INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli finished the first day of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final with a win apiece.
Luna Rossa grabbed the Race 1 start and quickly built a 150 metre lead at gate 1 which the British were never able to challenge, the Italians building an 11sec lead to finish comfortably with a 46 sec lead.
In the second race INEOS Britannia turned the tables on the Italians, leading back to the start line to leeward and ahead. They built the small lead to control the race and finish with an 18 sec lead.
Conditions for day 1 were at the top end of the upper wind limit of 21 knots.
With a solid south-westerly ‘Garbi’ breeze that topped the upper wind limit of 21 knots more than once, it was survival sailing at times with the sailors opting for double-board round-ups at the leeward gates and minimising manoeuvres throughout the eight-leg races.
With speeds in excess of 52 knots on the bear-aways at the windward mark this was top-class match-racing from two of the world’s finest America’s Cup teams.
In the second race there were a couple of delays as the upper wind limit of 21 knots was breached – the first time this has happened in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup this summer.
Jimmy Spithill, starboard helmsman of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, came ashore looking relaxed about the pressure saying:
“We’ve seen it all along, these are two very evenly-matched teams, and we were expecting a tough series and today showed that both teams can win races.”
“I thought the performances were pretty similar, they made a couple of errors manoeuvre-wise in that first race and we were able to step out. In the second race they sailed it very clean so performance-wise there not a whole lot in it but obviously we’ll be checking on that tonight.”
Talking about the competitive battle these two outstanding teams are locked-in, Spithill added:
“These conditions were definitely up there with big waves, right on the limit on the breeze, so a mistake is, as always, just around the corner.
“In that first one they were hoping we would make a couple and then vice versa but that’s what you want, you want to be pushed, and you want a fight.”
Ben Ainslie, skipper of INEOS Britannia, reflected on the performance profile of the two AC75’s saying:
“It’s hard to really read the performance I think when both boats got in front they did a nice job of controlling the race and it’s always a little bit hard for the boat behind in those situations.”
Ainslie added: “We’re obviously frustrated with the first race, so it was important to come away with the win in the second. We managed to get the lead in that race and do a good job protecting.”
“The Cyclors did an amazing job generating the power to get the boat round that course. We look forward to going again on Saturday”
With the series tied after the opening day’s two-race action, the schedule sees the teams return to duty on Saturday 28 September.
Lighter conditions are forecast, hopefully not so light as to see a repeat of the roll-of -the-dice race conditions from the earlier series.
If today’s arm-wrestling at 50 knots was anything to go by, this Louis Vuitton Cup series is going to be a mighty battle fought all the way to the very end.
INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli are locked in combat, with the first of them to score seven points progressing to take on the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, in October’s Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match.
(Magnus Wheatley)
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