2000.
"It feels a lot like when I was involved in Luna Rosa in Auckland," Willcox recalled. "We had a match with [Paul] Cayard and went to six-all, then we won 7-6 in the Louis Vuitton Final. Now, it feels a lot like that. I think in the end, the better team overall will prevail - it'll just be a whole lot of little details that come together."
Formerly one of the Team New Zealand coaching team, Willcox had a few observations for his old team out testing and training, watching the Challengers race out the Louis Vuitton Cup Final.
"I think they'd be worried," he remarked. "The learnings we get in combat are just so important, and so impossible to simulate. The team which wins this Louis Vuitton Final is going to be a great challenge."
Replay video coverage
You can replay today's racing Live here - more video will be added when it comes to hand:
Tuesday's Schedule and Weather
Racing will continue tomorrow, Tuesday, when Match 7 (Scheduled start - 1410hrs CET or 1210hrs UTC) and Match 8 (Scheduled start - 1515hrs CET or 1315hrs UTC) will be sailed in the 13 race series.
The initial forecast from Predictwind is for South-Westerlies in the afternoon of around 10 to 15 knots.
Race Summaries - Finals Matches 5 and 6:
Final - Match 5: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Port Startbox Entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard Startbox entry)
Racing started on time in winds of 19kts. Luna Rossa got too high on their leeward foil 30secs before the start and washed out. They were able to get foiling, but conceded the lead to GBR, who had a 104 metre lead as they headed up the first leg.
The problem was created when ITA elected to cross GBR's stern from leeward to windward. As they passed through the rig turbulence of GBR, ITA's jib went aback and the loss of power triggered the washout. Aftre the start, both headed for the starboard boundary - on the Beach. The lead was reduced to 80 metres
Mark 1: 03m 34secs GBR led ITA by a margin of 5secs
Mark 2: 06m 26secs GBR led ITA by a margin of 6 secs. ITA behind by 130metres on Leg 3 - but pulled back to 60 metres approaching Mark 3
Mark 3: 10m 21secs GBR led ITA by 6secs or 150metres on the water. ITA happy to sit on GBR's windward quarter. Luna Rossa has bigger jib #4 with GBR using a #5.
Mark 4: 13m 13secs GBR led ITA by 11secs margin changing on Leg 5 to 60-100metres .
Mark 5: 17m 08secs GBR led ITA by 5secs.
Mark 6: 20m 03secs GBR led ITA by 9secs. Brits lost control on mark rounding washing out and sliding sideways. Margin down to 75metres. Brits with tight cover on ITA. Both tacking off starboard boundary. Brits keeping ITA in turbulence.
Mark 7: 24m 13secs GBR led ITA by 8secs or 170 metres. Ainslie constantly talking on INEOS Britannia. Margin out to 175metres.
Finish: 27m 06secs GBR led ITA by 12secs.
Points: INEOS Britannia is 3-2 in the best of 13 Final.
Key Statistics Finals Match 5:
- Race Winner: INEOS Britannia; Time: 27m 06sec; Margin: 12secs; Distance: 220metres;
- Top Speed: 51.9kt (ITA) 51.6kt (GBR); Average: 40.7kt (ITA) 41.2kts (GBR);
- Upwind Speed: 37.7kt (ITA) 38.1kt (GBR); Downwind speed: 44.7kt (ITA) 45.5kt (GBR)
- Average VMG: 25.0kts (ITA) 25.0kts (GBR)
- Distance sailed: 34,301mtrs (ITA) 34,464mtrs (GBR)
- Tacks: 20 (ITA) 22 (GBR); Gybes 14 (ITA) 12 (GBR); Total Tacks/Gybes 34 (ITA) 34 (GBR)
Final - Match 6 : INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port Startbox entry) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Starboard Startbox Entry)
ITA coming in to windward of GBR at start - even start - both staying on Starboard going for the Port layline.
ITA comes off the starboard boundary with ITA a boatlength (25m) ahead
Mark 1: 03m 35secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 4secs - stretched out to 92metres on Leg 2. Both have #5 jibs.
Mark 2: 06m 30secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 6 secs - stretched out to 180metres as they came off the Starboard boundary.
Mark 3: 10m 34secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 12 secs - ITA extended to 300metres downwind on Leg 4.
Mark 4: 13m 32secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 13 secs - ITA margin 250 metres on Leg 5 to windward. ITA only keeping a lose cover on GBR - both sailing in clear air except when GBR crosses behind. ITA trying to set GBR up in their exhaust on final approach to Mark 5.
Mark 5: 17m 26secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 17secs. On the water margin varying between 270 - 315 metres.
Mark 6: 20m 26secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 13secs. Lead extended to 277-300 metres. Brits too far back to be affected by ITA.
Mark 7: 24m 15secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 19secs. Lead now 400 metres on last leg of course shortened to 1.7nm.
Points: INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa are 3-3 in the best of 13 Final.
Key Statistics Finals Race 6:
- Race Winner: Luna Rossa; Time: 26m 56sec; Margin: 17secs; Distance: 374 metres;
- Top Speed: 51.4kt (ITA) 50.3kt (GBR); Average: 40.5kt (ITA) 40.5kts (GBR);
- Upwind Speed: 37.2kt (ITA) 37.4kt (GBR); Downwind speed: 45.0kt (ITA) 44.8kt (GBR)
- Average VMG: 25.1kts (ITA) 24.9kts (GBR)
- Distance sailed: 33,674mtrs (ITA) 34,027mtrs (GBR)
- Tacks: 17 (ITA) 18 (GBR); Gybes 10 (ITA) 10 (GBR); Total Tacks/Gybes 27 (ITA) 28 (GBR)
Pre-Race information
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 18:
Monday 30th Sept
Monday, September 30
In the afternoon, the forecast is for a South-West wind blowing 10 to 15 knots. The wind direction should be steady at 220° and gusts could go up to 20 knots.
Sea state should build up to 0.7 meter from 220° with a short period of 3 seconds.
It will be a sunny day, with temperatures on the rise up to 26°, and feeling like a summer day.
Tuesday October 1:
In the afternoon, we expect South-Westerlies around 10 to 15 knots.
Virtual Eye
After the racing you can replay the key points, or the whole race using Virtual Eye from ARL
You can go directly to the Virtual Eye America's Cup coverage by clicking here and click on "Watch Previous" then select the race you wish to view. Virtual Eye is a 3D viewer so you can zoom in, out, around and up and down just like you could in a helicopter.
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