The moment that sailing fans around the world have been waiting for is finally here. The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup begins with the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta in Barcelona – a four-day match-racing event with a grand final on Sunday between the top two teams. A win would give an immediate morale boost, whilst for the rest it is where reality bites and the really hard work begins. It’s game-on and all on in Barcelona with some blockbuster racing in store. We will be bringing you commentary of every race, live from the racecourse, each and every day through to the very end of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.
With August 22 being a special day in America’s Cup history as the day when the first race was sailed around the Isle of Wight in 1851, it’s a fitting time to start.
Race Director Iain Murray gave an update this morning about the expected conditions in Barcelona today where we are expecting an outstanding racing day with south-westerly winds ranging from 12 to 15 knots with a 0.5 metre chop, and potentially freshening through the afternoon.
Racing starts at 1400 CET and we will be bringing you race by race updates here throughout the day – so keep checking back for the latest updates.
LIVE FROM THE RACECOURSE
RACE 1: Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Port Entry) vs Orient Express Racing Team
Maxime Bachelin, port helm for Alinghi Red Bull Racing guides ‘BoatOne’ into the 0.3nm by 0.8nm start box to begin the Swiss challenge for the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, whilst Quentin Delapierre looking to apply maximum pressure immediately in the pre-start, brought Orient Express Racing Team on starboard.
Bachelin is late but Orient Express are later and incurred a boundary penalty before entering the start box. Early advantage in a clear box to the Swiss who can choose their strategy by heading out right and picking their time-on-distance.
In the final approaches, Alinghi Red Bull Racing takes the windward position at the starboard end of the line and execute a perfect start with very crisp and clear communications onboard between helms Bachelin and Arnaud Psarofaghis.
The French look out of sorts internally and have a poor start, tacking into dirty air and allowing the Swiss the early advantage. Desperately trying to get to the right, the French are pinned and bounced left by relentless Swiss covering who sit right on their bow whenever the French try to cross.
By the top gate, Alinghi Red Bull Racing bears away on the port marker with a 12 second lead and gybe at the port boundary (looking downwind). The Swiss look to achieve good VMG, sailing deep angles down the first run, but the French are still very much in touch and at the leeward gate, with boats electing to take the port marker, the delta is 13 seconds to the Swiss and both boats head to the favoured right-side of the course on the second beat.
A change in wind pressure, sees both teams tack at the port boundary in the hope of more pressure out to the left of the course. Once they’d clicked into the new breeze, both tack back with the French sailing well and escaping any hard cover from the Swiss.
At the second windward mark, Alinghi Red Bull Racing lines up to take the port marker and rounds with a leading delta of 11 seconds. All to play for and Orient Express gybe off early to play the left side of the run (looking downwind). The Swiss gybe to cover and hold the leeward position and clearly the French tactic is to try and let the inherent boatspeed of Orient Express come to the fore.
Alinghi Red Bull racing stay calm onboard with some rapid and constant trimming from Bryan Mettraux and Nicolas Rolaz by the leeward gate they round the port marker with two boards down with a 13 second lead into the final upwind.
The French are first to tack onto starboard and head out towards the middle of the course. Alinghi Red Bull Red Racing covers well in a textbook match-racing play and start to ‘bounce’ the French to the left. The Swiss AC75 ‘BoatOne’ looks beautifully sailed with great ride height control and crisp manoeuvres so that by the final windward mark, the delta had increased to 22 seconds – outstanding sailing by the Swiss afterguard.
The final run to the finish was now a stroll for the Swiss who kept the power on, covered effectively and put in some rapid gybes with high exit speeds. A terrific opening race for the Swiss and a huge testament to the team’s resilience, the finishing delta was a resounding 36 seconds. First point on the board for Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
RACE 2: Emirates Team New Zealand (Port Entry) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli
Two teams with a history, this was the blockbuster, with much revealed around both the starting tactics and overall game-plans of these ultra-competitive teams. Nathan Outteridge drove ‘Taihoro’ over the start line at the port gate for Emirates Team New Zealand whilst Jimmy Spithill brought Luna Rossa in from starboard for the pre-start fireworks.
Outteridge was almost bang on the button at the entry and headed swiftly to the right side of the box with the Italians giving chase. Both boats dial deep but at the turn back to the line, it’s the Kiwis who swap places and line up to leeward, holding the Italians high and then dialling away to the pin end of the line with Luna Rossa gassed to windward and forced to tack.
Emirates Team New Zealand tack immediately to cover and it’s a smart drag race out to the right-hand side of the course. The Kiwis execute a lee-bow tack to force the Italians off again and then cover.
We have a tacking duel and it’s tight before Luna Rossa appear to have a serious issue onboard and after a tack back onto starboard, the boat nosedived with the comms revealing that the team “had lost the boat” indicating a complete shut-down of the systems. Francesco Bruni confirmed a shut down for some 20 seconds in interview afterwards.
Emirates Team New Zealand were now alone on the course and effectively sailed a practice race from there on, but after rounding the windward mark, Luna Rossa were back and running, albeit rather gingerly and made chase before retiring on advice from their Chase Boat.
Emirates Team New Zealand sailed on to record their first victory of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta.
