Update
One week earlier American Magic was odds-on to be the America’s Cup Challenger. Of the challengers they had shown the best all round speed and the excellent course management you’d expect from any boat that has Terry Hutchinson onboard. The NYYC team had also taken a race off the defender – causing entirely unexpected wobbles in the dining rooms of Auckland. Amid the talk about how the two senior sailors on the boat were not in a position to see the strength of the squall that Paul Goodison was warning about, critical though it is, in the circumstances that is not the main story. Being to leeward had meant that Hutchinson, Barker and others were under the mainsail when the boat came to rest on its side. Let’s be grateful first that they were all OK. The rest is a sailboat race
QUESTIONS ANSWERED! – Jack Griffin The AC75s provide great racing. That’s the very pleasantly surprising answer to the most important question going into the 36th America’s Cup defence. When the AC75 concept was first presented in November 2017
many very smart people questioned whether such yachts could sail and stay upright, much less race. The concept was confirmed when we saw American Magic’s 38ft test boat flying. Ineos Team UK launched their test boat soon afterwards. In an August 2018 inter- view Ben Ainslie commented that they had done ‘a lot of swimming’ – foreshadowing the most dramatic moment in this America’s Cup. As this is being written, the most urgent question now is whether American Magic can rebuild their yacht, Patriot, in time following its spectacular capsize and near-sinking in the Prada Cup round robin. When all four teams had launched their first AC75 yachts we
saw that the new boats could sail fast, at least in a straight line. The virus put paid to the planned America’s Cup World Series regattas in Cagliari and Portsmouth in 2020, and none of the teams shared any video that would give us a close look at their manoeuvres. The questions remained: can these yachts race? Will one team find the right corner of the class rule and dominate the field? Will they avoid each other in the pre-starts and simply make timed runs to the starting line? Would they simply sail boundary to boundary to minimise manoeuvres? The match between ETNZ and American Magic on the very first
day of December’s ACWS answered most of those questions. The American yacht hit the line at speed and led the first two legs. A tacking duel on the second upwind leg allowed the Kiwis to close the gap enough to use mark room rights at the gate to luff the New Yorkers and put a penalty on them. ETNZ’s lead was short-lived as American Magic quickly cleared their penalty and found better breeze to get to the finish only 12 seconds ahead of the Kiwis. Also, on the first day of ACWS racing, Luna Rossa and Ineos
14 SEAHORSE
showed that we will have fireworks in the pre-starts. When Ineos tacked onto starboard to head towards the line Luna Rossa on port snapped off a sharp tack to get under the Brits and luff them to get a penalty against them. When the same two teams met again in the first day of the Prada
Cup round robin Luna Rossa tried to hook Ineos in the pre-start, but the Brits were the ones to pull off the sharp tack this time. They avoided the hook, and crossed the starting line with a clear lead. The teams had clearly learnt to race these boats and to throw them around like dinghies. The World Series in December showed right away that the AC75s
provide great racing. With the exception of Ineos, who suffered from sluggish performance and mechanical problems, all the teams had moments of brilliance. There were lead changes, close finishes and full-on tussles in the pre-starts. As expected, Emirates Team New Zealand were the form team,
looking polished and finishing with a 5-1 record. The Americans were the only team to take a race from the defender and were clearly the top challenger. The New Yorkers split their two races with ETNZ and repeated that pattern with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. American Magic finished 4-2. Luna Rossa ended the ACWS 3-3. Ineos were the only team to go winless in the AC World Series. The Christmas Race was a non-event. Only one race was started,
at the bottom of the allowable wind range. ETNZ had lapped Ineos but could not make it to the finish before the 45-minute time limit expired, after both yachts had spent most of the race in displace- ment mode. After the ACWS the bookies clearly favoured American Magic to
win the Prada Cup and face ETNZ in the match. Likewise, they wrote off Ineos after their abysmal 0-6 showing. How wrong they were. Ineos demonstrated the huge opportunities to develop these
boats. They won all four of their races in the first weekend of the Prada Cup round robins, in a wide range of conditions. Asked by Bruno Troublé in the post-race media conference if he was sailing
STUDIO BORLENGHI/ALEA
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