The Louis Vuitton Cup Final continues to be the closest of competitions as INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli end another race day on even points.
The British Challenger of Record, racing for the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, started day four of the first-to-seven series with a race win against the Italians, before they then came back to secure the second race win and level the scoreboard on three points each.
INEOS Britannia Team Principal and Skipper Ben Ainslie said: “The racing is the gift that keeps on giving isn’t it? We’ve got two great teams doing a good job, but at some point something will have to give. The team did a solid job all day today, we sailed the boat really well but Luna Rossa did a great job getting the lead in the second race and hanging on to it. We didn’t make any mistakes, they just did a good job and I think it’s going to be like that the whole way through.”
The first race on Monday, and the fifth race in this incredibly tight series, was won and lost in the start box. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was port entry this time, with INEOS Britannia gybing to get on their tail as the Italians crossed in front. Luna Rossa headed for the boundary again, the British tracking them as both boats ran deep along the virtual wall before the Italians turned back up.
At that moment, INEOS Britannia jumped them, sailing down across the top of the Italian boat to lead back – but a mistake onboard Luna Rossa in the manoeuvre dropped them off their foils. It put them eight seconds behind at the start, giving the British team a 90m advantage at the first cross.
The remaining legs were a case study in how to defend a lead in a match race. The British protected the favoured right-hand side each time, sailing more loosely when they had a good lead, hitting the Italians hard if they closed up. The gap at the gate marks didn’t change much throughout the first three laps, opening up to 11 seconds at gate four, before closing up again on leg five.
It was a big slide by the British boat while rounding the right-hand mark at gate six that gave the Italian crew a sniff of hope. They followed around hard on the heels of INEOS Britannia, before tacking away to put pressure on the British crew. There was just 35m in it at this point, but a beautiful couple of tacks allowed Ainslie and co. to regain control, slamming their boat in front of Luna Rossa each time they tried to escape from the right-hand boundary.
This was a proper, old school, lung-bursting tacking duel, and by the time they had reached the layline the British were firmly back in control. They led around the right-hand mark of gate seven with an eight-second lead, the Italians following. The British boat matched each of the three Italian gybes on the final leg to finish with a twelve second margin… and the score card at 3-2.
The sixth race saw a much more even start, with neither team able to get control. They came off the line with INEOS Britannia to leeward, and edging into a slight lead, forcing the Italians to tack away before the boundary. The British boat followed quickly to keep it tight, but now it was Luna Rossa that was edging forward as they led towards the favoured right-hand side. The Italians went all the way to the boundary and were 25m ahead when they tacked.
Ben Ainslie and his team pushed the leebow tack as close as they could without getting a penalty, but it wasn’t quite enough. Slowly, the Italian boat eked out control, holding all the way to the layline and leading around the right-hand mark with INEOS Britannia four seconds behind.
After that it was a repeat of the first race, with the roles reversed. The British wriggled on the hook with every strategy in the book, but the Italians didn’t put a foot wrong and on a one-side course with no passing lanes the inevitable outcome slowly unfolded. For the third time, the Italians levelled the series… this time at 3-3 with a margin of 17 seconds at the finish.
INEOS Britannia Co-Helm Dylan Fletcher said: “Today really showed how evenly matched these boats are in those conditions. It was all won or lost on the start. It will be down to fine margins and which team keeps learning, progressing and executing on the water. We are feeling really positive, we are learning each day and the boat is getting faster each day so we just need to take that confidence and keep pushing.”
The Louis Vuitton Cup Final resumes tomorrow for Race Day 5. UK viewers can watch the action live on TNT Sports from 13:00 BST (14:00 CEST).
