The Italian crew of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli defeated the NYYC American Magic team with a final 5-3 score and will now meet Ineos Britannia in the Final of the Challenger Selection Series.
Thursday (19 Sep) the Luna Rossa team appeared on time and ready to race after working all night to repair the damage to the mainsail control system, which collapsed while leading during the second match with American Magic Wednesday.
Jimmy Spithill, skipper of Luna Rossa had every confidence in his team as they came ashore yesterday evening, saying: “We got a fantastic team ashore and there’s no doubt in my mind that we will be back . . . man I’ll make a bet, and I’ll put the farm on it that we’ll be out there tomorrow.”
With two races scheduled for the final day of their Semi-Final, one team would be eliminated by the end of the day.
American Magic, had the momentum of having won the last three races and come back from being 4-0 down. Now at 4-3, these two final races were their chance to level and then complete a great come back story.
But with Luna Rossa holding that 4-3 lead they could wrap it up with just one win in the first race of the day, and this they were determined to do.
The final match of the semifinals took place in a southerly 7-12 knot wind which was more than enough to keep the AC75s on their foils. Right after the start Luna Rossa moved in front and took to the right side of the course, rounding gate 1 with a 20-second lead, keeping the same gap at the downwind gate.
On the second beat American Magic narrowed the gap to 90m and Luna Rossa’s lead to just 8 seconds at gate 3. After the gate Luna Rossa sail into more breeze left and extend back to 300m.
The Americans start to close again but a small touch down on the gybe proves costly, with Luna Rossa rounding gate 4 with a 22sec lead and stretching to a 500m lead.
At this point it is looking beyond Ameican Magic and the Italian’s pull away to a 51sec lead at the final gate 5 and turn for the Finish, which they reach with a 700m lead and cross 61sec ahead of American Magic.
This win secured them overall victory (5-3) and their place in the Louis Vuitton Cup final, where they will face Ineos Britannia.
Max Sirena, Skipper and Team Director of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli commented . . . “Today is a positive day because we finally closed the series with American Magic, and it was more challenging than expected. We learned a lot from these eight races, and we will use this knowledge in the final races.”
