It was a frustrating Race Day 2 of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final for INEOS Britannia, as the race they were leading by 500m was abandoned on the final leg, before the day was then called off due to light winds.
The second day of racing between the Brits and the Italians, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, was plagued by light conditions. The start was delayed by almost two hours while the race committee waited for the wind to reach the lower racing limit. When the race did eventually begin, INEOS Britannia performed brilliantly in the lighter airs to lead the Italians round the course. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli eventually succumbed to the light conditions and fell off their foils in leg five as Britannia continued flying. That was until disaster struck for the Brits on that same leg, with them too falling off their foils and the race then being abandoned when it was not completed within the 45-minute time limit. The Race Committee then called off all racing for the day, meaning the scores stay level at 1-1 in the first-to-seven series.
INEOS Britannia Co-Helm Dylan Fletcher said: “It was frustrating to not finish the race that we were leading but we will take the positives from it and hopefully tomorrow will be better conditions. Despite the end we managed to sail the boat well in those light airs and we are certainly all thankful to the Cyclors for digging us out of some deep holes, you could hear them really giving it some behind us. People don’t see how incredibly hard these boats are to sail and we gave it everything we could in those conditions, but it’s all good experience and we will learn from these moments.”
The aborted race was an excruciating affair, with INEOS Britannia leading by almost six minutes on the final leg when the time limit ran out. Ben Ainslie and his crew had sailed a fantastic race, but after such a long postponement it was always going to be tricky. From the entry into the start box it was all about staying on the foils. It led to an unusual start with the British boat at the right-hand mark, and Italy at the left-hand mark.
The British had the favoured end of the line, and after Luna Rossa tacked at the boundary, INEOS Britannia was able to slam a tack on their air, moving into an 82m lead and a controlling position. When the Italians tacked, Ainslie and co. let them go, they had seen a great right-hand shift which they took and steadily lifted away from Luna Rossa, eventually extending their lead to 200m and rounding the left-hand mark 19 seconds in front.
Luna Rossa took the opposite mark after a tricky tack and bear away, but they had picked the correct side and used it to execute the pass on the way to the boundary. But when both boats gybed INEOS Britannia got into better pressure first and started making gains. When they gybed back, the British were able to execute the pass as they got the pressure first. A touch down from Luna Rossa as they gybed on the boundary allowed Ainslie and his crew to extend away again, and they led by 15 seconds at the gate.
The next lap saw beautiful course management from INEOS Britannia, and they were 1 min 13 seconds ahead at gate four, but with the breeze dropping it became all about staying airborne. On the fifth leg, first Luna Rossa then INEOS Britannia dropped off the foils trying to tack. The British continued to sail away but the clock ticked on inexorably and with just half of the final leg to go the time limit was reached and the race abandoned.
Racing is scheduled to resume on Sunday, when better conditions are expected. UK viewers can watch live on TNT Sports from 13:00 BST (14:00 CEST).
