America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Day 1 report: Lessons for teams and organisers alike

The first day of the America's Cup Preliminary Regatta has concluded with winners and losers and lots of lessons for all concerned

Nearly four years after we last saw AC75s fighting it out on the water, today, Thursday 22nd August 2024 saw the foiling monohulls back on the water. The six teams taking part in the 2024 America’s Cup were on the waters of Barcelona duking it out as the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta got underway.

Today also marks exactly 173 years since the yacht America won a race around the Isle of Wight on 22nd August 1851 and thus kicked off the America’s Cup all those years ago.

It was not expected to be an incredibly revealing event – with racing proper, the Louis Vuitton Cup, set to begin on 29th August, no teams were expected to be pushing too hard or revealing too much – but even with this in mind, it was something of an inauspicious start, with plenty to do from both the teams and the organisers to make this a real spectacle.

Barcelona itself, however, was delivering with a solid breeze in the early to mid-teens and a decent sea state providing some impressive conditions. Certainly we have heard a great deal from designers about the waves in the lead up to this Cup and the difficulty of the short, sharp chop for a foiling monohull was clear from the off.

Key takeaways from Day 1

• Worrying sense of Déjà vu for the Brits as Ainslie seemed unimpressed with his team’s speed
• The French have a long way to go and their inexperience showed here
• Technical gremlins on boats and broadcast dogged the opening day
• Emirates Team New Zealand and American Magic probably had the best days

Race 1 Alinghi Red Bull Racing Vs Orient Express Racing Team

Skippers
Alinghi Red Bull Racing: Arnaud Psarofaghis & Maxime Bachelin
Orient Express Racing Team: Quentin Delapierre & Kevin Pepponet

The first race of the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta 2024 was, realistically over before it started with the French Orient Express Racing Team late into the starting box and picking up a penalty for their efforts.

There was some debate in commentary that the team may have had an issue with their electronics, but this did not seem to be supported by skipper Quentin Delapierre. “We made too many mistakes and at this level that is not [good enough],” the Frenchman explained. “We just gave the start to Alinghi. We missed the entry and after that we were not able to take the strategy of the start correctly. We just need to do things better.”

After such a poor start it was always going to be nigh on impossible to overtake another boat unless you have a great deal of boatspeed in hand. Ultimately it was a relatively easy win for Alinghi Red Bull Racing who kept a close cover on their French competitors to cross the finish first.

What did we learn from the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Race 1?

There’s not a great deal that we can learn from this race. The French mistake in the lead up to the start renders the race essentially over before it’s started. The French may well be able to draw heart from staying within touching distance of Alinghi.

Ultimately this was a battle between the team with the smallest budget (Orient Express Racing Team) and a team who broke their mast 2 days ago and had to restep a new one (Alinghi).

Race 2 Emirates Team New Zealand Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Skippers
Emirates Team New Zealand: Pete Burling & Nathan Outteridge 
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni

The second race of the America’s Cup Preliminary Series was a more tantalising prospect. The last time we saw these two teams racing was in the last race of the 2021 America’s Cup, where the Kiwis bested the Italians to win the Auld Mug.

And for the first couple of minutes it looked as though the gloves were off with a bit of a fight in the startbox going the way of the Kiwis with Burling and Outteridge winning the pin end of the line and forcing the Italian’s to tack away. The Kiwis followed and from there kept a tight cover on Luna Rossa.

However, immediately after a tack, early on in the race Luna Rossa suffered an electrical issue and needed to retire, the skippers calling on the onboard comms that they had “lost the boat” before stalling.

“It must have been an electrical issue, I’m 99% sure it’s an electrical issue,” explained Bruni after the team had regained control of their boat. “It was not ideal and a little bit scary as well as we suddenly had zero control of the boat.”

What did we learn from the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Race 2?

In the end this was such a short race, it’s hard to walk away with any key pieces of information. Certainly the two boats looked pretty even for the couple of minutes of racing we saw.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli did get up and running again for the fourth and final race of the day. But the electrical gremlins will be a worry for the Italians, a total shutdown at another time could easily see the team in serious trouble.

