INEOS Britannia has finally secured its spot in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, but not before a lack-lustre performance in the first race of the day raised some niggling doubts.
The Brits started the fourth race day on Wednesday with a 4-1 advantage over the Swiss, but then fell the 4-2 after Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI) pulled off another win and exposed Ineos Britannia’s light wind vulnerability, not helped by their selection os a smaller mainsail.
After leading the first two legs, the Brits lost rudder control and the Swiss jumped away to an 800m+ lead, as GBR also get boundry penalty. Leading by 61sec at gate 2 with the wind dropping, the Swiss held their lead at gate 3 and stretched their lead downwind to 1090m at gate 4 rounding 1m 25sec ahead of Ineos.
At gate 5 the Swiss still had a minute plus lead, the Brits missed the layline and having to put in an extra tack, fell of the foils.
Alinghi Red Bull crossed the Finish with a 1min 23sec lead, and suddenly the smooth road to the final that the choice of Alinghi as their Semi-Final opponent was supposed to provide was looking harder than expected.
After the break for the USA v ITA race, and some tough discussion, Ineos Britannia returned with a bigger mainsail for their second match with Alinghi Red Bull.
All did not start well, with Ineos getting a penalty for entering the pre-start box early, but Ainslie quickly dealt with that, starting low and fast, and ducking behind the Swiss to get rid of the penalty before Ineos took the right-hand side of the racecourse, where they found good breeze.
On the first cross they were ahead and at gate 1 had a 25sec lead and extended to 400m. A couple of poor gybes by the Brits and lead was cut to 240mm, but they still rounded Gate 3 with a 31sec lead and extend back to 420m.
No one could relax in the difficult conditions, but Ineos led by 50sec at gate 3 and 39sec at gate 4. Finally at gate 5 Ineos was round and away when the Swiss came off the foils on their final tack.
There was no coming-back from that and Ineos Britannia sailed away to a 1m 10sec Win over Alinghi Red Bull, and qualification for the Louis Vuitton Challenger Final.
In the other Semi-Final, NYYC American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli battled closely for the upper-hand, with the first race going to the USA.
As with all their races so far it was a back and forth contest. Luna Rossa lead the first race away and at gate 1 the Italians lead was 47sec. But they struggled to stay on the foils and American Magic tokk the lead, only to also drop off the foils.
At Gate 2 both teams were equal – Course then shortened to 4 legs – and after tight P & S crosses USA lead at gate 3 where the effect of their mainsail wash dropped the Italians off the foils.
With Luna Rossa stranded in a wind hole at the top of the course and unable to finish, the Americans carefully picked their way around the rest of the course to take a well-earned win.
In the second race, sailed in slightly windier conditions, and after another close start, the two teams resumed the ultra-close racing.
Just seven seconds separated them at the windward gate 1, where American Magic rounded first, and at gate 2, the gap was down to four seconds.
The second windward mark saw another dead heat, with the two boats tacking simultaneously to round opposite marks at the same time. At the cross Luna Rossa was clear ahead when a loud bang, indicated a dramatic gear failure of the traveller system of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and their race was over.
American Magic sailed away to take thier third win over Luna Rossa and put all the pressure on the Italians to get their boat repaired and on the course Thursday. The scoreline is now american Magic 3, Luna Rossa 4 in the first-to-five-point Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final.
Ben Ainslie’s crew is the first team to progress to the Final, after winning the required five races against its opponent, Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI).
The Brits started the fourth race day on Wednesday with a 4-1 advantage over the Swiss. Alinghi Red Bull Racing was battling hard to remain in the competition, and claimed the win of the first race.
But INEOS Britannia came back fighting in the second race to bank the all-important fifth win, in turn ending Alinghi’s America’s Cup journey.
INEOS Britannia will either face Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) or New York Yacht Club American Magic (USA) in the first-to-seven series which starts on 26 September.
LV Semi-Final Standings after Day 4
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