INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli faced off in the first day of Louis Vuitton Cup Final racing to decide which of these challengers would face Emirates Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup itself.

The first day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final was always due to be pretty wild with wind forecast to be in the high teens and a predicted swell of approaching 2m. And sure enough the wind was up with 16 -22 knots from the southwest blowing across the race course in Barcelona.

Earlier in the day the Youth America’s Cup Final had seen Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli win the Youth America’s Cup Final against American Magic in the AC40 class. That match race had shown some pretty wild conditions but by the time the AC75s took the water for their racing the breeze had increased again.

It was clearly going to be a wild ride for both teams and the wind was stronger than anything we have seen the AC75s compete in to date. But more than the wind speed, it was the large waves that looked to cause the biggest issues for the teams today.

Key takeaways from the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 1

• In these top-end conditions Luna Rossa is now looking (slightly) the quicker boat
• As expected this will be a very tight series
• INEOS manoeuvres seemed slightly more on edge – particularly in race 1

Race 1 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs INEOS Britannia

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

With the wind up, the Race Committee had made the call to increase the course length to 8 laps, as compared to the more usual 6 laps that we have seen in the Louis Vuitton Cup thus far.

At the start Luna Rossa were the first team to gybe around at the right hand boundary and, with plenty of time to the start INOES allowed the Italians to turn first, gybing around behind the Italians and following them around.

The Italians cruised relatively slowly down that boundary, followed by the Brits. It temporarily looked as though Spithill and Bruni had made the wrong call as they started heading back to the line. INEOS followed Luna Rossa with a lot of sped and looked to be in a great position to get underneath their competitors.

Spithill and Bruni had done a great job of their time on distance from a long way back and were able to accelerate and hit the startline slightly late. But, crucially, the Brits follwing back were a little later and to leeward, having been fooled by the Italians into being a late back to the line.

The Brits tacked off immediately at the start, and by the first cross Luna Rossa was well clear on port tack.

Coming into the windward gate, Luna Rossa were clear ahead of the Brits and tacked dead in front of them to round the right hand mark (looking upwind) with an 11 second lead over the Brits who followed them around the same mark.

Around the first leeward gate, again both boats took the right hand mark (looking upwind) with the Brits tacking immediately around the mark once again 11 seconds back. These decisions to not split at the gates were a clear sign of the conditions, which made for difficult manoeuvres.

But on the downwind and also around the leeward mark, the Brits looked to be a little looser than the Italians in the manoeuvres and were making the lion’s share of the small errors, with touchdowns being a lot more of a regular experience for the Brits in the lumpy conditions.

From here Spithill and Bruni did an excellent job of covering Ainslie and Fletcher, forcing the British team to either spend time in dirty air or make additional manoeuvres.

There was only one wobble for the Italians on the second downwind they seemed to get some foil ventilation, which resulted in a big slide to leeward and by the time they were properly back on their feet the Brits had closed up. But it wasn’t enough for INEOS to mount a realistic challenge.

“We had a little moment, yeah,” said Bruni of that downwind after racing. “We are fighting a lot with the sliding at times. It’s easy to fly slightly too high and lose control fairly quickly but it’s all about recovering quickly and the boys did really well at that.”

After that moment, it looked a fairly simple job for Spithill and Bruni to continue to cover the Brits and Luna Rossa was able to step away to take a well-deserved first win of this Louis Vuitton Final Series by a convincing 46 seconds.

“It’s probably the windiest we have ever races with to date. And the waves are making it very hard on the left of the course,” said a happy Bruni of the conditions.

“It’s top end for these boats as you can see , it’s a real challenge for both teams to stay on their feet,” agreed Ainslie.

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 1?

INEOS had looked for all the world the stronger of the challengers in windier weather to date, but Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli looked a good match for the British.

“We made a bit of a mess of the start but they just looked to have the legs on us in this stuff,” said Ainslie after racing, which will be a concern for British fans to hear. However, as Ainslie acknowledges the British team were pretty poor in the start and never gave themselves a chance. In these conditions with manoeuvres looking to be tough passing opportunities are always going to be few and far between.

My view would be that Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli looks stronger than they have to date in windier weather, but the winning margin is probably not representative of the differential between the teams.

That being said, Luna Rossa looked to be the more polished team in these frenetic conditions – and indeed have looked the most polished team throughout in terms of manoeuvres. Of course it’s always easier to be calmer when you are controlling the race, but this was a fairly ominous performance overall from the Italian team.

