America's Cup World Series: Day 2 - Live play by play reports from the Waitemata
by Ben Gladwell - Sail-World 18 Dec 2020 23:29 NZDT
America's Cup World Series - Day 2 - Waitemata Harbour - December 18, 2020 - 36th Americas Cup presented by Prada © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
Racing will get underway in the America's Cup World Series at 3.12pm New Zealand time.
This story is our rolling updates for the day
Four races will be sailed on the second day with racing set up for Course C - the Stadium course - between Rangitoto Island and Orakei Wharf.
The conditions are ideal for sailing AC75's with a NE breeze of 10-12kts which is expected to stay steady for the racing.
Overhead there are dull skies and little sunshine, as the spectator fleet move into position the competitors are yet to leave the Viaduct Harbour.
First race for today is set down for 3.15pm between Luna Rossa and American Magic.
Race 5 - Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs American Magic
Racing resumes today on Race Course C again, kicking off with American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. Luna Rossa didn’t start their day as planned, entering the start box early and copping a penalty even before the boats had had a chance to engage.
Barker took a conservative start, not rushing to get underway with Luna Rossa needing to drop behind to clear their penalty. At the first cross, the American crew passed a few lengths in front of the Italians only to labour through a tack, unable to raise their windward foil fast enough, their AC75 heeled crazily to leeward, threatening to capsize. Barker was his usual composed self while spectators held their breath and Italy sailed past.
Bolstering our take home message from yesterday about mistakes being costly, Luna Rossa’s co-pilots Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni set off for the top mark at full chat, rounding hundreds of metres ahead.
Not to be counted out, American Magic displayed blistering pace and a great lay line call on the first down wind, rounding the bottom mark just two boat lengths behind. Barker seemed to gain confidence from their downwind performance, a pretty conservative beat up the middle of the course, clearly hoping to roll Spithill and Bruni on the next leg once they turned down wind.
Barker and his tactician Paul Goodison took the race to the Italian syndicate on this second down wind, making them go through multiple gybes to stay between their man and the mark. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli proved equal to the task, keeping the delta as they rounded the same as at the previous mark.
American Magic kept this up for the final upwind, looking for a passing lane around the Italians but were unable to find an opening. Luna Rossa let them split near the top of the course, electing to approach the final mark from the starboard layline while the American Magic came in from port. Luna Rossa were 300m ahead as the breeze built and both crews tore away to the bottom mark at speeds hovering at times around 43 knots.
Spithill and Bruni held Barker at arms length, finishing 11 seconds in front.
Race 6 – Emirates Team New Zealand vs Ineos Team UK
Some pre-start sparring between Burling and Ainslie gave us a good taste of some traditional match racing, with Ainslie letting Burling off the hook in a dial-down where he could have pressed an advantage. Both boats set off towards the right hand side of the course, matching each other for speed and angle all the way to the boundary with ETNZ about 100m in front. Ineos certainly look to have banished their gremlins from yesterday and are looking strong and composed.
ETNZ nailed a slam dunk ahead of the first top mark and lead in, forcing Ineos to tack once again.
Aside from a little squiggle as they rounded the top mark, Burling and Co. showed a clean set of heels on the down wind, stretching out to a 30 second lead by the bottom mark. They found another gear on the final upwind, pulling out almost a minute on that leg alone to round the last mark 90 seconds ahead.
Even though Ainslie and crew don't seem able to lay a glove on the Kiwis, they have made huge strides in the last 24 hours - going from two DNFs to sailing a pretty solid if not spectacular race. Emirates Team New Zealand on the other hand, put on a performance somewhere between their ice cold clinical first race and wobbly second race, winning by 1:32.
Race 7 – American Magic vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli
Some great work by Dean Barker in the pre-start had Jimmy Spithill "on toast" as commentator Nathan Outteridge put it, getting a penalty and starting strongly. He seemed content to let Spithill have a split for the second half of the first beat. The risky strategy paid off, rounding the first mark 21 seconds ahead.
