Prada Cup: Day 3 Round Robin - American Magic capsizes in squall
by Ben Gladwell - Sail-World 17 Jan 2021 14:56 NZDT
American Magic - Patriot - Hauraki Gulf - January 17, 2021 - Prada Cup - 36th America's Cup © Richard Gladwell / Sail-World.com
In stark contrast to Day 2's racing, the breeze, averaged in the high teens and gusted to 20 knots. The course was lashed with rain squalls, with American Magic capsizing while leading Luna Rossa at the start of the sixth and final Leg of Round Robin Race 3
After coming away with no points in the first round robin, American Magic hoped to put on a strong showing today in their race against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, leading at the final mark with a defendable margin, but capsized, handing a win to the Italians.
Today's schedule is as follows:
Race 1: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs Ineos Team UK
Race 2: American Magic vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli
Stay tuned to this story for live updates of the races as they happen.
Race 1: Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs Ineos Team UK
Breeze on! Right from the get-go, it was evident that the intensity onboard stepped up about 10 notches in line with the breeze from yesterday’s racing. Crews are racing from side to side, onboard communications are more frantic and already Ineos has copped a penalty for going out of bounds in the pre start.
Luna Rossa lead them out with a nice start, tucked in tight to leeward and ahead of the Brits in a classic match race start. Ineos stayed tucked in behind and simo-tacked with them at the boundary. Ineos sailed the first portion of the beat lower and a little faster, but not winning the VMG standings and was unable to cross in front of the Italians, despite having the starboard advantage. Luna Rossa sits 100m in front. Both crews have their boats nicely locked in now, hauling upwind at 35 knots, VMG in the vicininty of 25 knots.
As the boats approac the top gate, Luna Rossa made a perfect lay line call for the gate where Ineos overstood by 3 or 4 boat lengths. Both teams went for the right hand mark, and bore away safely with Ineos trailing by 11 seconds and accelerating to 40 knots.
After the bear away, Ineos seemed to have a small unknown issue shortly after the boundary gybe and struggled for pace momentarily, slipping back to about 280m behind. Neither crew was overly clean in their manouvres at the top of the course, battling a bit in the breezier conditions. There seemed very little difference between the two boats on this first lap, and tactically they seemed happy to stick together and wait for the other guy to make a mistake.
Ineos mucked up their layline and was forced to throw in an extra gybe before the mark. Neither skipper nailed a clean rounding at the bottom, both touching down and giving the crews a decent hosing down.
Once they settled in to the second upwind, Luna Rossa seemed to have a slight edge, pulling out to a 300m lead and setting themselves up with a loose cover over Ineos, to windward but giving away the bow-forward position. When Ineos tacked back and crossed behind the Italians, Spithill gave away the opportunity to stick them with tight cover, electing instead to go all the way to the boundary.
It proved a good decision as they extended their lead out to around 500m. Spithill and Bruni seemed to have put together a very strong beat, extending their lead out to 44 seconds from 17 at the previous mark.
The two AC75s got a bit out of sequence on the second downwind, which should have served to benefit Ineos with the opportunity to sail in some different breeze from the Italian boat that they were chasing. A lot of chatter was coming off both boats as the breeze and sea state increased. Both tacticians were trying to make sense of what appeared to be a 90 degree wind shift.
A typical nautical tell-tale sign, a cloud of sea birds came tearing through the bottom gate. Experienced sailors will recognize such behaviour as a danger sign that there is about to be a massive change in the breeze strength and direction.
Much like the sea birds, the two AC75s were thrown into disarray by the shift and both boats almost had to sail across the boundary at the bottom of the course in order to be able to gybe and lay the mark. So much chatter on the race radio almost drowned out the commentators. Both boats drifted down in displacement mode, having to sail directly down wind to get to the mark.
On the back of the shift, there was almost no wind again and as the boats struggled to get going again, the race committee radioed in to inform the boats that the race had been abandoned. The wind had swung 90 degrees, turning the windward-leeward course into a 90 degree reach.
The course would be re-set and the race run again once the conditions had settled.
Race 1 - Take 2
With the breeze settled down, racing resumed around an hour later.
It was a carbon copy of the previous race, with Luna Rossa getting the best of the start, slotting in tight to leeward and ahead of Ineos. Ben Ainslie and crew had no option but to tack away before falling into the wind shadow behind Luna Rossa as they both set off for their respective boundary lines.
When they came back together, Luna Rossa, coming in on Port looked to be crossing ahead but elected to dip behind Ineos. It wasn’t clear whether Ineos dialed them down at all, but they didn’t appear to be sailing hard on the wind. At the second cross, Luna Rossa looked to have made massive gains out on the right-hand boundary and crossed clear ahead. Both crews seem content to go all the way to the opposite boundary, so Ineos might gain some of their deficit back if the right-hand side is favoured.
The breeze at the top of the course seemed to have settled a lot as Luna Rossa rounded the top mark ahead, giving away nothing to the Brits, suggesting that they might have a speed edge in this mid teen wind range. Again on the first run, they were happy to make it a drag race, sailing from boundary to boundary and not attempting to cover or stick to a particular side of the course. There seemed to be a lot more chop at the bottom of the course, suggesting a bit more wind and/or current running. Ineos looked less stable in the choppier conditions, with some slight porpoising as the boats round the mark just 7sec apart.