Race 2 INEOS Britannia Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

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

Both the waves and the wind had increased for the second race of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final and for the first time this regatta the racing was delayed due to the wind averages being over those allowed to start a race (averaging over 21 knots). We have seen plenty of racing delayed to date, but it has always been due to winds being too light to start a race.

After a 10 minute delay to racing, the breeze finally dropped below the required average and the start of the second race was go.

Once again with the wind and waves both at the top end of that which the AC75s can cope with, both teams looked a little cagey in the start box, as had been the case in the first race of the day.

Ainslie and Fletcher on INEOS elected to tack round at the right hand boundary in the pre-start while Spithill and Bruni on Luna Rossa gybed around looking to push the Brits back to the line early.

Heading back to the line Luna Rossa were to windward, with INEOS to leeward, but once again both crews were late coming back to the line and they were both well back at the start gun, with the Brits to leeward and a little ahead.

Both boats went all the way to the left hand boundary and INEOS tacked with the ‘water’ advantage to force Luna Rossa to tack at the same time. What followed was a fascinating drag race, with both boats on port tack heading to the right hand boundary. And both boats looked very evenly matched in a straight line with INEOS potentially getting a little bow-forward on their competition.

Before the boundary Luna Rossa elected to tack away and the Brits just managed to tack right in front of the Italians to force them to tack straight back – an impressive bit of work by Ainslie and Fletcher but it was a fairly high risk move as we have seen a lot of teams try the same only to allow their opposition to foot through them to leeward. The Brits stood on on starboard to reach the layline for the windward gate.

At the windward gate for the first time it was INEOS Britannia who rounded the right hand mark with a 7 second lead over the Italians who rounded the opposite gate mark, having put in an extra tack.

On the first downwind the Brits looked to have sailed away a little bit and sure enough round the leeward gate they had extended up to a 17 second lead, demonstrating the downwind pace we have seen from INEOS throughout the Louis Vuitton Cup.

The Italians had once again managed to get to the opposite mark on the leeward gate and, on the early part of the upwind, won back a healthy amount of distance with a nice port tack shift as they came back from the left of the course.

By the first cross on the second upwind the Brits were leading still, but it was closer and Ainslie and Fletcher once again aimed to tack right in front of the Italian team.

Luna Rossa managed to put their boat into a really impressive high mode, though and actually managed to gap off INEOS’ windward hip and live there all the way to layline. By the next windward gate, Luna Rossa followed the Brits around the right hand gate mark, but were back to only 7 seconds behind.

Once again INEOS was showing a turn of speed on the downwind and used this pace to step away a little from the Italian team to lead around the next gate by 13 seconds, but Luna Rossa were once again able to gybe late to get a split out of the gate. Unlike last lap, this time the Italians were headed to the ‘wrong’ side of the course and they could not make significant gains.

The race continued to stay close but the ebbs and flows were the same, the British team had a slight pace advantage downwind but, despite INEOS Britannia having the pick of the tactics, Luna Rossa managed to hold onto the coat-tails of the British team and never looked like they would go away, maintaining a gap of around 10 seconds give or take.

The lead had blown out a little by the finish as Spithill and Bruni tried throwing in a couple of extra gybes on the last downwind. So INEOS crossed the finish 18 seconds clear and took the second race of the day.

“I think we sailed the boat a bit better in that race and it was a good one,” said Ainslie after the race. “We managed to get a good jump up the top of that first beat. To be fair to the Italians they managed to stay pretty close to us throughout.”

“We’ve had two good races today, I think the performance was pretty similar between the boats today. It was really challenging, a bit like driving a Ferrari on ice,” said Spithill of the day’s racing.

What did we learn from the Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 2?

These two boats are clearly very close in terms of outright performance in today’s conditions. And a win in the second race of the day will be a relief for the Brits after losing the first. But Luna Rossa looked the stronger boat (and arguably team) on balance over the course of the day

That the Italians were calmly able to get splits at most gate marks, showed their superior manoeuvring today and that they managed to remain within touching distance of the Brits despite being on the unfavoured side of the course speaks a great deal about their pace.

However, we did see INEOS Britannia demonstrating stronger pace downwind, which has long been a strength of theirs.

All-in-all one race apiece is probably a fair result and the passing opportunities in these windy conditions were few and far between, so the main takeaway is (as ever) ‘win the start, and you’ll probably win the race…’

Roll on races three and four on a light winds Saturday 28 September.

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