Just saying! Ineos Britannia and the big military version of the Bladerunner ‘one -and-two-half hulled’ powerboat concept. The Bladerunner is at its most effective in broken water, delivering a smooth and efficient performance with relatively less power than more conventional shapes…
INEOS AND XABI – Carlos Pich The Challenger Series began with a double round robin that would eliminate one of the five challengers. Orient Express and Alinghi seemed destined to fight fiercely to get to the semi-finals but arriving at the 37th AC later than their rivals was a very high price for the French team, which could only win one of its nine flights, precisely the first against the Swiss. The one who was able to break the
predictions was Ineos Britannia, leading the scoreboard with seven victories and two defeats. Adding the decisive point from the sail-off against the Italians allowed them to choose their rival in the semi-finals, avoiding the teams that were a priori favourites in all predictions, Ameri- can Magic and Luna Rossa. Both best of nine semi-finals started with
a resounding 4-0 and five match balls in favour of the Italians and the British. Amer- ican Magic put the Italians in trouble, going on to score three consecutive victories, but Luna Rossa didn’t want to exhaust its two match points and won the eighth race . Ineos only conceded two flights to Alinghi, seal- ing its place in the final in the seventh race. The best-of-13 final started very evenly,
with both contenders winning one of the two daily races and reaching a promising 4-4 tie. At that point Ineos Britannia man- aged not to give Luna Rossa a single chance, adding three consecutive victories until it earned the 7pt that made it the Challenger of the Final Match. There were some ifs and surprises, but
that is nothing new in sport, in sailing or in the America’s Cup. Among the surprises were the particularly unusual conditions in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the injury to Amer- ican Magic’s helmsman Paul Goodison and the technical fragility of the Italian boat.
XABI FERNÁNDEZ Carlos Pich caught up with the 49er gold medallist and Ineos Britannia advisor a few days before the America’s Cup Match… Seahorse: I remember nine months ago you told us that Ineos Britannia could be a
surprise. But following a very poor Prelim- inary Regatta, even being a finalist in the Challenger Series seemed like an impossi- ble mission. Winning a place in the Final Match seems like magic… Xabi Fernández: No magic, in the Amer- ica’s Cup if you don’t have a thoroughbred racehorse you have no options. After the Preliminary Regatta we weren’t happy, but our situation was never as bad as you might think from the outside. We were in a hole, but we always saw the light of the way out, because we had had good moments and if we put them all together we could start to improve. In previous campaigns we were sometimes without hope because we lacked knowledge and experience. Now it hasn’t been like that. SH: What percentage of the improvement was in the boat handling and how much in the hardware? XF: In hardware we have worked a lot on small details. It is the sum of everything. Underwater, nobody changed anything because it would take months to build something new. The finish of the foils is improving every day and, although it is almost imperceptible, it is important due to the speeds at which we sail. We made changes to the sails, as well as to the mast setup. At the same time we are constantly evolving boat handling in the manoeuvres. Comparing data with other boats, in the
Preliminary Regatta we lost between 30 and 40m per tack or gybe compared with Team New Zealand. If in a regatta you do eight or nine manoeuvres the arithmetic is easy, we needed to improve by at least 250-300m. SH: If Ineos had not won the Louis Vuitton round robins and the semi-final had been played out against American Magic or Luna Rossa, do you think you would have made it to the final? XF: In the semi-finals we probably would not have beaten the Italians, but I think we would have beaten the Americans. We had competed in the round robin against them and I think we were superior in manoeu- vring, we didn’t fear them as a possible rival in the semi-finals. But if you have won the
right to choose your rival for the semi- finals, logically you go for the one you think will be weaker, and so we chose Alinghi. SH: And the semi-finals… XF: It was a very light series which a priori brought the most favourable conditions for Alinghi. Yet we got through that series without too much difficulty. But in those conditions I don’t know how a confronta- tion against the Americans or the Italians would have gone. SH: The final against Luna Rossa started very evenly but their last charge was a dis- aster. When did you see it going downhill? XF:The day before winning the two races in a row we already saw they had some issues. We took a boundary penalty and in those conditions in the Garbí (SSW) we had already seen that it is almost impossible to overtake the leader. So we missed a point that we could have scored without that penalty. I have also heard comments about Luna Rossa’s bad luck due to breakages and technical problems; but suffering breakages and damage is not due to bad luck, it is something that is part of the preparation. SH: So you started race nine tied on 4pt… XF: It was a difficult day, very technical with the big waves, and we managed to win both races and sail back in with three match points. But it could still have been complicated if on the last day they had won two races to tie us at 6pt. Then the tension for that last win would have been titanic. Luckily, we removed that opportu- nity by winning the first race of the day. SH: Your starts became steadily more aggressive… XF: Every start you do is critical and fortu- nately we have Ian Williams helping us! The objective is always to win the first cross and it was clear that Luna Rossa had the same playbook. So we carefully studied our options, whether we entered the start box on the port or starboard side. In the first eight races the starts were very close, but the last three were easier for us. SH: The LV final was much windier than expected, were you surprised? XF: Yes, everyone was caught by that. We had days when the Garbí blew much harder than normal for this time of year. Actually, we believe had the wind been less strong we would have had more potential than Luna Rossa. Our best window is 8- 12kt, I suppose the same as other teams. SH: But many people believe that your boat is at its most competitive when there is more wind than that. Certainly that is how it looked against Luna Rossa? XF: I can only tell you what the ‘scientists’ tell me… but I admit that we do seem to go quite well in bigger waves and in more wind!! Perhaps ask me again after the Cup Match…
SEAHORSE 49
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