Damage to Luna Rossa hands race victory to INEOS Britannia but the Italians fight back + full Louis Vuitton analysis

Once again the wind was up for the Louis Vuitton Cup Final in Barcelona as Luna Rossa and INEOS Britannia continue their fight to get to the America's Cup

In stark contrast to the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta and Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin and Semi-Finals, the Finals of this event have consistently seen windy conditions. And today’s racing on Tuesday 1 October delivered top end conditions once again with 16-22 knots blowing across the course at the expected start time of 15:15 CEST.

So far there has been little to choose Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and INOES Britannia and both came into today’s two head-to-head races with three wins each in the best of 13 series. And as the competition wears on, the pressure continues to pile on the teams to ensure that they do not go more than one race behind.

Key takeaways from Louis Vuitton Cup Final Day 5

• Recurring damage is becoming a concern for Luna Rossa
• INEOS looked fast but costly errors are mounting up
• Both teams will need to up their game if they go up against Emirates Team New Zealand

Race 7 Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Vs INEOS Britannia

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainslie & Dylan Fletcher

Despite the windy weather the first race of the day got underway right on time with INEOS Britannia with Port (and thus first) entry into the start box.

We have consistently seen the British team preferring to chase in the start box and, once again they tacked around early to allow the Italians to lead out to the right hand boundary.

As the Italians gybed around, the Brits gybed in front of them to get into position as the leeward boat at the start.

It was from exactly this position that Luna Rossa managed to win the second race of the day yesterday. But Ainslie and Fletcher closed the gap a little more today and really tried to put the squeeze on Spithill and Bruni.

But the Italians did an impressive job to live to windward and slightly bow-forward of the Brits and as INEOS tacked at the left hand boundary, Luna Rossa tacked in front and to leeward in a strong lee-bow position.

Ultimately that was a spot that the Brits could not live in and they tacked away in pretty short order.

Luna Rossa went all the way to the right boundary before putting in their tack to come back on starboard. However during the tack, they struggled to get the windward board down fully, delaying their tack fractionally.

This coupled with a slight port tack lift for the Brits saw them clear ahead at the cross, allowing INEOS to tack right in front of Luna Rossa just coming into the windward gate.

Luna Rossa tacked around to take the opposite gate mark, but suddenly the Italian boat had a huge nosedive shortly after their bear-away and dropped off her foils. It was immediately clear that there was some significant structural damage to the Italian team’s boat.

That put an end to the Italian’s race, but they opted to remain on course and not get any shore crew onboard in order to force INEOS Britannia to finish the course – if shore crew stepped onboard the boat, Luna Rossa would be disqualified for outside assistance and the race win would automatically go to INEOS Britannia. Better to force the Brits to sail the course just in case they picked up any issues themselves.

Ultimately, though the Brits immediately went into conservative mode, sailing the downwinds with both foils down and, after a couple of laps, the Luna Rossa shore team requested the abandonment of the race, clearly hoping to get onboard the boat and asses the damage full ahead of the second race of the day.

It is unclear the extend of the damage as I write this. But it looks as though the damage to Luna Rossa was as a result of the huge nosedive, and not the cause of the nosedive. The only visible damage is the fairing on the deck around the point at which the jib sheet goes under the deck. But the worry is that this is indicative of a serious failure under the foredeck.

“We had a problem at the top mark and we stuffed the bow in the water and had a lot of water come on deck. So we lost the instruments and part of the fairing. But I’m sure we can fix it before the next race,” said Francesco Bruni.

This damage will be of concern to the Italian team not only as it comes at a crucial moment in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, but it adds to damage we have seen on the Italian boat before, missing a races previously from a dramatic traveller failure in the Louis Vuitton Cup Semi-Final and a lost race in this Final series due to batten breakage in the windy conditions on Sunday.

Race 8 INEOS Britannia Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Skippers
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: Jimmy Spithill & Francesco Bruni
INEOS Britannia: Ben Ainslie & Dylan Fletcher

The wind was always due to build a little throughout the day and as the start time approached for the second race of the day, the breeze was up to 20 knots in some areas of the course, begging the question whether the second race would even go ahead – if the wind is averaging over 21 knots then a race cannot be started.

And sure enough at the first attempt to run the race, the wind was just over limit causing a delay to the start. Finally, the wind did moderate enough (and for long enough) to get a race underway after around 15 minutes of delays.

With the wind blowing at the very top end of the limits, the question was, would the Italian team’s AC75 hold up to the conditions?

Luna Rossa had port (first) entry into the start box and led out towards the right hand boundary, with the Brits again happy to follow. And once again the Italians slowly looked to work their way down the boundary, looking to sail deep into the start box.

Instead of gybing around and following the Italians down the boundary as the Brits have done in several start sequences, they decided to go for a late, risky tack close to the boundary and managed to pick up a boundary penalty for their troubles. “We just got out of position and in these conditions you just can’t throw the boat around in the same way you can in lighter airs. So that was our mistake,” said Ainslie at the close of racing.

The Brits might have got a slight skid to run over the boundary, but with all the advantage on their side, it’s hard to argue that was other than a massive unforced error from Ainslie and Fletcher.

With the penalty to scrub immediately, the Brits crossed the startline well behind the Italians to lose the distance straight away, putting Spithill and Bruni in control.

The Italian team then put a solid cover on the Brits all the way up the beat to lead at the windward gate, rounding the left mark (looking upwind) by 12 seconds over the Brits who took the right mark.

INEOS had come back into it in the first downwind, once again displaying their pace, and by the leeward gate, the Brits had closed up to 8 seconds and had split the course, with INEOS Britannia on the right and Luna Rossa on the left.

But at the first cross it was still Luna Rossa who crossed clear ahead with a reasonable 150m lead.

Luna Rossa elected not to put cover on the Brits and the teams continued to split sides of the course all the way up the beat, but it was INEOS who looked to be closing the gap, particularly on each tack and gybe where the Brits seemed to be making the biggest gains.

At the windward gate, both teams rounded opposite buoys, with Luna Rossa heading right (looking upwind) and leading by 7 seconds – a gap that remained the same at the leeward gate with the teams once again splitting the course.

Up the penultimate beat Spithill and Bruni did an excellent job of protecting the right of the course that had become slightly favoured to keep the charging Brits at bay.

Through the gate Luna Rossa took the left hand mark and had extended to 9 seconds ahead of the Brits who took the right mark. Although INEOS Britannia was on the windier side of the course, it was Luna Rossa who extended with a good shift on the downwind, building their lead to 12 seconds at the final leeward gate.

But for all the seeming advantages to the Brits today they simply could not get close enough to pull off a pass and amazingly, once again the day finishes with the scoreboard all square at 4 wins each.

What did we learn for Louis Vuitton Cup Final Race 8?

Given their boat was held together with tape for the second race of the day, Luna Rossa had no right to take the win, but win they did. Spithill and Bruni did a very impressive job to hold on minimising their manouvers and picking the best of the shifts to keep INEOS at arms length.

As for INEOS themselves. You can only say they brought that loss on themselves. Their boat looked quicker today and really they only needed to be conservative in the start to give themselves the best shot at going two races ahead. Instead they sailed themselves out of bounds to throw away the race before it had started.

It’s hard to imagine the pressure these teams are under in this regatta and in these conditions. But if the Brits want to win the America’s Cup they’ll need to be better than today’s showing. And if the Italians want to win, they’ll need a boat that stays in one piece.

Who will win in tomorrow’s forecast lighter conditions? Who knows…

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