America’s Cup: Luna Rossa makes a great start to go 2-0 up in the Challenger final

In just three weeks, Luna Rossa has turned this series of America’s Cup challengers around.

In January, the Italian challenge, co-led by Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni, ate the dust of Sir Ben Ainslie’s dominant INEOS Team UK in the free-for-all races. They lost all three meetings to head to a semi-final against American Magic and would ultimately sweep 4-0, while the British gained direct entry to the final.

Now here they were on the opening day of the Prada Cup Final Challenge Series in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf (Course A) sailing with a 2-0 lead. It was the perfect start to the best of 13 series and marked a true milestone for the British. As losing captain Sir Ben Ainslie commented at the end of the day, “today was not enough.”

Sure, the light winds for the first race played into Luna Rossa’s hands splendidly, but even as the breeze picked up for the second showdown (around 14-16 knots), it was still the skilled Italians setting the pace to get victory in a tighter competition by 26 seconds. There is still a lot of wind in this contest to foil AC75 monohulls, but right now it’s Spithill and Bruni who are holding the whip.

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“It was a good day, I thought the guys did really well on board,” said a delighted Spithill after race two. “There are still some things we need to improve on. But great team work. The ship was shooting very well.

“We know we have a great ship. We have a great package here and a very good team supporting us on the shore. So we trust our ship, but we still know that there is a lot on the table. We made some mistakes today and we will definitely be back to try and improve them for tomorrow. “

As the Italians headed to Race 1 with the wind barely blowing a zephyr on a sunny Auckland Saturday afternoon, they must have imagined the gods of navigation smiling at them.

These, after all, were conditions that they would have marked, if they could. The light winds are where they have a decided advantage over the UK team, which is why it transcended into the opening of the Prada Cup final in a breeze that started at just 7 knots and built marginally thereafter.

The opening race was effectively decided from the start, when the British missed the start and had an initial 600 meter lead that the Italians never seemed to give up. They came to victory by 1 minute 52 seconds to inflict the UK team’s first defeat in 2021.

The start was not the aggressive dogfight that was expected, with the UK team unable to even get up on their foils. By the time Ainslie managed to get a slow Britannia going, Luna Rossa was already well cleared in the first leg and reached the first gate with a 1 minute 20 second lead.

The British were also not helped by an early penalty for crossing the starting line too early.

From then on, everything went smoothly for the Italians, who have taken a definitive step since the round-robin. They executed clearly and intelligently up front, extending their lead to 1:36 at the second gate, downwind, to 1:54 at mid-stage and 1:57 at the fourth mark.

The British cut their deficit by 11 seconds on the final downwind leg, but by then it was what they call junk time in sports, with the Italians coming in for the easiest of victories.

“We are very happy … one is done,” Bruni said afterwards, confirming that they had suffered their own “scare” at first, when they also almost fell off their foils.

“We had a very scary moment. Everybody yelled at GB, ‘don’t go up, don’t go up’ … he was trying to kill a little time. We did it just in time. The guys did a fantastic job getting the sails back on. It’s a split second moment and you can be depressed and it can be a very different story. “

For Ainslie, the first game had to do with the start, which didn’t come out as her team at all.

“We were definitely slow in that race. One boat could get off the foil and the other could not, and that was the story. But it is what it is and we have to do the best we can under the conditions and keep pushing, ”he said.

The statistics detailed the history of the opening race, with Luna Rossa holding a decided advantage in upwind speed (30.11 knots to 28.48) that allowed them to dictate from the start.

The second race, in cooler conditions at 14-16 knots, was a much closer affair, with the British getting off to a better start, crossing neck and neck with Luna Rossa and right in the mix as the two boats split in different directions. on its first tacks.

But Luna Rossa’s slight upwind lead was notable, as she advanced 11 seconds at the top mark, then made more forays downwind to turn into the second gate with a 17-second lead.

From there, she held her ground as she headed towards the Italians as they barely missed a trick, extending her lead to 19 seconds in the third gate, holding steady at 18 seconds in the fourth and out for 26 seconds in the penultimate. brand, an advantage. they would hold out until the end.

“The Italians did a good job, they just sailed a little faster and a little better around the field,” said a rueful Ainslie afterward. “So credit to them. We’re going to have to go and think about how we can get a little more rhythm and see some of the things that we didn’t do quite right. “

But he remained optimistic that he could find his way back to this contest as early as the second day of Sunday.

“They are a great team and it can be quite difficult to beat them. They don’t make a lot of mistakes for you, unlike the other fields where the wind is coming off the ground and there are some changes there and the field can open up quite quickly. A different day, so let’s see what we have tomorrow. “