With the Louis Vuitton Cup pairings, start-line entry and timings decided yesterday at a tense and, at times, fractious, Press Conference as Sir Ben Ainslie delivered the INEOS Britannia team selection of Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the second race of the day and the starboard entry, it’s now down to business.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli selected the port entry in their match, the first start of the day, against NYYC American Magic and yesterday at the free-to-enter Race Village on the Moll de la Fusta the match-ups, variables, weather conditions, crew configurations and latest tech were debated at length, long into the evening. The disparity of opinions expressed is, for sure, a marker of just how close all four of these teams are, with very few predicting a whitewash to any team – we shall see.
Racing gets underway at 14:00 CET here in Barcelona and the weather is very much the focus with this morning’s northerly ‘drainage’ wind, the ‘Tramuntana’ expected to dramatically shift to a southerly direction in the early afternoon, settling at an expected south-easterly ‘Xaloc’ breeze in the region 8-12 knots. If that happens then it will be perfect conditions for the AC75s but there are several weather models showing more west (Garbi) in the predictions and some suggesting gust brackets in the mid-to-upper teens.
The sailors will be out early and looking at their rig and sail set-ups intently with some very difficult jib calls to make as it’s expected that all the teams will run with their biggest mainsail skins. Select a jib that’s too big for the conditions could be a serious error if the wind builds but look like genius if the lower end of the scale comes through.
Decisions, decisions.
What we know for certain is that all the semi-finalist teams will come out at the peak, for now, of their development cycle. With the series being a first-to-five, there is simply no room for error and so what we will see today are the AC75 yachts in their optimum configurations. Sand-bagging days are a thing of the past. It’s all on and it’s game-on on race day one of the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals.
Strap in, this could get exciting
