The fourth day of Louis Vuitton Cup Final racing took place on Monday 30 September and saw INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli continue their fight to become the official challenger of the America’s Cup.

Once again the day dawned with decent breeze – though not quite the top-end conditions that contributed to yesterday’s impressive racing. And with flatter water the two AC75 crews were clearly a lot further from the edge of control that we saw yesterday.

The day started with both teams on two wins apiece in this first to seven wins series.

Key takeaways from the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 4

• This slug-fest of a series looks like it will run and run
• Luna Rossa looked (fractionally) stronger today being more comfortable in their win
• INEOS sounded calmer today compared to yesterday’s slightly frantic racing

The crucial moment just before Luna Rossa dropped off her foils in the pre-start. Photo: Ian Roman / AmericasCup

Race 5 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs INEOS Britannia

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainslie & Dylan Fletcher

At the start Luna Rossa were port entry and so first into the start box and gybed around at the right hand boundary to run down that boundary. This put the Italian team very, very deep into the startbox.

INEOS followed the Italian team and, as they rounded up to head back to the line, the Brits accelerated over the top of the Italians. But Luna Rossa picked up some ventilation on a foil and flopped off her foils as they sailed though the wake (sail wake and foil wake) of INEOS.

That error handed the start to INEOS Britannia who were a way back from the startline at the gun, but crucially well ahead of Sphihill and Bruni, who tacked immediately onto port, followed by INEOS.

The Brits then kept a tight cover on their competition but traded the option to cover tightly towards the top end of the course to protect the right initially and then to let the Italians go again to reduce their manoeuvres into the top mark.

As such it was the Brits who were in the lead around the first windward gate rounding, setting off to the right of the course (looking upwind), while the Italians rounded the left hand mark 6 seconds adrift.

And once again the performance profile of the two challengers looked very evenly matched rounding opposite sides of the next leeward gate with the same 6 second lead to the Brits.

Once again Ainslie and Fletcher looked comfortable allowing Spithill and Bruni to get some separation, not always opting for a tight cover, but making sure they sailed the shifts and hurt the Italians as and when they could.

The British team were looking confident and slowly managed to extend their lead throughout the race to give themselves a 14 second lead over the Italians by the second leeward gate rounding.

But INEOS was never more than that ahead, which is roughly 100-150m. And things got extremely close when, on the final leeward gate rounding, the Brits got a big sideways slide on the rounding allowing Luna Rossa to close to within a handful of metres.

But Spithill and Bruni were not able to convert that pressure into an overtake and the Brits defended well to eventually take the win by 12 seconds.

“It was a great race,” said Ainslie after racing. “They came back well. They obviously had a bit of an issue at the start but they came back well.”

Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

What did we learn from Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 5?

INEOS once again showed some decent downwind pace, which was enough to keep the race under wraps even with a massive leeward slide around one of the leeward gates. It was noticeable how much calmer things sounded on INEOS in this first race compared to yesterday, where the team sounded a bit out of sorts.

But Luna Rossa never went away and this series will be won and lost by fine margins and / or mistakes. I’ve maintained from the start that Luna Rossa has seemed the most measured team on the water and they have always looked very locked in through manoeuvres. But that does mean they are immune from mistakes and we saw another pre-start error today.

A cloise cross in Race 1 today. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

Race 6 INEOS Britannia Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainslie & Dylan Fletcher

The wind was similar for the second race of the day with a marginal increase in the breeze to see the wind in the high teens – occasionally hitting 20 knots.

Into the pre-start the British team were first into the start box but chose to tack around and then gybe to follow the Italian team out to the right hand boundary.

Just like in the first race of the day, with Luna Rossa heading back to the line, the Brits again footed over the bow of the Italians to round up to leeward of them to try to control the return to the line. But Spithill and Bruni were able to gap off to windward pretty well.

Both boats were early coming back to the line, so both needed to scrub off a fair amount of speed before accelerating just before the start and after the gun had fired it was pretty much even at the start with Luna Rossa to windward.

The British team went int a very high mode to try to force the Italians to tack away early. Which they duly did and the Brits followed to set up a drag race out to the right hand boundary.

But it was very close and as Luna Rossa tacked onto starboard at the boundary the Brits tacked too, to try to set up just to leeward of the Italian team. The Italians did a slightly better job of the tack and were able to stay high enough to be in no danger of a luff from the Brits.

It remained even between the boats until they got to the windward gate layline, at which point both boats tacked forcing the Brits to follow the Italians into the mark rounding 4 seconds behind.

Once again the gap remained much the same on the downwind and Luna Rossa managed to step away a touch on the second upwind with a reasonably tight cover on the Brits. By the next windward gate rounding the Italians had a pretty solid looking 12 second lead.

We’ve seen passing lanes are few and far between in this series and, in truth, INEOS never really looked like a threat to Luna Rossa after the second tack of the first upwind. Ainslie and Fletcher managed to split the course on several occasions, but that only really meant they ended up out of phase with the shifts much of the time.

“I think the boat was sailing well today. It was a pity about that mistake in the first race as I think we could have picked up that point as well,” reflected Francesco Bruni. after the finish.

Luna Rossa heading to victory in the second race of the day. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup

What did we learn from Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 6?

Looking at the day as a whole Luna Rossa will be very pleased with their performance today. In the first race, the Italians were always looking like a threat and any significant errors from the Brits felt like they would lose the lead. But when it was Luna Rossa leading in this second race the win was a lot more comfortable.

The overall impression from the racing we have seen between these two to date is of Luna Rossa having a slight upwind advantage and INEOS having a slight downwind advantage. Certainly that would be supported by the British team being a little more aggressive in the pre-start while the Italians consistently seem keen not to engage and just get off the line in clean air.

Certainly as a racing sailor, I’ve always preferred upwind pace over downwind as your first crucial leg is always going to be upwind out of the start, so any speed edge there is amplified. Plus as boats go slower upwind than downwind a higher proportion of their race time is spent on upwind legs.

Roll on tomorrow (Tuesday 1 October) for more racing.

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