Cup Spy - Day 19 : Louis Vuitton Cup - Finals Day 5 - From Calamity to Comeback
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 1 Oct 15:35 BST
1 October 2024
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - Louis Vuitton Cup - Final - Race Day 5 - October 1, 2024 © Ricardo Pinto / America's Cup
Sail-World's Coverage of Day 19 of the Louis Vuitton Cup - Finals Race Day 5 - October 1, 2024.
The bizarre Final Series of the Louis Vuitton Cup took another twist in Matches 7 and 8, with the breakdown and recovery by the Italian challenger Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
It was the Italian team's third major breakdown and retirement during the regatta. They had a boat system shutdown when competing against Emirates Team New Zealand in their match in the Preliminary Event, a dress rehearsal for the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona. In the Semi-Finals, they sustained significant damage in the main traveller region after a loud crack - usually accompanying a carbon structure fracture - was heard. In today's incident, there did not seem to be any audible cracking sound, giving rise to hopes that the damage was only to the fairings. Speaking after the race, skipper Jimmy Spithill put the cause of the nosedive down to the failure of a one-design system - a common complaint.
The sailing geniuses on Inside Tack - the consistently excellent and self-deprecating debrief of the day's racing by INEOS Britannia - claimed that today's race set a new speed record for an America's Cup yacht of 55.5kts by their AC75. This is correct and certainly beats the 2021 America's Cup mark of 53.31kts by American Magic in the Semi-Finals of the Prada Cup set moments before the US team's rudder ventilated—triggering an awesome broach.
The Brits also beat the more recent mark set by Luna Rossa In Sunday's Race 4 of 55.2kts.
While there were several delays to the start of Race 8 due to the wind exceeding the 21kt maximum, the SSW breeze did drop sufficiently for a five-minute period for Principal Race Officer Melanie Roberts to declare the race to be "live."But according to the British team, soon after her declaration, the breeze increased again, and most of Race 8 was sailed in winds of 24kts.
Today's drama left the leaderboard tied at four wins each in the best-of-13 Final. Both teams were hoping to come away with two wins from today's racing, which would have set them up to go on and win the Final. INEOS Britannia has been gifted two wins in this Final series by the Italians. They came off their foils in yesterday's first race after they crossed through the Brits rig turbulence, giving Ben Ainslie a nice lead off the start.
Significantly, right through this Final series, there has not been one lead change after rounding the first mark - meaning the race outcome is decided in the prestart and opening stanzas of the first upwind leg.
Somewhat tongue in cheek, Luna Rossa skipper Jimmy Spithill told America's Cup Media's Shirley Robertson that he was disappointed that the Brits hadn't thanked the Italians for the gifted races.
He went on to say, "My feeling is the momentum is coming our way. Each time we've had to deal with one of these events, the team's just become stronger. And then we have a "Bounce-Back race. "I thought we had the best one yet today [Race 8]. I think the guys will get the boat race ready tomorrow, and we will carry this momentum. I think we'll have a good battle tomorrow.
Asked whether he was concerned about the Italian's string of reliability issues, Spithill said he was not concerned at all. "We're pushing the boats to the limit in these top-end conditions. No team is immune from having to face issues. Everyone's going to face them. And this won't be the last issue, I believe, in the fleet leading all the way to the end of the Cup.
"One thing you have to be good at is dealing with them. And we have shown time and time again we can do that."
INEOS Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie was philosophical about the start box positioning error that saw the British team slide outside the boundary, picking up a 75-metre penalty and effectively gifting a race to the Italians.
"We had an issue in the prestart in the second race, which put us massively out of position and on the back foot," Ainslie told Shirley Robertson. "They sailed a great race. We pushed hard and kept it close but couldn't find enough to get past."
"In any race, of course, you want to try and win it, and both teams have had their fair share of issues and lost races - either through gear failure or mistakes. Similarly, I think both teams have sailed exceptionally well at times. That's what you expect in top-end sports, where the differences in performance are tiny. Of course, we're running out of races, so it's getting tighter and tighter, and it may well go all the way."
Perhaps the most surprising comment of the day came from INEOS Britannia foil designer Nat Shaver, who is on his fifth America's Cup campaign and third team.
"It's no secret that the conditions we've had recently are not the average conditions for Barcelona. So we've done quite a bit of work to understand how the foils work in what's a lot more breeze than all the teams designed their foils for. It's been quite good to see that we have decent performance in the conditions that we didn't design for at all."
Two races will be held on Wednesday. The forecast is for the breeze to shift to the East-Southeast and lighten to 10-12kts, with a one-metre seaway on the same axis as the wind.
Race Summaries:
Final - Match 7: INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port Startbox entry) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Starboard Startbox Entry) Start 1410hrs CET 1210hrs UTC
Mark 1: 03m 29secs GBR led ITA by a margin of 1sec ITA retired with aerodynamic fairing damage after nosediving at 44kts, just 10secs after rounding Mark 1.