RACE 3: NYYC American Magic (Port Entry) vs INEOS Britannia
A pressure day for NYYC American Magic after a serious nosedive in practice racing the previous day but Paul Goodison was ice cool as he drove the US AC75 ‘Patriot’ in from the port end of the line whilst a fired-up Ben Ainslie sought to apply maximum pressure, coming in from the starboard side.
A fascinating line-up in relatively equally matched boats, Magic comes in on time and heads over to the right side, Britannia gybes quickly and the two boats end up circling with Patriot eventually giving chase out to the right side of the box.
Britannia is first to gybe back but initiates another circle before the lead-back into the line with both boats needing to kill time. In the final set up, Britannia gets a great start to windward close to the starboard pin and it’s a drag race on starboard tack with the Americans trying to employ a high mode to force the British off.
Britannia tacks first before the boundary and it’s another sprint to the right-hand side of the course where the British make a big gain – seemingly through sheer boatspeed – after clicking into some fresh breeze and tacking back to starboard clear ahead.
The Americans carry on to the boundary before tacking and it was a crucial decision as the right pays and in the final approach to the windward mark, Patriot takes the port marker and rounds ahead whilst Britannia goes to the starboard marker just six seconds down.
The British close downwind and a desperately close first cross sees Patriot narrowly cross ahead on port gybe as they head out to the left boundary (looking downwind) before gybing back. Closing on the layline the Americans gas their British rivals in the final approach, before rounding the starboard leeward gate mark.
Britannia goes immediately into a tack to head back to the right side of the course but the American crew cover straight away. Eschewing the tight cover, Patriot carries on to the boundary after the British tack, clearly seeing improving wind on the right and again make a gain. When the boats converge the American slam a heavy cover tack directly in front of their rivals to keep them away from the favoured right hand side. Britannia have no option other than to stay in the middle of the course, losing considerable distance in the process.
At the second windward mark, the delta had stretched out to 21 seconds but Tom Slingsby bore away loosely on the port marker with the hull immersing briefly. It looked dramatic but had little effect with the cyclors and flight controllers delivering the power and getting the boat back on track.
Britannia rounded the starboard gate smoothly and split tactics downwind. Patriot played the left (looking downwind) and made further gains to double-board round the starboard gate with a leading delta of some 25 seconds.
Keeping a loose cover on the final beat, American Magic watched INEOS Britannia head to the starboard boundary and were able to effectively sail their own race, clicking into the pressure and working the shifts effectively.
The American boat looked to be very tidy today with superb end-plating, low-riding and having great exit speeds through the tacks. At the final windward mark, Patriot bore away cleanly at the port marker and hit some 46.4 knots – INEOS Britannia took the starboard marker some 31 seconds down and hit just under 49 knots on their bear-away.
Patriot gybed to cover the British split, but it was smooth-sailing down to the line at speeds touching 45 knots. NYYC American Magic brought the win home with a finishing delta of 29 seconds and looked extremely composed as they chalked their first win of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta.
NYYC American Magic beat INEOS Britannia (29 seconds)
RACE 4: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Port Entry) vs Orient Express Racing Team
After the breakdown against Emirates Team New Zealand in the second start of the day, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli came into the final race of the day against Orient Express Racing fired up to avenge their issues and put on a display. The French however had a splash down on the final approaches and struggled to make the start line, gaining a penalty for being OCS and forced to clear a 75-metre drop-back penalty. The drama allowed Luna Rossa to start cleanly and for the French it was a case of catch-up as the Italians stretched into a lead of some 300 metres.
Luna Rossa got the memo about the right side paying and protected tenaciously despite the lead, but the French refused to give up and used the race as an exercise to test their relative speed. At the windward mark, Luna Rossa rounded the port gate whilst the French split 20 seconds behind and bore-away around the starboard marker. Luna Rossa covered the move, gybing back onto port and headed down to the left side of the course (looking downwind) and into increasing pressure.
The Italian manoeuvres were sharp, with high exit speeds and the communication between helms Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni was spot-on. At the leeward gate, the Italians opted for the starboard marker with a 21 second lead as the French split tactics and headed to the right boundary. Luna Rossa covered from the middle of the course and looked in command with a lead now stretching to some 370 metres.
It was a lead that the Italians never looked like losing as they picked the pressure superbly, heading out left and letting their inherent straight-line speed give them an unassailable lead at the second windward mark of some 29 seconds. The French had some issues downwind on the first gybe, splashing down on a rudder ventilation and dropping further behind. The net effect at the end of the second run was a delta of some 1100 metres and a 1 minute 12 second lead for the Italians with two legs left to go.
The pressure on the final beat appeared to build from the left-hand side (looking upwind) and Luna Rossa were alert to it, playing the shifts beautifully and concentrating on outright performance and technique. Flight controllers Umberto Molineris and Andrea Tesei kept the manoeuvres tight, and they bore-away on the port marker at the windward gate with a lead of some 1 minute and 16 seconds.
On the final run, Luna Rossa gybed early and sailed a long port gybe down to the left boundary before getting on the final layline, nailing it to perfection and recording a victory that will be marked at 1 minute and 33 seconds. Great bounce-back win for the Italians as they score their first point of the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta.
