Louis Vuitton Cup Final: INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa ready for action

Toby Heppell

The Louis Vuitton Cup Final has all the makings of an epic contest and it looks as though the early weather could be epic too. But who will win the right to sail the America's Cup?

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Tomorrow, Thursday 26 September INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Prielli will face off in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final to see which of these two teams will earn the right to take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup.

The head-to-head is a repeat of the 2021 Prada Cup, when INEOS was beaten by Luna Rossa, who in turn went on to lose to the Kiwis in the Cup. That Prada Cup final was something of a whitewash with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli beating the Brits 7-1 in the series.

But this Final feels different in that the teams appear much more closely matched. That is something few would have said a month ago with INEOS underperforming in the Preliminary regatta and Luna Rossa looking by far the strongest challenger. But INEOS has looked significantly improved since the Preliminary regatta and Luna Rossa had a tougher time in the Semi-Final than some suspected.

The Louis Vuitton Final is a best of 13 series (first to seven wins) with two races scheduled per day from Thursday 26 September, with reserve days on Friday 27 September, Monday 30 September, and Thursday 3 October.

As such it is possible that the racing could be concluded by Tuesday provided all eight races can be sailed between now and then, but that would require total domination from one of these teams, which seems unlikely. Racing will then continue throughout the following week until one team gets to seven race wins.

In theory if both teams win six races each – and there are no days lost in the schedule, Saturday 5 October will see a winner awarded.

Britannia has looked impressive in the breezier conditions. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Louis Vuitton Cup Final weather

So far the weather in Barcelona has been difficult to read with a number of days being too light for racing to go ahead, despite forecasts for decent wind. This instability is expected in the forecast at this time of year as the thermal enhancement of the wind is significantly reduced by the relatively warm sea and cooler land as the autumn draws in.

The expectation is that the closer we get to October the thermal breeze will become less of a feature. Surprisingly, though, the average wind strength increases as INOES’ Tom Cheney explained for us in his piece on America’s Cup weather:

‘The thermal influence of the Garbí diminishes as the temperature drops. Generally this leads to lighter south-west winds. However, the Garbinada is a stronger south-west wind, driven by westerly component gradient wind. This synoptic wind parallels the coast to become south-west or south-south-west. These windier days may bring up the average wind strength.’

And for the Louis Vuitton Cup Final the opening days of the regatta look to feature some of the strongest conditions we have seen to date, with Thursday and Friday currently looking as though the winds will be in the high teens – though Friday is a reserve day.

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“The weather looks really good,” said INEOS Britannia skipper Ben Ainlsie in the press conference on Wednesday ahead of racing. “It might be at the top end, potentially and there’s a little uncertainty in how top end it might be – particularly the sea state. But it looks good.”

If the relative performance of the boats we have seen in the Louis Vuitton Cup to date is anything to go by, it’s no wonder Ainslie feels these conditions are ‘good’ as the muscular INEOS Britannia AC75 has looked impressive in the windier conditions.

But, come the weekend, the forecast looks to be all-change with the lighter winds we saw in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Finals returning with both Saturday and Sunday seeing winds just in double figures or perhaps lower – particularly Sunday.

Again, if performance characteristics are as we have seen to date these conditions are likely to favour Luna Rossa – particularly at the very bottom end where INEOS has looked to have a weakness.

The weather thereafter looks to continue to be around the 10-12 knot mark – though obviously there is a lot less certainty almost a week out from those days.

Close racing between American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

History beckons

The weather is just one feature in this regatta and, while each team will have favoured conditions, the truth is that the relative performance of each boat looks incredibly close.

Luna Rossa have been considered very quick, but they were run very close by their Semi-Final competition American Magic.

INEOS might have got the chance to pick their competition for the Semi-Final (as winners of the Round Robin), but even they lost a couple of races against the relatively unfavoured Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

“The conditions here are really tricky,” Ainslie said. “It’s very changeable every day. So that is tricky, but the main difficulty is the competitor. We are up against a great team in Luna Rossa.”

“We just came from a very tough semi-finals series where we had, I believe, two very evenly matched teams with the Americans and us,” said Luna Rossa skipper Jimmy Spithill.

“The Brits have done a great job, with the jump they’ve made from the Preliminary Regatta to where they are now, and I expect a fight, two very evenly matched teams going at it – and that’s what you want, we want to send the Challenger into that Cup final against the Kiwis well prepared to get the job done.”

Certainly for either team, the dream of making it to the America’s Cup is getting closer and much hangs in the balance. “We all know that in Italy the America’s Cup is a dream,” said Luna Rossa Skipper Francesco Bruni. “We have been chasing that dream for many years – even before I was born – and we have a chance now and we need to use [it].”

For the British team, should they make it to the America’s Cup that would be the first British team to compete for an America’s Cup proper in 60 years. Beyond that as Ainslie says… “the America’s Cup started in British waters around the Isle of Wight and famously we’ve never seen it since, so this is the motivation for our team.”

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