Cup Spy – Day 16: Louis Vuitton Cup racing is halted for the day

Cup Spy – Day 16: Louis Vuitton Cup racing is halted for the day

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World NZ September 28 10:44 UTC
September 27, 2024

Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 2 Live Updates:

Race summaries:

Louis Vuitton Final Match 3: GBR vs. ITA Start: 2:10 PM CET (12:10 UTC) Entry: Port: TBA Starboard: TBA

The start has been postponed for more than two hours because the wind does not reach the minimum. The race started at 2:10 PM UTC.

The priority for both boats was to stay on their foils during the pre-start, with the safe option being to avoid jibes and pile up both boats on the windward side of the start line, while INEOS dived around the starboard end of the line to cross stitches, thus obtaining the windward position. Luna Rossa came in through the middle of the line, dipped it and then started, with INEOS Britannia to windward and a 12 meter lead.

The British grabbed a 20° shift to the right about two-thirds of the way through the first beat, giving INEOS a big leap ahead of the Italians. It was not clear whether the British found the shift or whether the shift found them. Either way, it dictated to some extent how the race would unfold.

They then led around each mark – with the wind being highly variable in pressure across the course – if the wind information displayed was accurate. The Livewind reading was usually around 7.5 knots, which was supported by the fact that the AC75s both reached a remarkable 35 knots, or almost five times the wind speed.

Both boats almost shed their foils during tacks and gybes, especially as the wind started to lighten in the second half of the race.

The Italians were the first to get rid of their foil after apparently losing their appetite due to the wind. The British followed suit a few minutes later, after their rudder appeared to wash away as the AC75 tacked.

Both boats were still on leg 5, with INEOS leading the way, with co-driver Dylan Fletcher calling that they had 16 minutes left to break the 45-minute race time limit.

At that point it was very unlikely that the race was heading for abandonment unless they were foiled.

Without data from Virtual Eye it is not possible to infer much about the relative performance of the two boats.

The performance data of the two boats shows little real difference between boats other than Luna Rossa on the port border, which crashed two minutes ahead of INEOS Britannia, which was in slightly better winds on the starboard side.

In the run-up to their landing, Luna Rossa had reduced the British lead from over 400 meters as they left the port border to 135 meters when the Italians made good VMG on the starboard side. INEOS sailed around the course and kept up the thwarting pace, but made few real gains towards the finish. They clearly had problems with skipper Ben Ainslie calling for maximum effort and saying: “This is it”.

That was a hallmark of the British era, where they felt quite comfortable spending their lead sideways to continue to prosper, probably knowing that once they were off the foil they would never get back up.

Luna Rossa had to lose some distance in the first count by missing the 20° shift, but occasionally got a header/slight increase in pressure downwind and was able to briefly take the British lead. But when they too resorted to crossing the course to maintain foil sailing, they only increased their deficit, while the British merely spent money they already had in the bank.

In the final score, as INEOS Britannia rounded the finish line, with 3,500 meters to sail, they led the Italians by 600 metres, with both boats hoping for a sniff of a new, fresher breeze – which never came.

And in their weather team, INEOS Britannia has the best professional sailor, navigator and meteorologist, Juan Vila, who happens to be born in Barcelona. Vila is the only Spanish sailor to have won a Round the World race and the America’s Cup. How much does he add to their mix?

Mark Roundings and Margins – Final Race 3 (abandoned)

Boats began to pass the starting line and dive back across to start to stay on the foils.

Mark 1:04m 57sec GBR led ITA margin 19sec
Mark 2: 10m 06sec GBR led ITA margin 15sec
Mark 3: 15m 50sec GBR led ITA margin 88secs or 945meters on the water.
Mark 4: 20m 41sec GBR led ITA margin 73secs 0r 380meters on the water. Luna Rossa came off the foils in a tack outside the port boundary. GBR came off the foil about a minute later and was tacking along the starboard boundary when their rudder washed away during the tack. both boats travel at a speed of 4-6 knots in displacement mode and meet the race time limit of 45 minutes to finish.
Point 5: 35m 22sec GBR led ITA margin 359sec.