Race 3 INEOS Britannia Vs American Magic

Skippers
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainlsie & Dylan Fletcher
American Magic: Paul Goodison & Tom Slingsby

This was probably one of the most revealing races of the day with a close fight in the opening stages between the Brits and the Americans. It would also be interesting to see how two very different designs would go with the American team opting for a very aerodynamically efficient, small hull and the Brits opting for a more muscular powerful design.

It was a pretty even affair at the start of this race, with INEOS perhaps a couple of inches ahead and just to windward out of the startline. However, American Magic demonstrated a good high mode to squeeze up to the Brits and force them to tack away early. Even with this, once the two teams came to their first cross INEOS were a boatlength ahead and to my eye looked to have a decent turn of pace upwind.

But the Americans had certainly got the geometry of the course right and one less tack on the upwind saw them take the win at the first windward gate. From there they stepped away downwind, where they looked to have a decent edge all race and never really looked back.

For his part, Ainslie did not seem impress with the performance of his team’s boat, stating: “They sailed a great race and had the legs on us for pace. We had a nice start and had the first cross but they sailed around us… we’re lacking some horsepower, so need to get the boat back to the shed and think about how we get more pace.”

On the dock after racing cyclor crew Ben Cornish added: “It was amazing conditions firstly, really really nice sailing in the boats. A decent start for us on Britannia, we were quite strong out off the line, strong at the first cross – and then I think the American boat picked up a nice bit of pressure and shift on the right, and just got nose ahead.

“As we’re starting to see here, once a boat gets strong and has the choice route it’s certainly hard to pass on the way back. I think we sailed the boat reasonably clean around the course. So baby steps, but moving in the right direction.”

What did we learn from the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Race 3?

It would be fair to walk away from this race with the view that American Magic had a slight pace advantage over the Brits. That the Americans looked a little more conservative in the manouvers may imply that they have a little more up their sleeve too.

Early data suggests that the British boat sailed around 500m further than the Americans, and being out of phase in the shifts will have set them back with a big deficit. But the biggest worry for British fans will be Ainslie’s comments at the end of the race. If genuine, they British team may be facing another uphill battle – at they did in the last AC when they needed to turn around a serious pace deficit.

Race 4 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs Orient Express Racing Team

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
Oreint Express Racing Team: Quentin Delapierre & Kevin Pepponet

Sometimes you have days on the water that you just want to forget about and this will be one of them for the French America’s Cup team as they dropped off the foils trying to slow themselves down coming into the start box. Having dropped off the foil they were then late into the startbox and picked up a penalty as they had in their first race.

The French team then picked up a second penalty by going out of the course boundary when trying to get foiling once again and ended up crossing the startline a good 12-13 seconds behind the Italians. As Jimmy Spithill said at the finish: “It was pretty much all over at the start.”

What did we learn from the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Race 4?

These appear to be some serious gremlins onboard the French boat with issues in the start procedure in both races and issues throughout racing with foil height. Their design – purchased from Defender Emirates Team New Zealand – looks decent in a straightline, but this small team has plenty to do to be competitive.

Luna Rossa seemed to recover from their electronics issue in their first race of the day. And although Spithill says that “It’s great to get the issue sorted now when it doesn’t count,” one imagines it would be better not to have the issue at all.

Cup TV Presentations

As much as this is a test regatta for the six America’s Cup teams it also serves as a testing ground for the America’s Cup viewing experience too.

And here, like some of the teams, there is work to do. Audio mixing was pretty poor with music and comms from the boats often drowning out the commentary and lots of missed connections when speaking to teams. Generally the audio was far from a polished experience and a long way from the production standard we saw in the 2021 America’s Cup.

There were some cute little technical details on display including a live wind graphic, which overlayed colours on the screen to correspond with wind pressure. This seems a great innovation for the unfamiliar viewer and tallied nicely with boat speed each time I saw it used. But a dearth of graphics elsewhere will need sorting.

When there are series out there like SailGP delivering such an impressive viewing spectacle, as the pinnacle of the sport the America’s Cup really should be, at the very least, at that level.

Follow all of our 2024 America’s Cup coverage

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