Two mediocre races were offset by two nail-biters in the America’s Cup challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Cup day 4Photo: Ricardo Pinto \/ America’s CupThe fourth day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup \u2013 the challenger selection series for the America\u2019s Cup proper \u2013 took place today. Sunday 1 September in Barcelona, with competitors facing off in a relatively calm sea state and winds hovering just below double digits for much of the day, though the wind and the waves both built throughout the day.
\nThe wind had changed direction today with the breeze coming from the northeast and conditions had changed in Barcelona, with some showers around. As such it would be all-change for the sailors tactically as they close in on the end of the first (of two) Round Robins.
\nNOTE: Race 15 is the conclusion of Round Robin Round 1 and Race 16 is the start of Round Robin Round 2
\nKey takeaways from Louis Vuitton Day 1<\/p>\n
Things getting pretty desperate for Alinghi
\nINEOS has decent pace downwind when the wind it a little breezier
\nLuna Rossa is the standout
\nNo obvious issues after their damage to the Kiwis<\/p>\n
Photo: Ricardo Pinto \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nRace 12 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Emirates Team New Zealand
\nSkippers
\nAlinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
\nEmirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling\u00a0&\u00a0Nathan Outteridge
\nAlinghi Red Bull Racing are yet to win a race and, though this race against the Defender doesn\u2019t count in terms of who gets knocked out of the competition at the end of the Rouund Robin, rthey would want to win this one for some sense that they are making progress.
\nIt was far from the ideal start as a problem with Alinghi\u2019s mast saw them unable to hoist their mainsails before the start and they had to rush back to base to effect a quick repair. But once back out on the water and into start sequence Alinghi found themselves too far outside the boundary in the lead up to the start and \u2013 as the rules dictate \u2013 picked up an immediate disqualification for their efforts.
\nWith limited racing available for the teams, though, Alinghi chose to carry on and complete the race \u2013 particularly useful for them as they would be racing against Luna Rossa on the same course later in the day.
\nHaving lost the start by dint of struggling to get back to the start in time, it was always going to be tricky to overhaul the Kiwis and sure enough, the Defender used this opportuity to step away from the Swiss flagged team throughout the race \/ practise session untll both boats decided to pull out a couple of legs in.
\nWhat did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 13?
\nNot a lot we can learn from this one. Perhaps the biggest lessons for many is the rule that you can be disqualified if you are 100m outside the boundary during the start sequence. Alinghi will also have a few concerns about their mast issues \u2013 as they have previously broken their mast on two occasions, so to have some issues again (albeit not the same catastrophic failure) will be a concern.
\nPhoto: Ian Roman \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nRace 13 INEOS Britannia Vs Orient Express Racing
\nSkippers
\nINEOS Britannia: Ben Ainlsie\u00a0&\u00a0Dylan Fletcher
\nOrient Express Racing Team: Quentin Delapierre & Kevin Pepponet
\nIf the first race of the day was something of a let down, the second was an absolute cracker of a race. With the British team leading back to the startline, Orient Express were looking to push their opponent back to the start early, but it looked for all the world as though they\u2019d made a bit of a mess of it, as the Brits hit the pin end of the line at pace with the French boat just to windward. However, the Brits were called OCS and were forced to drop back behind the French.
\nDelapierre and Pepponet kept a tight cover on INEOS for the remainder of the first beat and led the Brits through the top gate by around 12 seconds. But INEOS has previously displayed a fair old turn of pace downwind and they did so again today, hauling in the French team as they both headed downwind. Ainslie and Fletcher did a great job tactically too and as both teams approached the leeward gate, the Brits were on starboard and the French needed to take their transom.
\nWith the boats on split tacks it was Orient Express on starboard at the first cross and the Brits were forced to take their transom. The teams continued to trade blows but nearing the top mark with the French on starboard, the Brits tried to go for a marginal cross and tack right in front of the French, but it was way, way too close and the Brits picked up another penalty and ended up following the French around the windward gate 20 seconds behind.
\nBut once again INEOS displayed a good turn of pace downwind and the British team managed to round the leeward gate only 12 seconds behind the French team.
\nWith the French taking the left hand mark at the gate and the Brits taking the right, at the first cross, the Brits held the starboard advantage and instead of taking the British team\u2019s transom the French elected to tack, but did so way too early and ended up allowing themselves to be shepherded to the left hand boundary.
\nFrom this moment, the British team managed to slowly pull themselves away from the French team and by the finish, it wasn\u2019t exactly a blow-out, but the Brits looked very comfortable by the finish. \u201cA good race for the fans that one. Slightly less so for the boys onboard,\u201d said Ainslie. \u201cIt was a bloody good race, hats off the French for making it hard for us.\u201d
\nWhat did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 13?