Race stopped when the 45 minute time limit expired. All racing for the day was subsequently stopped, much to the delight of the Luna Rossa supporters.

Weather forecast:

America’s Cup weather partner PredictWind has provided a dedicated Race Weather Center that provides fans with access to detailed daily weather reports, live webcams and historical weather data to daily weather reports written by meteorologists.

Preliminary prediction Race day 16, Saturday September 28, 2024:

From Arnaud Monges, former meteorologist of the America’s Cup team:

Saturday 28th

The morning starts with an offshore wind from the Northwest and by the afternoon the wind will die down. A weak onshore current from the east-southeast is expected to increase to around 5 knots in the early afternoon, increasing to 10 knots in the afternoon. As the wind speed increases, the wind direction should turn clockwise to the southeast and later to the south.

Sea conditions will be calm 0.6 meters from the east at 5 second intervals.

It will be a sunny day, but with lower temperatures than the day before. Highs will reach just 22°C due to a cold air mass coming from the north.

Sunday 29th

In the afternoon, a south-westerly wind of 10 to 15 knots combined with clear skies should make for a great day of racing on the water.

Louis Vuitton Cup race schedule, pairs and starting box entries:

• Louis Vuitton Match 3 Final: GBR vs ITA Start: 2:10 PM CET (12:10 UTC) Access: Port: TBD Starboard: TBD
• Louis Vuitton Match 4 Final: ITA vs GBR Start: 3:15 PM (CET) (1:15 PM UTC) Access: Port: TBA Starboard TBA

Live race report from Saturday:

Pre-race commentary:

The finals are based on the America’s Cup: there are 13 races on the program and the winner is the first to score 7 points. Generally it will be the first to win seven races, but the International Jury can impose point penalties for infractions, on and off the water, that are not covered by the racing rules which are assessed by the refereeing team.

Two races are scheduled each day. The same wind limits will apply as for the previous rounds of the Louis Vuitton Cup – a lower limit of 6.5 knots and an upper limit of 21 knots, measured at the top and bottom of the course (start line) using recording equipment at each port. There are four devices in total, with measurements averaged over 30-second intervals over a five-minute period between the 9th and 4th minutes before takeoff. If the wind is within permitted limits, the Course Director will make a radio call (heard on the TV commentary) to tell the teams that the race will go ahead.

When the starting signal is given, the race continues regardless of what the wind does, regardless of the wind limits. Once the starting signal is given, the only restriction on the race is that teams must have a first leg time limit of 12 minutes, and then a 45-minute race time limit. The length of the stages, the compass direction of the next stage and the number of stages can all be changed by the race committee during the race.

So far, no race has lasted longer than 25 minutes.

The race director has the authority not to start racing (even if the wind is within prescribed limits) if he is of the opinion that the sea state is unsafe. He also has the ability to cancel a race for safety reasons – a power he almost used during the lightning strikes on Day 5 of the Louis Vuitton Cup. However, Emirates Team NZ’s decision to withdraw from the race and sail beyond the 100 meter boundary line, which led to their disqualification, and the immediate awarding of the race to Luna Rossa, meant that the actions of the Chief Referee made every action was prevented for safety reasons by the Race Director. .

Our coverage includes weather, live video, updated live footage from the race track, finishing statistics, finishing times, margins and other commentary.

Course location:

Weather information – Louis Vuitton Cup – Final – Day 2

Crew lists

Virtual eye

Now or after the race you can replay key points or the entire race using ARL’s Virtual Eye

You can go straight to Virtual Eye America’s Cup coverage by clicking here, clicking ‘View Previous’ and then selecting the race you want to watch. This is a 3D viewer that allows you to zoom in, out, around, up and down, just like you can in a helicopter.