It was a day of tie-breaks and heartbreaks as the Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup drew to a close. For INEOS Britannia, the Challenger of Record, it was unbridled joy as they secured the top spot in the Challenger standings after a dramatic race-off with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, whilst for Orient Express Racing Team, the late Challenger from France, unfortunately their regatta is over after a loss to the British.
With so many permutations at the start of the day, all eyes were on the winds in Barcelona as a building southerly thermal filtered up the Mediterranean and produced just enough to get racing underway. From the very start, INEOS Britannia looked sharp with Sir Ben Ainslie’s team dispatching the French, and thus closing down immediately one of the day’s permutations, after a runaway race where Orient Express Racing Team did their level best to come back into late on. The British showed composure to cross the line after six legs with a 71-second winning delta.
Speaking afterwards, a deflated Quentin Delapierre, the outstanding skipper and sailing figurehead for the French team, took the defeat well and in perspective, saying: “I do think that what we built together with the sponsors and with the whole of the team is getting stronger and stronger, and for sure the ambition is to come back. But if we come back, we will need to come back stronger and faster. I think we were missing a bit of an edge in this competition and also some practice in the pre-start and the close calls. Overall, I think what we achieved together is pretty significant but unfortunately, we were not able to get inside the semis. We built things together. We worked hard on it. We were in the mix, so it is an achievement but not enough. Hopefully we will be back.”
Following France’s defeat, the remaining semi-final spot was secured for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who took on the then overall leaders, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, with the odds seemingly stacked in the Italians’ favour, based on previous performances.
However, just ahead of the start, Luna Rossa sailed outside the far-left boundary with a technical issue, unable to lower their starboard (right) board, and were disqualified by the Race Committee. Alinghi Red Bull Racing started cleanly and were immediately awarded the win, but the knock-on effect was a tie in the standings at the top, requiring a race-off between the Italians and the British.
Silvio Arrivabene, the co-General Manager of Alinghi Red Bull Racing, spoke afterwards and summed up the feeling in the team about their safe passage to the semi-finals, saying: “Well, it’s certainly a relief of course, but now I think it’s a new chapter and we have five days away, new weather conditions, we have the ability to perhaps do some improvements on the boat and how we sail the boat. It’s a relief but we’re looking ahead, very focused but very energised.”
Ahead of the match of the day (the race-off), Emirates Team New Zealand executed a dominant performance against NYYC American Magic who brought in Lucas Calabrese on the port helm today. After a fall off the foils in the pre-start, and a further fall off again on the penultimate leg of the course by the Americans, the Defenders sailed off to a flattering two minutes and 37 seconds victory and finished the Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Cup topping the overall six-team standings (with their results included). The next time we will see Emirates Team New Zealand racing will be in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match on October 12 and all eyes will be on the technology they may deploy in the coming weeks.
Speaking afterwards, Nathan Outteridge, port helm on ‘Taihoro’ teased when asked about what’s coming saying: “Hopefully you won’t be able to spot the difference, but yes, now we’ve got some upgrades coming to the boat which should be ready to start testing later this week. Obviously without being able to do any racing, we can’t really do much more race practice now, so it will all be internal simulator stuff. Hopefully there is a bit of performance still on the table still with the boat – which you’ll have to keep your eye out for.”
