Cup Spy - Day 17: Louis Vuitton Cup - Finals Day 3 - Not for the faint of heart
by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ 29 Sep 13:51 PDT
30 September 2024
Luna Rossa and INEOS Britannia - Finals Louis Vuitton Cup - Race 4 - Day 17 - September 29, 2024 - Barcelona © Ian Roman / America's Cup
Today's racing live (Races 3 & 4) and On Board (Stern) cameras and audio for each AC75 here:
Commentary - Fortune favours the Brave
Critics of the AC75 and its suitability as a match racer for the America's Cup should be eating their words after Sunday's Blinder in Barcelona.
INEOS Britannia was handed a win for the resail of abandoned Race 3, after Luna Rossa was disqualified for a rule infringement after support crew were on board assisting with a mainsail replacement, after several battens were broken (see more comment below).
The two crews locked horns in the pre-start of Race 4, with the Luna Rossa helm combination of Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni clearly getting the edge over their counterparts Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher. It was the first of several incidents where the very experienced Italian helming combination got indignant protests from the Brits as they pushed the boats and the rules to the absolute limit.
Some of us have seen this movie before - San Francisco in the 2013 America's Cup—in which Jimmy Spithill used very aggressive tactics in the start box in the final week of the regatta, leaving the Kiwis bereft and bewildered.
The conditions in that decade-old regatta were similar to today in Barcelona - a fresh breeze which kept triggering the upper wind limit - and it rewarded fast, hard, and aggressive driving. It's not a place for the faint-hearted.
The British crew called several " protests." All were "green flagged" by the booth umpires for the simple reason that the Italian boat kept clear, if indeed it was the give-way boat.
In the backend of yet another green-flagged incident, INEOS skipper Ben Ainslie called, "This is a joke, umpires ."
On the Italian boat, all discussion was very calm, level, and about what had to happen next.
After the race, in the Mixed Zone, Spithill was asked about his reaction to the Brits' on-the-water protestations: "I won't be losing too much sleep over it."
Unlike his rules coach, Ben Ainslie seemed to be more philosophical about the push and shove. "It's pretty full on when you're doing 47 knots and are within 10 to 20 metres of the other yacht trying to judge whether you should be gybing or not. I guess that's why we go racing: because we want to be pushed to the limit, and we were certainly pushing it to the limit today."
Addressing specific questions on the always excellent Inside Tack about interacting with the Umpiring team, Ian Williams, the Brits' rules coach said he's already spoken with the Chief Umpire about the umpiring decisions.
"I've spoken to him to get his first reaction. But they [the umpiring team] are also having a debrief about whether they are happy with the decisions or not or whether they would have done something different. I'll also be seeing him tomorrow to go through the debrief that they've had, give them some of our feedback, and get feedback from them."
On Luna Rossa, co-helm Francesco Bruni must take a big share of the credit for the Italians' performance. Bruni sits in the port-side co-helm seat and would have been sailing the boat in many situations where very precise boat positioning was required. Jimmy Spithill is on the starboard helm spot one, which allows him to control the AC75 at the start, where he can put his not-inconsiderable match-racing talents to good use.
The Old Firm is on their second America's Cup sailing as co-helmsmen in AC75s. They are well practiced and got the Kiwis to three wins apiece, three days into the last America's Cup.
The Brits did make a very late decision to switch Giles Scott out as co-helmsman. He had been a long-time henchman for Ben Ainslie, both in the 2021 America's Cup and SailGP. Ainslie opted to step away from SailGP helming duties and hand over the skipper/helmsman role to Scott.
The new line-up is very effective in the lighter winds, but in todays top-end breeze, they were not as polished as the Italian crew.
Today was an extreme day, even by AC75 standards - aside from the repeated wind limit blowout - and a new record speed was set for an AC75 of 55.2kts in a race, and is faster than an F50 in SailGP racing events.
Today's real difference was not in some design feature, not in picking a fortuitous windshift, but simply that one set of helmsmen was prepared to push the performance envelope harder than the other. That confidence comes from experience together as a combination and trust.
Spithill is excellent as a skipper - always calm, says just the appropriate words for a situation, and clearly inspires self-confidence in his crew - qualities that were very evident today.
Probably the most surprising aspect of today was how little conversation there was on the Italian boat.
Racing will be held on Monday, a reserve day when two races are scheduled.
This Finals phase of the Louis Vuitton Cup looks like it will go right down to the wire. Many will believe that an arm wrestle will create a strong challenger; maybe that will be the case. But those with long memories will remember Luna Rossa's first Louis Vuitton Cup Final, which was a slugfest between the Italians and America One. Luna Rossa, in their first America's Cup Match, was beaten 5-0 by the Kiwis.
The defending America's Cup champion was training and appeared to relish the top-end racing conditions, but then AC75s always look superb when they are sailing alone, don't they?
Race Commentaries
Final Match 3: INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port entry) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Starboard entry) Start time 1410hrs CET or 1210hrs UTC
The Italians have replaced their mainsail and appear to be OK. The wind is exceeding the maximum and the new start time is 1612hrs CET 1412hrs UTC.
