Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Selection Series – Day 4 completes first round robin series

The Louis Vuitton Cup – Challenger Selection Series enters its fourth scheduled race day in Barcelona.

Four races are scheduled to complete this first series of round robins for the five challengers and the non-scoring defender. To date the weather has been a major factor in the event and that will continue today with the early afternoon wind is expected to be East-North East around 6 to 10 knots.

It is forecast to trend right into a more East-South-East and the sea state expected around 0.5 meter. This is similar to the last couple of days and likely to produce similar trying conditions for the teams.

The AC75s finds it difficult to remain in foiling mode at the lower, 6 knot, end of the wind range, particularly when tacking and gybing or when they encounter disturbed air from another competitor.

While covering and positioning to project disturbed air onto an opponent is normal racing practice, the enhanced effect due to the requirement to be able to foil to achieve any useful progress, rather calls into question the point of using foiling designs in conditions where they cannot funtion.

It also makes the conditions that the races are held in critical to the overall validity of the results.

This performance factor is highlighted when the wind strength variation across the course rolls the dice, and we see displacement mode boats being chased down by foiling opponents.

The racing schedule for Sunday 1 Sep:

Race 12 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing SUI 0 pt v Emirates Team New Zealand 0 pt (non-scoring)

Race 13 – INEOS Britannia GBR – 1 pt v Orient Express Racing FRA – 0 pt

Race 14 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing SUI- 0 pt v Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli ITA – 1 pt

Race 15 – NYYC American Magic 0 pt v Emirates Team New Zealand 0 pt (non-scoring)

The second series of round robins will commence on Tuesday 3 September.

Racing starts daily at 13:00hrs UK (14.00 CET) and will be screened live here on the America’s Cup YouTube channel.

Latest Race News Updates . . .

Race 12 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing SUI v Emirates Team New Zealand (non-scoring)
Alinghi disqualified. They were late to return to the race course after fixing a mast/sail problem – more than 100 meteres outside the boundry. The teams did a short sail anyway !

Race 13 – INEOS Britannia GBR v Orient Express Racing FRA
Ineos over start early and have to drop 75m behind Orient. French lead at gate 1 by 13 sec, Brits catch and 3 sec lead at gate 2. French take back lead and on cross Brits get a penalty. French lead by 20 sec at gate 3 and stretch to 200+m and lead by 12 sec at gate 4. Brits catch upwind and at cross French tack away and Brits lead at gate 5 by 11 sec and finished with 16 sec Win.

Race 14 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing SUI v Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli ITA
At start Alinghi led at windward end and at cross Luna Rossa lead, and at gate 1 have 4 sec lead. Gate 2 lead is 11 sec and stretch to 400m. Gate 3 Luna Rossa lead is 28 sec and they stretch to 500m, but Swiss close to 200m at gate 4 where Luna have 21 sec lead. Gate 5 lead is 16 sec and Luna stretch it to 400m. At finish Luna Rossa lead by 26 sec for the Win over Alinghi Red Bull.

Race 15 – NYYC American Magic v Emirates Team New Zealand (non-scoring)
American Magic led to the LH side and Emirates to the RH side, ETNZ lead, then American Magic sailed through them to lead at gate 1 by 10 sec and gate 2 by 9 sec and at gate 3 by 5 sec. ETNZ then took 8 sec lead at gate 4 stretched it to 16 sec at gate 5 and at the Finish took the Win by 29 sec over American Magic.