Luna Rossa seemed confident in their speed advantage as they continued to let Ineos split from them, giving away an opportunity for the British crew to find some better breeeze, despite only being 120m in front. As they crossed in the top 1/3 of the course, Luna Rossa had a prime opportunity to slam dunk Ineos and ensure they had them tucked away with no passing lane to the top mark but again let them go. It proved to be a costly mistake, as Ineos picked up a brilliant left shift, called well in advance by tactician Giles Scott, and when the boats came back together Ineos had starboard advantage. Luna Rossa attempted a lee-bow but they were too close to the top mark to make it stick and Ineos could bail out and go to the opposite mark. Again, after rounding the mark, they split and this time it really cost Luna Rossa.
After bouncing off their respective boundaries, Ineos showed to be clear in front at the first cross. The British crew slotted straigt into traditional match racing tactics, throwing a loose cover over Luna Rossa, gybing so that they stayed between their quary and the next mark. Still, they cleared out ahead of the Italians and rounded the bottom mark 25 seconds ahead. Luna Rossa tried to force a split of their own and Ineos let them go a little longer than traditional tactics would have suggested but set up to tack back with a tight cover over Luna Rossa, setting up directly ahead and to windward.
Luna Rossa saw that it was a no-win situation and bailed out immediately. Ineos didn’t follow, seemingly keen to stay in their current puff of breeze. The boats were back to wide split courses by the time they reached the top mark. Luna Rossa had found some lightly better pressure but no passing lane and rounded the mark 12 seconds behind and set up a split course for the final run to the finish.
Ineos’ choice proved to be the better and they stretched out to a 350m lead as both boats were sailing north of 40 knots for a lot of the run. Again, they looked less stable in the choppier water in the bottom half of the course but it wasn’t enough to let Luna Rossa through. They kept it clean all the way to the finish to take four wins from four races in the Prada Cup and cross 18 seconds in front.
Race Two - Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs American Magic
Right from the get-go it seemed we were in line for a more aggressive match race, with the boats coming close together messily at the start. Luna Rossa nailed the start and got away clear ahead, however American Magic was coming in hot and quickly shut down a lot of the gap, trying to establish the power of the right over Luna Rossa.
Shortly before the boundary, Luna Rossa tacked away and despite a messy tack, crossed in front. American Magic went all the way to the boundary and then tacked and followed. When the boats came together again, after sailing all they way to the other boundary, American Magic nailed a textbook lee bow and pinched up and got to windward of the Italians.
In true Spithill style, as soon as the Americans were to windward, he went for an aggressive luff but failed to score a penalty and had to follow the Americans around the mark before gybing away. Barker, seemingly keen to sail a more conservative match race, followed them shortly after, setting up well to leeward and heading to the same side of the course.
As they bore down on the bottom gate, American Magic gybed nicely ahead of Luna Rossa and made them follow around the mark. In classic match racing form, Luna Rossa tacked right after the mark and American Magic, who had extended a little out to the left-hand side of the course, followed them with a loose cover.
Up the second beat, the boats looked very similar in terms of speed and angle. Luna Rossa appeared to have some issues with their software or comms, as they sailed across the boundary without even appearing to set up for a tack. Their penalty was washed off shortly after they eventually did their tack and re-entered the race course, slotting in 280m behind the Americans. The upwind speed of both yachts was astonishing, sailing along at close to and often above 40 knots, with VMG above 20 knots. As American Magic rounded the top mark, their speedo ticked up to 48.3 knots.
Luna Rossa rounded well behind and again gybed at the mark, true to form, American Magic followed them but seemed to have better pressure or a big speed edge, as they were sailing deep and very quick, rapidly steaming out to a 600m lead. Their boatspeed was in the mid 40s with VMG around 38, only having to do one gybe to Luna Rossa’s three.
The second downwind paid heavily for American Magic, with Luna Rossa rounding 42 seconds in arrears.
The two crews kept well apart on the final upwind with conditions looking fairly shifty and neither boat looking particularly well locked in. American Magic sailed a very smart tactical race, always staying between their man and the mark.
As American Magic approached the mark, absolutely there seemed to be high stress levels onboard with loud and anxious communications as they went into a last minute tack to round the port mark rather than the starboard one which they initially were initially lined up.
Just when it looked like American Magic looked set to bank their first race win of the regatta, they were hit by a large windshift and big breeze as they tried to bear away. In the panic, they failed to release the leeward running backstay and couldn’t ease the mainsail and as they accelerated, they heeled hard to leeward. Spray and foam poured from the leeward foil and the rudder as Barker tried to wrestle the boat downwind. The rudder then ventilated and without the elevator at the back of the boat to stabilize the ride height, the boat leapt into the air, leaving only the last few centimetres of their leeward foil in the water as the 75ft yacht flew skywards. Upon crashing down, the boat lazily heeled to leeward and capsized.
It seemed there was a serious breach to the hull as it rapidly began to fill with water and in minutes the decks were awash. Pumps were deployed but it remains to be seen whether they will be sufficient to save the yacht.