Just after rounding Mark 1, Luna Rossa suffered a significant structural issue around the jib traveller, lifting deck fairings. The crew stopped racing, but remained in the course to force the British to keep racing. The incident occurred when Luna Rossa nosedived suddenly soon after rounding the first mark. It appeared to be triggered by a rudder issue, or the boat being overpowered during a realatively low speed bear away. The silver AC75 drove its bow well into the water, came to a stop when sailing at 44kts, before lifting out and sitting on its stern section, and then coming to a stop.
Viewed in slow motion Luna Rossa came into the bearway with the hull level, and appeared to be accelerating normally, however the boat tripped over the foils, driving the bow well into the water. It was ploughing through the water, at a constant angle, before the buoyancy in the bow lifted the boat back onto the level, and it was brought to a stop.
The incident was similar to a nosedive performed by American Magic on June 6 nosedive performed by American Magic on June 6. In that incident a large piece of fairing cover broke free.
To view a replay of the nosedive by Luna Rossa click here
During today's incident several fairing panels that cover the trench for the jib traveller broke loose. The damage was not as severe as Emirates Team New Zealand suffered in the nosedive and capsize in the 2017 America's Cup in Bermuda, when carbon fairing was strewn over the Great Sound.
The early prognosis, which proved to be accurate, is that the nosedive has just lifted the deck fairings and that there is no structural damage below.
Italy retired and the race was awarded to INEOS Britannia.
A few minutes later, the Italians were hopeful of being able to sail in Race 8. Co-helmsman Francesco Bruni who was steering at the time of the incident said it was not a rudder issue - just a balance between sails and foils which caused the boat to trip.
After shore crew piled on board the aerodynamic fairing was temporarily repaired, and is was taken for a test sail, before starting in in Race 8, of which the start was delayed after the 21kt wind limit was exceeded several times.
Final - Match 8: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Port Startbox Entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard Startbox entry) Start 1515hrs CET 1315hrs UTC
The start was delayed several times waiting for the wind limit to drop below the 21kt maximum.
INEOS Britannia made Luna Rossa's life a lot easier by sliding over the port boundary while turning back in the pre-start.
That meant the Brits had to drop back to 75 metres behind, which the Italians opened up to 136metres midway up Leg 1.
Mark 1: 03m 23secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 12secs
Mark 2: 06m 13secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 6secs, after ITA dropped some speed in the turn.
Mark 3: 10m 09secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 7secs
Mark 4: 13m 03secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 7secs. ITA slid in the rounding losing distance. Both boats took opposite side of the course on their way uphill. ITA took the favoured starboard boundary.
Mark 5: 17m 10secs ITA leg GBR by a margin of 9secs
Mark 6: 19m 50secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 12secs
Mark 7: 23m 43secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 16secs or 355 metres.
Finish: 26m 32secs ITA led GBR by a margin of 16secs or 343 metres. Wind gusting to 24kts on the final downhill run.
Key Statistics Finals Match 8:
- Race Winner: INEOS Britannia; Time: 26m 32sec; Margin: 16secs; Distance: 343metres;
- Top Speed: 55.1kt (ITA) 55.5kt (GBR); Average: 41.4kts (ITA) 42.34kts (GBR);
- Upwind Speed: 37.7kt (ITA) 38.1kt (GBR); Downwind speed: 44.7kt (ITA) 45.5kt (GBR)
- Average VMG: 26.1kts (ITA) 26.3kts (GBR)
- Distance sailed: 33,943mtrs (ITA) 35,007mtrs (GBR)
- Tacks: 16 (ITA) 17 (GBR); Gybes 8 (ITA) 8 (GBR); Total Tacks/Gybes 24 (ITA) 25 (GBR)
Full length replay of Races 7 and 8 and Pre and Post-race:
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.
Provisional Forecast Race Day 19:
Tuesday October 1, 2024
Light winds in the morning, then a South-Westerly wind will establish by mid-day. It will quickly build up and we expect 14 to 18 knots for the racing. The wind direction will be pretty locked at 220 degrees and gusts could go up to 23 knots.
Due to the wind, waves will build in the afternoon up to one meter from the South-West at a short 3-second period.
The clear sky in the morning will be cloudy in the afternoon and temperatures will reach 25 degreesC.
Wednesday October 2, 2024
The wind pattern will change on Wednesday. The forecast is for winds from the East-South-East blowing 8 to 12 knots.
The sea state of about 1 meter will come from the East-South-East at a 4-second period.
The sky will remain cloudy and temperatures will be a few degrees colder. Rain is expected late in the day and at night.
By Arnaud Monges, former America's Cup Team Meteorologist reporting for Predictwind
Course Location:
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.
Inside tack - INEOS Britannia
Crew Lists
Additional Photos: