The penultimate day of the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series (CCS) produced some top class match-racing with challengers Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, INEOS Britannia and NYYC American Magic all taking race wins.
In fact Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Britannia took two wins, both by good margins, including being the first Challenger to beat Italy’s Luna Rossa, and goes into the final day with the chance to top the CCS leaderboard.
In their first race INEOS Britannia faced the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
Before the start INEOS Britannia revealed that they had struck a log on the sail out to the race course, and had to get a diver down to check the rudder. Then in the fresh breeze, with an akward sea state runnning they played their ’15-minute delay card’ in order to change their jib down a code to better match the conditions.
At the start, it’s a clean drag race, very even towards the port boundary with Britannia showing her outright speed to claw into a lead to windward. Britannia showing great speed and point in these early stages.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing forced to seek clear air, and Britannia leads at the top gate 1 with a 12 second delta, and look fast and comfortable in these 11-13 knots conditions. Downwind they stretch their lead to 300m and round gate 2 with a 21sec lead.
Back upwind at 35 knots Britannia stretches stretch their lead to round gate 3 with 28sec advantage and fly downwind hitting speeds of 43 knots and look super-solid through the gybes. Dylan Fletcher and Ben Ainslie picking the pressure and waves beautifully and at the final leeward gate 4, the delta is out to 39 seconds.
Only a mistake can rob them of a certain victory, but the British extend again and after again nailing the starboard layline, with an unassailable lead of 45 seconds.
Zero mistakes from Britannia, they powered down the final run to record a morale-boosting win that stopped the clock with a 53 second delta. Impressive sailing, almost certainly the best they have sailed in this regatta.
If the smooth win over the Swiss was not enough, even better was to come with INEOS Britannia facing the unbeaten Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in their second race of the day.
A tight start with Britannia just gaining the advantage and then showing good speed to the boundary.
The usual high-mode on Luna Rossa isn’t working against Britannia and the British hold a 100m lead up this first beat. A sync tack on the right boundary gives all the advantage to Britannia and they head for the port layline to round the first windward gate 1 with an 8 second advantage.
Luna Rossa has a huge skid on their rounding but split the tactics, taking the right boundary initially before gybing and re-engaging mid-course. Britannia holds the gybe cover to leeward beautifully but at the first leeward gate 2, the delta is still just 8 seconds.
The British afterguard cover tenaciously on the second beat, holding the right and the starboard advantage whilst sending dirty air down onto the Italians at every opportunity. Allowing the Italians to split in the final quarter, Britannia gained by nailing the starboard layline to perfection and rounding gate 3 with a delta out to 22 seconds.
By the final leeward gate 4, their lead is over 500 metres and out to 29 seconds. The sea-state down at the bottom-end of the course looks to be building, and the angular Britannia looks very much in her element as they elect to take the right side up the final beat and cover hard.
At the final Gate 5 Britannia have a 30 sec lead and downwind are 500+m ahead when they loose rudder control and nosedive touch down – is this another unforced error to wreck a certain win?
Not this time, a quick recovery gets them back on the foils, maintaining the 500m lead accross the Finish for a 25 sec Win over Luna Rossa.
This was the first time the Italian team had been beaten. A brilliant win and a big marker of intent from the British and a huge springboard to launch their assault on the Louis Vuitton Cup. No one will want to draw them in the semi-finals.
Earlier Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli took a win over NYYC American Magic in a 13 knot breeze with a running swell.
After an even start Luna Rossa leads at the first cross, American Magic edge the second cross but Luna Rossa round gate 1 by 14 sec. American Magic kept in contention until the final gate 5 where the Italians lead by 26 sec and 450+m.
At the Finish Luna Rossa Won by 22 sec.
in their second race NYYC American Magic USA took a win over Orient Express Racing.
American Magic lead at start and up first leg to lead at gate 1 by 8 sec, following that with gate 2 with 14 sec, gate 3 by 15 sec and Gate 4 by 20 sec about 300+m. At the final gate 5 American Magic lead by 18 sec and crossed the Finish 15 sec ahead of Orient Express.
That victory secures NYYC American Magic’s place in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals.
LV Challenger Standings after Day 7
There was also a non-scoring race for Emirates Team New Zealand with Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
Close start again with Alinghi Red Bull just leading ETNZ. At gate 1 Emirates have 7 sec lead, Gate 2 by 13 sec, with a bit of a skid but recover well. Gate 3 Emirates lead by 20 sec and gate 4 by 23 sec.
At the Finish Emirates Team New Zealand won by 38 secs ahead of Alinghi Red Bull.
Sunday will see the two final Cup Challenger Series match-races.
The weather forecast is not helpful, possible the instability will return to Barcelona on Sunday with a risk of thunderstorm and lightning for the day.
Winds from North-East around 10 knots are expected in average, but with stronger gusts under rain cells. Sea state will remain at 1 meter.
The call will be made early Sunday morning, maybe moving the final matches to Monday.
The the winner of the series will then choose their Semi-Final opponent. The other two will race in the second Semi-Final.
The winner of each Semi-Final series is the first Challenger to score at least five points. The winner of each Semi-Final then compete against each other in the Final stage.
The winner of the Final stage series is the first to score at least seven points, and is then the Challenger to compete against the Defender in the 37th America’s Cup Match commencing 12 October 2024.
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