AC37 Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta – Day 2 Racing

Day 2 of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta . . . The first event in the 37th edition of America’s Cup which is taking place between 22-25 August off Barcelona.

The Brits are looking surprisingly vulnerable after another below par performance.

INEOS Britannia raced once, beaten easily by ETNZ after they fell off the foils in the start process and could only follow ETNZ round the course.

Ben Ainslie said: “it was a shame because it’s over at the start. We made a mess of the execution on the double tack, they did a really nice job of getting inside us to force us off the foil.”

They have two races Saturday – against the Swiss and the Italians – and failure again will really raise some difficult questions.

Ainslie has commented of ‘finding more power’ which is bad enough at this stage (again), but first they have to start to look like they are contenders.

After another four races on day 2, the race winners were Emirates Team New Zealand x 2, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and NYYC American Magic USA.

In the final race of the day, Race 8 – Orient Express Racing FRA retired before start due to technical problem. Emirates Team New Zealand started to claim the points.

ETNZ are sitting comfortably on top of the leaderboard with three wins from three races and so far no one has worried them.

With eight races done there has yet to be any boat on boat action after the start sequence, once away it tends to be follow-the-leader stuff.

Perhaps they could throw in a fleet race to show us what we are missing?

Racing continues Saturday, same place, same time.

Racing starts at 13:00 UK (14.00 CET) every day – 22 to 25 August – and will be screened free-to-air on the America’s Cup YouTube channel and Facebook Page.

Race briefings:

Race 8 – Orient Express Racing FRA retires before start due to technical problem

Race 8, Orient Express Racing FRA v Emirates Team New Zealand

Race 7 – Luna Rossa finish with 40sec and 600 metre advantage over American Magic.

Race 7 – Luna Rossa hold their lead round the course at 17 to 21 secs around 300 metres.

Race 7 – Great start by Luna Rossa who push American Magic away from the start, forcing them to restart. Luna Rossa lead by 17sec at gate 1.

Race 7, NYYC American Magic USA v Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli ITA.

Race 6 – ETNZ takes an easy 52 sec win over Ineos Britannia. Total race time 23min 8sec.

Race 6 – Ineos hold the gap behind ETNZ at gate 2, but it stretches to 56 secs at gate 3 and 1000+ metres.

Race 6 – ETNZ lead by 38 secs at gate 1 and 700 metre. This is another follow-the-leader race after the Brit error at the start.

Race 6 – ETNZ jump to 400 metre lead with Ineos off the foils at the start.

Race 6 – INEOS Britannia GBR v Emirates Team New Zealand

Race 5 American Magic wins by 56 sec around 900 metres over Swiss Alinghi, in what was a follow-the-leader race from the excellent USA start.

Race 5 – American Magic lead at start, Alinghi forced to tack away. Magic lead by 12sec at gate 1. Speeds are 40+ knots. Magic lead is 250 metres. At 3rd mark Magic lead stretches to 31 secs. American Magic lead is 46 secs at gate 5.

Race 5 – Alinghi Red Bull Racing SUI v NYYC American Magic USA