BARCELONA, 16 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Switzerland’s Alinghi Red Bull Racing and the United States’ NYYC American Magic remain in contention for the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup at the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona after winning their respective races on Monday in the semi-finals against Great Britain’s INEOS Britannia and Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli on a day called off due to lack of wind.
Alinghi’s ‘Boat One’ and American Magic’s ‘Patriot’ earned another day of racing in Barcelona on Monday and the chance to not leave this America’s Cup without a single victory in their respective semi-final series, which INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa continue to dominate by 4-1.
For the moment, on a day when the wind did its thing, this time due to a lack of strength, in the waters off the coast of Barcelona, both Alinghi and American Magic achieved their primary objective: winning the first race of their semi-finals to stay alive.
Despite a penalty for Alinghi Red Bull Racing at the start of the fifth race of the semi-final 1 of this Louis Vuitton Cup, which foreshadowed a quick farewell for the Swiss to the competition, they recovered and were favoured by the fall of the ‘Britannia’ in several wind holes on a regatta course that did not help the spectacle at all; but it did help the Swiss syndicate.
INEOS Britannia sank, entering a wind pool and dropping its speed below 10 knots. This allowed Alinghi, which was almost 300 metres behind, to regain the initiative shortly after the start of the third of the six scheduled races. The British, unable to regain their flight as they were in a zone of just 6 knots, saw Alinghi go more than 500 metres ahead and, after another fall of the foils, this disadvantage was doubled and a penalty was added for leaving the race course.
The race was shortened by the Race Committee to 5 marks and, despite the fact that in the fourth race it was Alinghi who ‘crashed’ and lost its flight, already with a 1,965-metre lead over the ‘Challenger of Record’ who opted to give up, with many problems to be able to get its silver boat flying.
In the fifth and last race, with hardly any wind, both boats were floating in front of the Catalan capital, unable to fly and taking forever to reach the final mark due to the lack of wind. Less than 10 knots of speed for both teams, even though it seemed that the wind was starting to blow with a little more intensity.
In the end, the countdown to the 15-minute time limit was used to end the race without being valid. Alinghi, like INEOS, was having trouble flying and, despite having a big lead, had to reach the finish line before the time limit to be able to score its first point in this semi-final of the Louis Vuitton Cup. It suffered but it did it, celebrating in style the 4-1 deficit, but the first victory in its semi-final.
And something similar happened in the fifth race of the second semi-final, between the NYYC American Magic from the United States and the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli from Italy. As in the first semi-final, this one started with a 4-0 lead for the Italians and the chance to seal their passage to the final of this Louis Vuitton Cup, but the New Yorkers, based in Pensacola (Florida), prevailed to extend the series.
In the third of six races, with better winds than in the first race of the day, an initial penalty for Luna Rossa, which was ahead, forced them to pass behind a ‘Patriot’ with priority of passage, but immediately afterwards they crossed paths again and the Italian boat regained the lead.
In an exciting race, the Italians lost their flight and fell on their foils after yet another crossing in a race that was a pure match race. Luna Rossa found it almost impossible to gain speed to regain its flight and Magic gained an impressive lead of over 1,500 metres.
In the final stretch, Tom Slingsby and Lucas Calabrese made no mistake and seized the opportunity with great flight control from Andrew Campbell and Mike Menninger, taking a brilliant victory to keep their Louis Vuitton Cup semi-final hopes alive and put the score at 4-1.
But that was the end of the day, although it was not until about two hours later that the Race Committee decided they did not want to keep Alinghi and INEOS Britannia waiting any longer, as they were due to contest their second race of the day, the sixth of their semi-final. With no wind, the decision was made to cancel the rest of the day and the semi-finals, both 4-1, will resume on Wednesday.