NYYC American Magic

Brits are coming back! 2 wins in the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup today

INEOS Britannia is back in the America’s Cup final, scoring its first two wins against the Kiwis! The score is now 4-2 in this first to seven series.

It was a warm day in Barcelona with light winds, yet choppy seas. The mishap happened two minutes before the start of Race 5 when NZ fell off its foils. The reality is you have to capitalize on your advantage. “The gas off these boats is so big, particularly in the light airs,” says Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie. “If you can affect the other team in bad air, you’ve got to do it.”

Uncontested, INEOS Britannia shot out into a lead of over 1,700 meters before the Kiwis could get back up and flying. From that point on, for the British, the race was all about staying on the foils. And they took the win by 1 minute, 18 seconds!

In the second race of the day, as the clock ticked down to the start, Britannia aimed for a high-speed pin end start and Emirates Team New Zealand elected to tack off onto port and get to the right of the course, according to AmericasCup.com. Starting with 10 knots extra boat speed, the British sailors grabbed an early positional advantage that they were able to capitalize on to maintain their lead over the next eight legs.

The British fans who packed the Race Village and the beachfront Fanzones at Plaça del Mar and Bogatell nervously watched the final run to the finish. Emirates Team New Zealand were closing fast from behind. but the British made the cross of their bow on port gybe, sailed low and brought INEOS Britannia across the line to record a hard-fought seven-second victory.

“There is still a long way to go, but the comeback is on,” Britannia skipper Ben Ainslie said from his cockpit. “It’s a massive day for our team to really believe we can get back in this, and now the trick is to ride that momentum all the way.” (It has been since 1934 since the British won an America’s Cup race during the series.

Racing starts at 14:00 Friday, October 18. Stay tuned!

Photos/RIcardo Pinto, America’s Cup

 

October 16, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 4.

 

October 16, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 4, Race 5. EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND

 

 

By |2024-10-16T15:38:58-07:00October 16th, 2024|Tags: , , |0 Comments

Emirates Team New Zealand takes 4th win in the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup

A tough day for INEOS Britannia. Today they made sure they were positioned clear of the Kiwis at the pre-start and then looked strong from the start. It was a tense and tight race with both boats rounding  opposite windward marks at precisely the same time. But then the Kiwis gybed before reaching the left boundary with the narrowest of crossings. INEOS protested, but it was dismissed. Then the Kiwis worked on getting the lead and holding onto it.

On this six-lap course,  according to americascup.com, with the wind hovering around 10 knots and a dull cloud cover, Emirates Team New Zealand put on a masterclass of front-running, taking metres of leverage at every opportunity and defending the right side of the course upwind tenaciously.

The Brits had no choice but stay in the middle or to the left. By the final windward gate the Kiwis had a 24 second lead and by the finish, took the win by 23 seconds.

Dylan Fletcher, port helm on INEOS Britannia, reflected on the small margins saying: “We just focused on getting a good start. It was really nice, we squeezed them off and got the first proper cross, but couldn’t quite keep them behind – which was frustrating.”

Fletcher continued to answer the question how he felt about going forward, “I think that people have been doubting us from the start, but we’ve proved people wrong all along the way and we feel like we can take this to them, and we’ll just see how it goes on Wednesday. It’s disappointing but there’s a lot of belief and it’s not over yet.”

Stay tuned. Kiwis 4. Brits 0 in this first to 7 series known as the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup..

Photos/America’s Cup

 

 

 

October 12, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 1.

October 12, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 1. EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND, INEOS BRITANNIA

 

By |2024-10-14T10:07:12-07:00October 14th, 2024|Tags: , , |0 Comments

It’s all about ‘the start’. Emirates Team New Zealand takes 3rd win in the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup

Race Day 2 starts out with a wind in and above the 7.5 limit and Team NZ in the lead with 2 wins and INEOS with 0 wins. Both teams brought high-energy aggression to the Mediterranean waters as tens of thousands of spectators throughout the beachfront were treated to a dramatic pre-start of race 3.

Pre-start aggression for not steering clear of Team NZ penalizes INEOS and NZ gets the lead right at the start. From there the Kiwi team kept a tight cover on the British all the way around the six-leg racetrack, gaining another very hard-earned point with a win by 52 seconds.

It was to be the only race of the day as the wind kept dropping below the minimum wind limit. The Race Committee postponed Race 4  and scheduled it to be sailed tomorrow, Monday October 14.

Stay tuned. Kiwis 3. Brits 0.

Photos/America’s Cup

 

 

 

October 12, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 1.

October 12, 2024. Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, Race Day 1. EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND, INEOS BRITANNIA

 

By |2024-10-13T09:48:03-07:00October 13th, 2024|Tags: , , |0 Comments

INEOS BRITANNIA defeats LUNA ROSSA PRADA PIRELLI 7- 4 to win the LOUIS VUITTON CUP

The ‘Final’ match was tied at 4-4 and then INEOS took the lead on Thursday with a  6-4 score going into last Friday’s planned races. INEOS only needed to win the first race. And they did. It was a tight neck-to neck eight races and then the Brits pulled it out on the last three races and secured their place in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match.

Luna Rossa’s skipper Jimmy Spithill apparently decided to wrap up his AC career after this painful defeat.

INEOS Britannia is the Challenger in the America’s Cup after 60 years! They’ll be  taking it up against Emirates TEAM NZ on October 12. Stay tuned.

What’s next:

INEOS Britannia faces Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup. on October 12 Racing starts at 2.00 pm (14:00 CEST) on race days

Featured photo/Ian Roman, America’s Cup

Photos/America’s Cup

 

 

 

 

By |2024-10-09T10:04:02-07:00October 9th, 2024|Tags: , , |0 Comments

INEOS + Luna Rossa: Day 1 Louis Vuitton Final: 1-1

If proof were required as to just how closely matched the two teams in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final are, today in stunning and breezy Barcelona conditions, INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli went toe-to-toe throughout the day’s two races and at the end shared a race win apiece.

With a solid south-westerly ‘Garbi’ breeze that topped the upper wind limit of 21 knots more than once, it was survival sailing at times with the sailors opting for double-board round-ups at the leeward gates and minimizing maneuvers throughout the eight-leg races. With speeds in excess of 52 knots on the bear-aways at the windward mark this was top-class match-racing from two of the world’s finest America’s Cup teams. (America’s Cup Media)

We’ll see what Day 2 of the Louis Vuitton Finals brings. And what the weather has in store for Luna Rossa and INEOS Britannia. Stay tuned.

Challenger Standings

What’s next:

 The Final for the Louis Vuitton Cup runs Sept 26-Oct 7. The winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup is the first team to score five points  and will then face Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup. Racing starts at 2.00 pm (14:00 CEST) on race days

Featured photo/Ian Roman, America’s Cup

Photos/American Magic

 

 

 

 

By |2024-09-26T15:50:25-07:00September 26th, 2024|Tags: , , |0 Comments
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