Today (1200 local 2000 GMT) sees another match between Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand and another chance for the Italians to demonstrate how they plan to haul back the performance advantage that the Kiwis currently have.

There is no doubt that Luna Rossa’s performance on Sunday was a marked improvement in boat handling from their first race against the Kiwis, even though they were to finish 2min 19sec behind. But what were the real numbers that currently separate these two Challengers? A look at the hard data, (as recorded by the Virtual Eye tracking software), from their second race provides an interesting comparison.

LV Cup – Race 9         ITA NZL
Distance Sailed (km)  37.036    35.947
Average Speed (kts)  23.77      24.19
Max Speed (kts)        37.73      38.72

Drilling down through the finer detail there are several other interesting points.

The only time that Luna Rossa out performed the Kiwis was on the upwind legs when they averaged between 0.1-0.3 knots faster and on the short reaching leg to the finish when they were over 2 knots quicker. But even though the Kiwis had no jib, one of the reasons for the closer upwind performance, downwind the Kiwis were always faster by 1-2 knots.

For those that point to possible differences in the breeze experienced between the two boats as an explanation for some of the performance differences, the wind speeds and directions recorded by both boats reveals very even conditions. In true wind direction, both boats sailed within a few degrees. The average wind speed recorded by each boat was within 0.2 knots, apart from the final leg to the finish where the Italians had 1.1knot more which would help to explain their boosted performance into the line. Indeed, when it came to recording maximum gusts, the last leg was the only one where there was any difference.So there we have it, numbers to confirm what we saw on the race track and confirmation of the perfromance slope that the Italians have to climb.

In the meantime, Artemis has taken another big step towards the racing after launching its modified and beefed up second boat yesterday.

“This is a great day for many reasons” said Torbjörn Törnqvist, owner of Artemis Racing. “It is the culmination of a heroic effort to put together this beautiful boat. The shore team has put so much into this, and now for our sailing team to get out there and give her justice. I am proud to share with you this great moment.”

The Blue Boat, christened “Artemis Racing”, will now be fixed with Wing #3 and undergo the dock tune process, which will set the boat up for sailing. This mainly consists of mounting the wing and adjusting all the rigging to proper tensions and lengths. There is also an in-the-water run through of the onboard systems, including wing control, daggerboards, steering, etc.