Britain wins to break 60-year America’s Cup Challenger drought

The Louis Vuitton Cup Final has come to a close with INEOS Britannia knocking Luna Rossa out of the competition to set up an America's Cup showdown against New Zealand

After many days of windy conditions, the forecast was for all change today Friday 4 October 2024 in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final. With two wins yesterday INEOS Britannia went into the days two races at match point in the best of 13 series. For Luna Rossa, they would need to win both of todays races to level the score and force the racing to continue tomorrow.

Despite an unstable forecast predicting very light winds, the breeze did slowly build a little from the light winds in Barcelona this morning to see 12 knots around the race course in the build up to the first start. But, although the wind pressure from the south was a little higher than predicted, the shifty patchy nature of the wind (which had also been predicted) was very much present.

The vast majority of the Louis Vuitton Cup Final to date has been raced in windspeeds in the high teens, so relative performance between these two teams in the lighter weather remained something of a question mark.

But from everything we have seen to date, these two teams appear very evenly matched. Could today be the day INEOS send Luna Rossa home, or would the master of America’s Cup comebacks, Jimmy Spithill, strike again and force a tie-breaker race tomorrow?

Race 11 INEOS Britannia Vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

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

With the wind slightly higher than forecast, the first race of the day today got away without any delays.

It was quickly obviously looking at the AC75s that the wind was very puffy and very shifty. This would be a tense battle.

INEOS Britannia were first to enter the start box, but as has been their tactic throughout the final, the Brits tacked around to follow Luna Rossa. The Italian team gybed on the right hand boundary and the Brits gybed around in front of them.

Both teams were very early back to the line and needed to kill plenty of time. With the Brits parked up on the line the Italians pushed hard to try to accelerate better than the Brits, who followed them to reach down the line and they both hit the startline broadly even with the Italians just to windward of the Brits.

But Luna Rossa was slightly slower than INEOS off the startline and were a little closer than they would have ideally liked. Ainslie and Fletcher were able to convert some of their speed into a high mode and forced the Spithill and Bruni to tack away early.

INEOS immediately followed and looked to have the advantage as both teams headed toward the right hand boundary.

When Luna Rossa tacked, INEOS were clear ahead and tacked dead in front of the Italians. Spithill and Bruni immediately tried to accelerate to leeward and get an overlap to force a windward / leeward penalty, but the Brits accelerated out of their tack impressively to prevent it.

From there INEOS stuck a tight cover onto Luna Rossa and had built a handy lead over their competition, rounding the right hand windward gate mark (looking upwind) with a 10 second lead over Luna Rossa who rounded the left mark.

On the downwind, INEOS continued to show their intent to lock out the race keeping firmy between their competition and the next mark, allowing Luna Rossa to reduce the lead to 9 seconds around the leeward gate, but remaining in control.

Luna Rossa followed the Brits around the left hand gate buoy and Ainslie and Fletcher continued to keep a loose cover on Spithill and Bruni preventing them getting any significant separation.

Once again Luna Rossa tacked around the windward gate to try to split away from the British team, who had gybed early to get out to the right hand side (looking upwind) and close down the separation.

Luna Rossa were looking quick on the downwind and managed to eat up some of the distance to the Brits, who again looked to match the Italians gybe-for-gybe.

At the leeward gate Luna Rossa had reduced their deficit to 7 seconds and also managed to split out to the right hand mark, while INEOS went left.

The bottom right of the course looked strong and Luna Rossa had cut the lead even more. At the first cross INEOS were still ahead but it was close and, once again the Brits tacked right in front of Luna Rossa, to force the Italians back out to the right of the course.

Luna Rossa had gained again on the right and at the next cross with INEOS on port, they were too close to cover their competition and stood on to the right hand boundary.

But the top right of the course looked a touch stronger and the Brits had made some good gains enabling them to tack onto port right in front of Luna Rossa, who followed them around the right hand gate mark by 4 seconds.

Again the Brits were keeping a close cover on their competition matching them gybe-for-gybe on the downwind and managed to step away a touch with a couple of better gybes.

And once again the Brits rounded the left hand gate mark, 8 seconds ahead (looking upwind) an Luna Rossa gybed though the gate and out to the right.

The Brits tacked early to get across to the Italian team as, once again, there looked to be a little more pressure in the right of the early part of the beat.

The earlier tack worked to get them over to the right a bit earlier and the Brits were comfortably able to tack on their competition at the next cross, forcing the Italians back to the right of the course.

This final upwind was a better leg than the previous upwind for the Brits who, having held on by the skin of their teeth last lap looked a little more in control, once again keeping a tight cover on their competition and forcing them to sail in their dirty air all the way into the final gate mark.

INEOS Britannia elected to tack and bear away at the final windward gate to round the right hand mark (looking upwind), while Luna Rossa stood on for the left hand mark. The wind did look stronger on the right of the course, but it was a big manoeuvre and a big call from Ainslie to take the relative loss to get into the stronger breeze.

But it was quickly clear it was the right call and INEOS had extended a touch at the first cross to 150m in front. A 150m lead is far from comfortable in these boats, but the British team looked assured as they made their last gybe to the finish line.

And so INEOS Britannia sailed across the finish line to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and will become the first British team in 60 years to challenge for the America’s Cup when they take on the Defender Emirates Team New Zealand on 12 October 2024.

“It has been a while [since Britain was in the America’s Cup],” said Ainslie. “It’s a massive day for our team and I’d just say I’m so proud of every member of our team. So this is for all the team. And for all our fans and supporters back in the UK, it’s a massive moment.

“We started this team 10 years ago and Britain was not in the America’s Cup and we got a lot of great support and then of course Jim [Ratcliffe] stepped in too, so really thanks to all of them too.

“I want to say a big, big shout out to Luna Rossa, they have a huge history in the Cup. Thanks for an amazing competition I know it’s going to be a touch moment but you guys were a force and pushed us all the way.”

“It’s obviously a very tough moment for me personally and for the whole team,” reflected Bruni. “I think we did an amazing job as a team and we just didn’t deliver it in this Final, but I’m vert proud of what we’ve done and I thank everybody on this team for what they’ve done.”

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