Louis Vuitton Challenger Series – A day of upsets, runaway victories and what might have been

The re-scheduled race day 6 managed five match-races with varying success, the wind going lighter and more patchy than forecast, producing some wildly unpredictable races.

Two races involved Emirates Team New Zealand and featured a lot of stop-start situations, but were non-scoring so did not effect the challenger leaderboard.

The first race of the day was INEOS Britannia versus NYYC American Magic and was one of the highlight matches of the day.

Starting with Britannia recovering from a touch down to get a decent start, ducking American Magic but then picking up a boundary penalty – what is it with the Brits and boundary penalties?

They recover again, only for USA to tack on them and wash them off their foils again.

American Magic led at gate 1 by 20sec, then 29sec at gate 2. At the second windward mark, Britannia nailed the port tack layline and cut the deficit to 16sec, and then reduces the USA lead to just 9sec at gate 4.

At gate 5 things got really interesting, they rounded opposite marks and the USA went too high on the exit of the bear-away and came off the foils, while GBR stretched away to a lead of 175m, and looking like a winner.

USA chased them down, and it all came down to the final choice at the final cross – the British took the left – and the final gybe.

There was a little wobble on Britannia’s maneuver, and the USA found a 3-4 knot puff of extra wind on the right-hand side. The combination was enough to take the Americans over the line for a 13sec win.

Another ‘what might have been’ moment for Ineos Britannia. Hopefully these incidents are clearing the decks for the Semi-Finals.

Next were Orient Express Racing versus Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and no matter what the French hoped for, they had a 75m boundary penalty and were off the foils before the start.

Italy lead away at the start and although FRA cut the lead, ITA lead by 10 sec at gate 1. Luna Rossa maintained their lead and increased at each mark stretching to 37sec at gate 5.

The Italians just needed to gybe-cover from afar, clicking into pressure to the left boundary and coming in to the Finish on the port layline, to win by an impressive one minute and two seconds.

The third Challenger match-race was between Alinghi Red Bull Racing and NYYC American Magic.

This was critical for the Swiss and facing the USA after their tight win over the Brits looked a tough call.

But this was a very different affair. The Swiss start ahead after USA pickup a pre-start 75 metre penalty putting them on the backfoot, with SUI keeping their lead and rounding gate 1 with a 10sec advantage.

They then stretch to 200+m and lead by 14sec at gate 2 and keep a tight cover on USA to lead by 23sec at gate 3. This is looking like a major upset.

USA then have a touch down, from what seems to be a slow sail trim problem, and are posting high heart rates for the recumbent cyclors. The SUI meanwhile stretch to 500m by gate 4 with a 42sec lead. With the wind again going light staying on the foils is key, and this they do in style rounding with a 60sec lead.

Making no mistakes, Alinghi Red Bull Racing bring it home with a winning margin of 38 seconds. A sensational result for the Swiss – that could well secure them a semi-final berth in the Louis Vuitton Cup.

In the INEOS Britannia versus Emirates Team New Zealand, despite a good start for Britannia, the Kiwis took the lead after tacking on GBR, who came off the foils.

NZL lead by 24sec at gate 1 and after GBR came off foils again at Gate 4, NZL were away . . . By gate 5 NZL lead by 2min 13 sec and finished with a 3min 02sec (1400 metre) non-scoring win over Ineos Britannia.

The final race of the day was Orient Express Racing versus Emirates Team New Zealand.

The French were off the foils at the start and ETNZ stretch to 600m before they also come off the foils. FRA by then was back on foils and able to catch and overtake NZL to build 70m lead.

At gate 1 FRA rounded with a lead of 21sec., but then came off the foils at gate 2 while rounding with a 14sec lead.

ETNZ was able to foil round them and away and eventually adding another non-scoring Win of 3400 metres.