Conditions were pitch-perfect in Barcelona for the seventh day of the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the wind clocking round to the south-south-west and delivering a breeze that topped out at 17 knots and an off-axis swell – challenging conditions that saw the big sailing names perform. It was a highly significant day for INEOS Britannia who showed every ounce of their potential, scoring first a win against Alinghi Red Bull Racing and then inflicting the first Challenger defeat on Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli with a clinical display of pace, power and racecraft from Sir Ben Ainslie’s team.
Barcelona was simply stunning with the backdrop of the city and the ongoing Puig Vela Clàssica Regatta plus the magnificent sight of the 3,770-ton displacement, four-masted Juan Sebastián Elcano naval training vessel – one of the iconic ships of the Spanish Navy. Shoreside the free-to-enter Race Village in the heart of the Port Vell and the Fanzones out at Bogatell and Plaça del Mar were packed with spectators enjoying the late summer sun and the outstanding facilities to make watching the Louis Vuitton Cup, a real pleasure.
On the water, the racing was scintillating from start to finish as the breeze filled and afforded some of the best racing seen so far in the Louis Vuitton Cup. INEOS Britannia showed all of their potential in the breeze with an initial commanding win over Alinghi Red Bull Racing early in the afternoon, whilst Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli stayed ruthlessly determined and edged a close race with NYYC American Magic.
The showdown of the day, though, was INEOS Britannia against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, where the British dominated right from the start and negated the high-mode that the Italians can deploy to such devastating effect on initial drag race off the start line. Having navigated this trap and seizing the lead, the British never looked back, although a small nosedive on a gybe exit on the final downwind leg to the finish was a reminder of the fine margins between success and failure in these AC75s. INEOS Britannia survived and slapped a 25 second defeat onto Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli to secure their passage to the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Ben Ainslie, skipper of INEOS Britannia, was delighted with the team’s performance saying: “It’s a great day for the team, we all know the America’s Cup is a bit of a battle to try and get the maximum performance out of these boats and for whatever reason we haven’t really done a great job of that so far, but today in those conditions we set the boat up well and showed what it’s capable of. We haven’t really raced that much in that sort of swell and breeze strength but it certainly felt like we got it hooked up in that stuff and it was going well. We did a nice job on that right hand side and if you’ve got a bit of extra speed, it makes the tactics look pretty good and we’ve got to keep looking to find those gains and take each day at a time.”
