The fourth day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup – the challenger selection series for the America’s Cup proper – 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.

The 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.

NOTE: Race 15 is the conclusion of Round Robin Round 1 and Race 16 is the start of Round Robin Round 2

Key takeaways from Louis Vuitton Day 1

• Things getting pretty desperate for Alinghi
• INEOS has decent pace downwind when the wind it a little breezier
• Luna Rossa is the standout
• No obvious issues after their damage to the Kiwis

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 12 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Emirates Team New Zealand

Skippers
Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
Emirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling & Nathan Outteridge

Alinghi Red Bull Racing are yet to win a race and, though this race against the Defender doesn’t 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.

It was far from the ideal start as a problem with Alinghi’s 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 – as the rules dictate – picked up an immediate disqualification for their efforts.

With limited racing available for the teams, though, Alinghi chose to carry on and complete the race – particularly useful for them as they would be racing against Luna Rossa on the same course later in the day.

Having 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.

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 13?

Not 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 – 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.

Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup

Race 13 INEOS Britannia Vs Orient Express Racing

Skippers
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainlsie & Dylan Fletcher
Orient Express Racing Team: Quentin Delapierre & Kevin Pepponet

If 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’d 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.

Delapierre 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.

With 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.

But 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.

With 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’s 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.

From this moment, the British team managed to slowly pull themselves away from the French team and by the finish, it wasn’t exactly a blow-out, but the Brits looked very comfortable by the finish. “A good race for the fans that one. Slightly less so for the boys onboard,” said Ainslie. “It was a bloody good race, hats off the French for making it hard for us.”

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 13?

We know the French are quick in a straight line, it’s manoeuvres that have been their weak point so far. So it was impressive to see them fighting with the Brits and making few mistakes – in fact, you’d argue that the lion’s share of errors were made by the British team.

As for INEOS she looked very fast today compared to the French boat. We’ve 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.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 14 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Skippers
Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni

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  Bachelin didn’t 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.

Alinghi 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.

Luna 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.

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 14?

As 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’s 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’s Cup itself – 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.

Alinghi 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.

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 15 American Magic Vs Emirates Team New Zealand

Skippers
Emirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling & Nathan Outteridge
American Magic: Paul Goodison & Tom Slingsby

The 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.  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.

It 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.

The 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. “It 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,” summarised Paul Goodison after the finish.

From there, Emirates Team New Zealand sailed a solid and consistent race to take the win

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Race 15?

Not a huge amount of learning from this one. Certainly it’s 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 naiveté from Goodison and Slingsby.

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