Great Britain appears to have suffered a broken batten in their jib and have lowered the sail, with their remedial action being unclear.
After several delays due to the start of Race 3, the wind came within the upper wind limit, and a start sequence was run.
Luna Rossa (ITA) had several broken battens in one of their mainsail skins and took the decision to change mainsails and battens - a 30minute task. Unfortunately for the Italians the wind did not exceed the maximum limit inside the prescribed period, and with four minutes to the start, the race officials had to let the start proceed.
Luna Rossa had already started lowering her mainsail and had support crew on the AC75 assisting with the operation. A few seconds after the designated start time, the Chief Umpire made a radio call disqualifying Luna Rossa, and awarding the race to INEOS Britannia - putting the Brits 2-1 in the points score for the Finals. The DSQ was applied because there were non-sailing crew on boat - exceeding the allowed eight people allowed in the crew for racing (which technically the teams were in being in a pre-start and race start process).
Although Luna Rossa have a 15 minute delay card it was wisely not used. There is a minimum period of 35 minutes between races, and potentially Luna Rossa could also use their 15minute delay to extend that time.
The Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing were out for a practice sail/maybe publicity sail in fresh winds, and had the misfortune to capsize. The AC75 stayed on its side however took some time to recover, and will require a complete work-over of systems before the AC75 can sail again. On the tow back to the team base motorised pumps were running to remove water from the inside of the hull.
Final Match 4: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Port entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard entry) Start time 1612hrs CET or 1412hrs UTC
Mark 1: 03m 30secs ITA led GBR margin 4secs. Boats sailing at 55kts on mark rounding in 20kts.
Mark 2: 06m 16secs ITA led GBR margin 6secs. Distance margin at mark was 120 metres. GBR established overlap to leeward on ITA and called Protest. No incident.
Mark 3: 10m 13secs ITA led GBR margin 5secs. ITA rounded at 52kts. ITA did nice gybe and took margin out to 200metres. ITA slowed slightly on Leg and Brits came closer.
Mark 4: 13m 01secs ITA led GBR margin 11secs. GBR swung wide at mark losing 100metres and ITA out to 200metres margin extending to 400metres midway up Leg 5. Boats sailing at 39-40kts.
Mark 5: 16m 46secs ITA led GBR margin 19secs. On the water distance out to 421metres extending to 460metres.
Mark 6: 19m 36secs ITA led GBR margin 20secs. Distance 294 metres at start of Leg 7.
Finish: 26m 38secs ITA led GBR margin 04secs or 76 metres distance.
Key Statistics Finals Race 4:
- Race Winner: Luna Rossa; Time: 26m 38sec; Margin: 4secs; Distance: 76 metres;
- Top Speed: 55.2kt (ITA) 52.5kt (GBR); Average: 41.3kt (ITA) 41.4kts (GBR);
- Upwind Speed: 37.9kt (ITA) 38.4kt (GBR); Downwind speed: 45.8kt (ITA) 45.5kt (GBR)
- Average VMG: 25.3kts (ITA) 25.1kts (GBR)
- Distance sailed: 33,920mtrs (ITA) 34,162mtrs (GBR)
- Tacks: 15 (ITA) 14 (GBR); Gybes 9 (ITA) 10 (GBR); Total Tacks/Gybes 24 (ITA) 24 (GBR)
Weather Prognosis:
America's Cup Weather Partner PredictWind has provided a dedicated Race Weather Center offering fans access to detailed daily weather breakdowns, live webcams and historical weather data to daily weather breakdowns written by meteorologists.
Provisional Forecast Race Day 17:
Sunday 29th
In the morning, a weak offshore flow from the North-West will be present around Barcelona. By mid-day the wind will turn left and establish into a South-Westerly direction. During the afternoon, the wind about 10 knots will quickly increase up to 15-17 knots, with gusts up to 20+ knots. The wind direction will be steady around 220°.
Sea state of 0.6 meter from the South with short period of 3 seconds.
A partly cloudy day with temperatures few degrees warmer up to 24°C combined with solid winds should make a great racing day.
Arnaud Monges Former America’s Cup Team Meteorologist
Virtual Eye
After the racing you can replay the key points, or the whole race using Virtual Eye from ARL
You can go directly to the Virtual Eye America's Cup coverage by clicking here and click on "Watch Previous" then select the race you wish to view. Virtual Eye is a 3D viewer so you can zoom in, out, around and up and down just like you could in a helicopter.
Yesterday's Race is now up - go to 2m 12 secs and see the big lift that INEOS Britannia and the huge impact that had on their VMG - and gave them a 220metre lead.
Proposed Match Schedule:
- Final Match 3: INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port entry) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Starboard entry) Start time 1410hrs CET or 1210hrs UTC
- Final Match 4: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) (Port entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard entry) Start time 1515hrs CET or 1315hrs UTC
Course Location:
Crew Lists: -