\nWe know the French are quick in a straight line, it\u2019s manoeuvres that have been their weak point so far. So it was impressive to see them fighting with the Brits and making few mistakes \u2013 in fact, you\u2019d argue that the lion\u2019s share of errors were made by the British team.
\nAs for INEOS she looked very fast today compared to the French boat. We\u2019ve seen INEOS be pretty quick downwind but in the slightly breezier weather today she looked comparatively quick both up and downwind. Mistakes from the team will be something to work on as they looked a little sloppy in places, but it was a tight old race, so errors are much more likely under those circumstances.
\nPhoto: Ricardo Pinto \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nRace 14 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli
\nSkippers
\nAlinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
\nLuna Rossa Prada Pirelli:\u00a0Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni<\/p>\n
Although they were disqualified from their first race of the day, the focus for Alinghi Red Bull Racing would have been this second of their two races as they try to find their first point of the series against another challenger. Psarofaghis and\u00a0 Bachelin didn\u2019t seem as though they wanted to get too involved in a pre-start scrap and and kept gauged well off to windward of Spithill and Bruni. As such, the Italian boat was able to perform a simple time on distance start and hit the line about mid-way down the start at the gun.
\nAlinghi also did a great time on distance job at the windward end of the line and nailed their start. But even with a fairly significant amount of space between the two boats, the Italian team managed to find a great high mode and sucked themselves up to Alinghi, forcing the Swiss-flagged boat to tack away. By the time both teams tacked back for the first cross, Luna Rossa just managed to squeek across the bow of the starboard-tack Alinghi.
\nLuna Rossa are yet to lose a race in this series and they once again looked very polished with some decent boatspeed and were able to just keep Alinghi at arms length for the rest of the race, eventually winning by a handy margin.
\nWhat did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 14?
\nAs we go deeper into this series we can start to firm up our assumptions about the boats as the pecking order of the challengers for the America\u2019s Cup becomes clearer. Luna Rossa have been impressive since the start and are clearly one of the favourites to make it through to the America\u2019s Cup itself \u2013 as they did in 2021. The Italian boat is clearly very quick and once again today she displayed a good turn of pace, with a very, very impressive high mode out of the start.
\nAlinghi is not massively slow, but was clearly the slower of the two boats today. The team did enough to keep it fairly tight, but at some point this Swiss team really does need to pick up some wins if they do not want to be the team going home at the end of this Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin.
\nPhoto: Ricardo Pinto \/ America\u2019s Cup
\nRace 15 American Magic Vs Emirates Team New Zealand
\nSkippers
\nEmirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling\u00a0&\u00a0Nathan Outteridge
\nAmerican Magic:\u00a0Paul Goodison\u00a0&\u00a0Tom Slingsby
\nThe final race of the day was another cracker as American Magic took on the Kiwis. And the Kiwis got the early advantage as they pushed Goodison and Slingsby towards the pin end of the line good and early. As a result the US-flagged AC75 needed to scrub off a lot of speed in the cl0sing seconds to the start.\u00a0 Having forced their opponents to the pin early, the Kiwis were able to tack, accelerate and hit the startline on port going significantly faster than their opponents.
\nIt was hardly surprising, then, at the first cross that the Kiwis were in the lead and they tacked right in front of American Magic, to force the Americans to tack away. But by the next cross the US boat had hauled in the Kiwis a bit. It was obvious from a long way out that the Kiwis would, once again, tack right on the face of the Americans. And as the boats approached one another, the US team were footing to build pace. When New Zealand tacked the US boat had enough overspeed to go into a slightly higher mode and sail over the top of the Kiwis.
\nThe boats looked pretty evenly matched on the downwind, but on the next beat Goodison and Slingsby backed themselves to pick the right shifts and did not keep a tight cover on the Kiwis. However, the New Zealanders did a better job of picking the sifts and by the windward gate the Kiwis had stolen the lead. \u201cIt wsas a good start by the guys and we got ahead, but then we gave them a couple of inches. And if you give those guys a couple of inches, then they will take it,\u201d summarised Paul Goodison after the finish.
\nFrom there, Emirates Team New Zealand sailed a solid and consistent race to take the win
\nWhat did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 15?
\nNot a huge amount of learning from this one. Certainly it\u2019s clear that at the moment, these two boats were pretty evenly matched in pure pace terms. American Magic showed a great turn of pace to overhaul the Kiwis, but that was more of a Kiwi mistake than boatspeed. And the pass that the Kiwis picked up over the Americans was really a bit of March Racing naivet\u00e9 from Goodison and Slingsby.
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\nThe post What we learned from a cracking day 4 of Louis Vuitton Cup racing appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two mediocre races were offset by two nail-biters in the America’s Cup challenger selection series, the Louis Vuitton Cup day 4Photo: Ricardo Pinto \/ America’s CupThe fourth day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup \u2013 the challenger selection series … <\/p>\n