Day 2 of the Semi-Final of the Louis Vuitton Cup resulted in INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa poised to move to the Final after both finished four race wins in the bag.
The day began with a tense moment between the Ineos and the Swiss on Alinghi Red Bull in the pre-start, with Ben Ainslie’s crew having to take quick action to avoid a port-and-starboard collision. Everyone watching held their breath for a moment before both boats gybed away at the last moment to avoid what would have been a high-speed collision.
The British team executed a slam gybe away, while the Swiss fell off the foils and almost capsized taking similar avoiding action.
Ainslie hit the protest button, no penalty given, but the job was done. Ineos Britannia was then able to make a perfct, clean start leaving Alinghi to recover and take chase.
Ineos Skipper Ben Ainslie said: “I thought at one point we might have been going on-board the Swiss boat, but thankfully we managed to keep the boats apart and the guys did a great job keeping the boat up on the foils.”
The gap was 1000m by the time they were fully up to speed, and from there the gap steadily increased to 2300m at the finish. The margin at the first gate was 1 min 19 seconds, and at the finish was 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
The conditions freshened for their second race, and the Swiss and British boats were bow-to-bow off the line, but Ineos Britannia worked out enough of an advantage to be able to tack right in front of the Swiss boat as they were forced to turn at the boundary.
The Swiss had no choice but to tack back, and with very little distance to the boundary, Ineos Britannia were able to force Alinghi into a punishing series of short, quick tacks on the left-hand side of the course.
The gap extended, as Ainslie kept a close cover, then rounding the gate 1 mark with a 15 second advantage. The rest of the race saw an extension on every leg by the British boat, leading to a victory margin of 48 seconds.
That gave the Brits a 4-0 advantage in the first to five points series.
INEOS Britannia Co-Helm Dylan Fletcher said: “The first race was probably as close as you want to get these boats, it was certainly spicy but it all came out well. We’re happy to get two wins and feel like we are in a good place but our focus is very much still the Semi-Finals.”
In the two Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) versus New York Yacht Club American Magic (USA) matches Sunday it was again a closer storey.
The Americans made a strong start in the first race, getting off the line fast, bow to bow with the Italian boat to leeward. but at the first windward mark, Luna Rossa rounded ahead by 13 seconds. At gate 2 a poor execution of a high-speed two-board rounding at the right-hand mark cost the American crew valuable time.
Rounding the next windward gate 30 seconds behind, the US crew began to make up ground on the second downwind leg, shaving seven seconds off Luna Rossa’s lead. Despite a concerted effort from American Magic throughout the final lap, the Italian crew closed out the race with a 26-second margin.
Their second race (race 4) of the day was an all-action thriller, with the two boats never more than 15 seconds apart at any turning mark.
The Italians managed to squeeze into a narrow lead on the first upwind leg, rounding gate 2 just six seconds ahead. The next two laps saw both crews engaged in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, with Luna Rossa covering hard to fend off the attacking Americans.
The American crew closed on the final run, and as the two boats approached the finish line on opposite gybes. In a nail-biting finish, Luna Rossa crossed American Magic by just 39m, to take the Finish for a 2 sec Win, leaving American Magic with another narrow defeat.
American Magic now faces an all-or-nothing scenario, needing to win every remaining race to stay in contention for the 37th America’s Cup.
Racing resumes from 13:00 UK (14:00 CEST) on Monday 16 September.
