Athena Pathway, the British team competing in the PUIG Women’s America’s Cup, is top of the leaderboard after five races of the qualifying series.
With four races completed on Saturday, four more were due to take place on Thursday, but due to light wind the fleet only managed to complete one. Athena Pathway, supported by Cobham Ultra and representing the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, finished the fifth race in second place, taking its scorecard to 1-3-2-2-2.
As racing was abandoned, the final three races of the qualifying series for Group A, teams from nations that are also competing in the 37th America’s Cup, will now take place on Friday morning. The top three teams of Group A will join Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands who were the top three teams from Group B, the invited teams, in the Semi-Final. The four Semi-Final fleet races are due to take place on Friday afternoon, and the top two teams will progress the PUIG Women’s America’s Cup Final Race on Sunday.
It had been an intense 48 hours for Athena Pathway as they had a race against time to get on the start line on Thursday. On Tuesday, the Canadian women’s team were racing in Athena Pathway’s AC40 race boat Sienna, as part of the boat sharing agreement between teams. During racing, Canada suffered a huge nosedive and sustained damage to Sienna’s foils and systems. In order for the British team to race on Thursday, a spare AC40 was brought into action with parts transferred from Sienna.
Athena Pathway Team Principal and Skipper Hannah Mills said: “It wouldn’t be an America’s Cup without some challenges, but we are thankful for all the hard work to get us on the start line today.”
The British crew began the first and only race of the day with a late start putting them in fourth place out of sixth on the first leg. Despite the tricky start, Mills and the team managed to make serious gains and climb up to second place in the first leg. The Brits were just 8m behind leader Emirates Team New Zealand on the approach to the first gate, when the Kiwis touched down around the mark. It was a great opportunity for Athena Pathway to take the lead, but they also fell victim to the light air around the mark and touched down before a quick recovery to stay airborne, but still in second.
The second leg saw the wind drop further and Emirates Team New Zealand fall of their foils once again as Athena Pathway closed the 325m gap to take the lead. The Brits then touched down, and struggled to get back up on the foils in the light conditions. Almost out of nowhere, the Swiss team, Alinghi Red Bull Racing, then managed to fly past both New Zealand and the Brits to steal the lead. With conditions making it tough for all teams to stay up on their foils, the race committee shortened the course to just three legs. Switzerland managed to maintain the lead and secure the win on the third and final leg, with Athena Pathway finishing in second. The seven points boosted Athena Pathway to first place on the leaderboard, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) in second and Alinghi Red Bull Racing in third.
Mills said: “It was a tricky day today, we saw some light winds and big swell of up to two metres. It turned into a bit of a surfing competition and survival mode for teams to stay up on the foils. Unfortunately the breeze dropped and didn’t come back, which saw racing abandoned for the day. We go again tomorrow and are in a strong position currently so we are aiming for some solid races tomorrow to secure a spot in the Semi-Final.”
Racing resumes on Friday at 09:00 BST (10:00 CEST) and UK viewers can watch all the action on TNT Sports.
