America’s Cup, LVC: Luna Rossa and Ineos start with a draw

Meanwhile, the weather. Or rather, the weather, as they say in sailing jargon, meaning all the meteorology and not just the forecast. In Barcelona, ​​for the first day of the Louis Vuitton Cup final between Luna Rossa and Ineos, the expected disturbance arrived. Wind from the Southwest up to 18 knots, rather high waves, over a meter from the South. “Border conditions for controlling these boats,” said Ben Ainslie, the skipper helmsman of Ineos Britannia. It is also true that the strong wind enhanced the speed of the Ac75s: first start at 41 knots, peaks of over 50 knots during the race. A lot of stuff.

The first regatta

There is not much to say, except that Luna Rossa guessed the circling in the pre-start, moved ahead in the sprint towards the line, starboard tack, to windward, proceeding from the right of the course to the left, preceding Ineos by at least one length on the line. The English split, tacking to the right of the course and the race began. Luna Rossa in front, Ineos behind. Nothing else changed, Luna controlled well, did not make many mistakes, and this allowed Spithill and his teammates to maintain the advantage for all eight legs (given the strong wind, two more than in the semi-finals, upwind start, downwind finish always). Ineos made a few more Garibaldi exits from the buoy, but after all they had to take risks to get out of second place. But it wasn’t enough. They crossed the line 46 seconds behind the boat with the Italian flag, they took more than 600 meters of gap at certain moments. A golden point for Italy.

The second regatta

The stopwatch doesn’t start right away, because the average wind exceeds 21 knots, the maximum limit allowed for racing. We have to wait for the air to calm down and it happens around 4 pm. The start is quite similar to the previous one, but the circling this time is dominated by Ineos, who then aims for the pin (left buoy) and pushes more towards the line. Luna doesn’t take advantage of the starboard tack, luffs (brings the bow towards the wind) slightly and loses seconds, which go in favor of the English. The wind has dropped, you can also see it from the speed of the boats, which are almost 30 against the 40 knots of the first heat.

The upwind is beautiful, truly a match-race with a knife between the teeth. Ben Ainslie is intent on winning, he is aggressive, he doesn’t give anything away. In the upwind on the left side he is in front, but Luna is going strong and comes close, very close, he even takes the lead. But it doesn’t last long. Ineos tacks first, is upwind and accelerates. The Italian boat loses ground, the opponents have more air in their sails and it shows. The English take the lead and at the next cross Anslie and Fletcher, the two helmsmen, are “bumped” by Luna Rossa, preventing the Italians from freeing themselves from control. Tacking, refusals, 41 meters grabbed by the Brits, who go towards the buoy and gain again. The race practically ends here, because if you go ahead and don’t make any mistakes it’s difficult for the other to shift into a gear that can overtake you. Luna Rossa falls behind, perhaps less than Ineos had been in the previous race, but still loses. One point for Ineos and it’s a draw.

“Don’t expect 7-0,” Bruni had said. Well, he saw it right. The race will be on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th September.

The Luna Rossa boys on the podium

There was also the final of the Unicredit Youth America’s Cup, the Youth Cup. And the trophy was won by the under 25 boys of Luna Rossa, who held up well to the extreme weather and sea conditions, raced with “balentia” the six sides (instead of the usual four) and prevailed over American Magic. On the highest podium Marco Gradoni, Gianluigi Ugolini, Federico Colaninno and Rocco Falcone.

“We raced better than our opponents, when we saw that they had taken penalties we followed our plan and took advantage” says helmsman Gradoni. “I am proud of the whole team. It was a beautiful week. We worked hard to get here and we also prepared for the match race”. And his alter ego, Ugolini. “It was a very tough race, we were careful not to take penalties, because we know what that means, especially at the start. We were very focused on steering the boat and not making mistakes”.

The blessing also comes from the patron, Patrizio Bertelli, president of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. «Perfect regatta and management – ​​he says -.. Well done guys, congratulations to everyone. Your victory shows that the New Generation program we launched at the beginning of the last America’s Cup campaign has borne fruit. I am very satisfied. Let’s look forward».