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22 Aug 2024

Sail World

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 22 Aug 16:40 UTC 22 August 2024

Emirates Team NZ and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli - AC75 - Barcelona - August 22, 2024 © Ian Roman / America's Cup

America's Cup 2024 - Figure 1 — Photo Sail World

The opening day of the 37th America's Cup regatta promised much but delivered little.

Only one of the four races had some close moments - that was Race 3 between American Magic and INEOS Britannia - and that only lasted a couple of legs. Granted the start was close, and there were some lead swaps revealing what should have been, after rounding the first two marks that too saw American Magic ease away to a comfortable win. But it was an appetiser only - not the main course.

Barcelona turned on some magnificent sailing conditions for the foiling monohulls, with a 13-15kt breeze just west of south, and flat seas.

The young French crew aboard Orient Express were involved in a couple of walkovers - sealing their own fate before their races had begun. Their start timing was way off on the first race of the warm-up event, against Alinghi Red Bull Racing who looked good and were never under threat. Quentin Delapierre and friends could take some comfort in being able to stop the margin being extended in the middle section of their races, but there is a lot of work to be done, and not a lot of time left.

Race 2, the match that promised much - between the two teams that contested the 2024 America's Cup Match got away to a great start with the rout of Race 1 quickly becoming a bad memory. But as the Italians were closing for a cross, astern of the Kiwis, the computer system on Luna Rossa had a hissy fit, and shut down triggering a small nose dive. A reboot took around 30 secs and the Italians were away again, but only to soon opt to retire. Whether something was picked up by the shore team, who knows. But Race 2 also rapidly devolved into a one boat race. And Emirates Team New Zealand looked like, well, Emirates Team New Zealand.

INEOS Britannia showed maybe surprising, but certainly reassuring early potential against American Magic in Race 3. The US boat is widely tipped as one of the form horses amongst the challengers. They were back on their game today after a nose dive at 43kts while practice racing on Wednesday.

There were several lead changes in what was looking to be a good race, but the Brits slipped out of gear on Leg 3 as a 7sec margin blew out to 21 secs, and again the chances of recovery looked slim, and in the end the US team won by half a minute - which is a very long way sailing at 45kts.

Race 4 was a rinse and repeat of Race 1. Orient Express fell off their foils 90 secs before the start of the race - handing Luna Rossa a big lead which they never had a hope of pulling back. The most encouraging aspect of the race was that Luna Rossa seemed to have overcome their system issues and sailed around the course without seeing a death screen. Again the French crew gave the race away at the start, held on bravely for a couple of legs before letting it go in the back end of the race - with the margin at the finish stretching to 93 seconds - which at AC75 pace clocks out at 1.5km.

It is expected that the results and racing will be better tomorrow, it is hard to imagine them being much worse.

Provisional Race Results summary:

Race 1 - Alinghi Red Bull Racing v Orient Express

The Swiss led across the start line by a significant margin and opened up to a lead of 150 metres over the French. They did 8 tacks on leg 1.

Mark 1: The Swiss led around Mark 1 by 12 seconds and stretched away to a lead of over 220 metres with the AC75s hitting 43kts

Mark 2: Alinghi Red Bull Racing led by 7.39 secs over Orient Express. On Leg 3 the AC75s were hitting 38kts sailing to windward.

Mark 3: Alinghi led by 13secs over Orient Express but on Leg 4 downwind the separation decreased to under 200 metres but increased slightly at the end of the Leg.

Mark 4: Alinghi maintained the margin to 13secs with both boats hitting 38-39kts after rounding on Leg 5

Mark 5: Alinghi extended on Leg 5 to lead by 22 secs around Mark 5 and hit 45kts on the bearaway, with the margin growing to 400 metres midway down Leg 5.

Finish: Alinghi Red Bull Racing extended downwind to lead by 36secs at the finish in a race which lasted 22m 43secs.

Race 2 - Emirates Team NZ v Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Start was even with Emirates TNZ at the leeward end.

Leg 1: Both started on starboard and then tacked onto port and headed for the beach. Luna Rossa came back out and was about to cross behind the Kiiws, when the Italians suffered a system shutdown and the boat nosedived, before pulling up with audio calls of "we've lost the boat" and they had a system shutdown stopping the boat while the on board computers were rebooted. Then the Italians continued racing, but the race was over.

However the takeaway was that the two boats were very evenly matched in boatspeed.

Luna Rossa confirmed their retirement on Leg 2.

Race 3 - American Magic vs v INEOS Britannia

Start was even, with the British shown with a 5 metre lead soon after the start with both on starboard tacks. They headed for the beach on port and when they came back the Brits were clearly in front. The lead changed when they crossed again.

Mark 1: American Magic led by 6secs

The Brits closed the gap but the US team defended a reduced lead.

Mark 2: American Magic extended to 7secs and a lead of 104 metres on Leg 3 USA stretched out to a lead of over 200 metres.

Mark 3: American Magic led by 21 secs and both boats were hitting 45kts on the downwind leg. But US extended.

Mark 4: American Magic led by 25secs and 450 metres

Mark 5: American Magic led by 31secs

Finish: American Magic led by 29secs and 555 metres

Race 4 - Luna Rossa vs v Orient Express

The French fell off their foils 1m 36 secs before the start and struggled to recover trailing by 190metres early in Leg 1.

Mark 1: Luna Rossa led by 20secs or 220 metres

Mark 2: Luna Rossa led by 21 secs or 240 metres

Mark 3: Luna Rossa led by 29 secs or 470 metres