Yesterday American Magic impressed spectators with their downwind pace but didn't demonstrate such an edge early in this race. The boats sailed their own courses, not engaging at all, with the Americans dropping one second to Luna Rossa on the first downwind. Spithill and Bruni closed in further on the next leg, forcing American Magic to interact with them a little more as Barker seemed happy to spend a little of his lead to stay between his man and the mark. Their lead was reduced to nine seconds by the time they both reached the top gate but positioned themselves at the top of the course so that Spithill and Bruni couldn't have passed them.
Luna Rossa seemed keen to dig into their bag of tricks to find a passing lane, executing what the crew called an "Eagle J-K" where they put both boards down and sailed directly downwind to avoid gybing at the mark, then foiled around in a 180 degree turn to complete a tack-rounding of the mark and create a split course again. It seemed that if Luna Rossa was ever going to roll the American crew, they had to do it on the upwind as they appeared to have an edge on the beats but the advantage always swung back to American Magic on the runs as the race progressed.
Barker again employed the traditional approach in these far from traditional boats, burning more of his lead at the top mark to stay between his man and the mark. Luna Rossa rounded right on his transom and spectators looked to be in for a tense run but Spithill and Bruni couldn't make it stick, dropping back to around 250m behind.
This race was the first to have four laps so Luna Rossa wasn't completely out of time but they needed to throw everything they had at American Magic to force a mistake. Both boats set off up the middle of the course, exchanging tacks. Barker and crew held them out well and rounded the final mark 16 seconds in front. Boat speeds were fairly similar on this final run but the Americans always seemed to a couple of degrees lower and went on to win by 30 seconds.
Race 8 – Emirates Team New Zealand vs Ineos Team UK
Round two for Emirates Team New Zealand and Ineos Team UK today.
Huge start line bias and a botched ETNZ gybe in the pre-start handed Ineos a dream start, being more than 300m up the race track by the time ETNZ got across the start line.
Getting out and being able to sail their own race seemed to give the Brits a boost, retaining a 12 second lead a the top mark. ETNZ picked a long layline to perfection and was able to do a couple less manoeuvres in the top section of the course to bring it back late in the leg.
ETNZ split to the left hand side of the course on the first down wind and made some very nice gains, approaching the first cross on starboard and forcing Ineos to heat it up and pass behind them. Ainslie and crew, not appearing confident in their gybing ability, looked to minimize their manoeuvres and stole the lead back at the next cross. Expect both boats to seek that eastern hand side of the course on the next downwind as the boat approaching the cross from that side of the course would pass ahead.
ETNZ showed some serious wheels upwind, taking the lead back at the first cross by a couple of boat lengths on port and sailing all the way to the eastern boundary. When the boats came back together, ETNZ had established a 300m lead and sailed all the way to the boundary and set up in a strong position ahead and to windward.
Ineos still seems to be struggling in the manoeuvres, spending a little too long with both boards down and slowing down, but in a straight line they have a lot to be happy about. They are a different outfit to what we saw yesterday, rounding the second top mark 40 seconds back.
The breeze has dropped by now to around 11 knots but both boats are still sailing at close to 40 knots down wind. ETNZ's lead grows all the time down wind
rounding the bottom mark another seven seconds behind. As has been the theme, ETNZ hit high gear on the final lap, growing their lead to more than 1:31 on the last beat, stepping out even further on the final run to 1:42.
As Ben Ainslie said to his crew as they crossed the finish line "Well done lads, we didn't get the results, but we sailed a couple of clean races."
Points for the day are as follows:
- Emirates Team New Zealand: 2
- American Magic: 1
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: 0
- Ineos Team UK: 0
Points for the series are as follows:
- Emirates Team New Zealand: 3
- American Magic: 3
- Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli: 1
- Ineos Team UK: 0