The Louis Vuitton 37th Americas Cup Final coincided with our November / December edition of The Islander. Ingrid Abery was on site to witness the action at breathtakingly close quarters and subsequent reactions to the result from both skippers. Her throwback report is illustrated in images and words
The gaze of the sailing world is strong on Spanish ports with the Superyacht Cup, 52 Super Series and Olympic qualifiers headlining annually in Palma. This Autumn the mainland location of Barcelona enjoyed the focus for the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup that produced a triple-crowning for Emirates Team New Zealand. “Spain is just beautiful,” commented ETNZ’s skipper Peter Burling. “This was one of the best Cups in recent times.”
Thousands of supporters and sailing fans poured into the Spanish cultural hot-spot from various continents. Upward of six thousand Kiwis attired in the iconic black apparel lined the docks surrounding ETNZ’s base and dominated fan zones. Huge screens panned the action live to the beaches and race village. Sir Ben Ainslie, skipper of Ineos Britannia concurred. “There are any number of venues around the world that can host this event and do a good job and Barcelona in my book has been one of the best in recent times.”
After a tantalisingly close few days in Louis Vuitton AC Match Ineos Britannia got their break in the choppier races 5 and 6 to claim two wins. Then came the final day with a wait for breeze. ETNZ knew they had a slight edge in the 8-12 knot conditions.
Speaking of the deciding race Pete Burling said “It came together in such a tight race. We had a pretty good bat on the pre-start again having had some good dynamic pre-starts. We probably didn’t accelerate from the second tack out of the box as well as we wanted giving Ineos a slight upper hand. But we had better trigger pull off the line – not the tack behind we should have been. We got the right shift and the boat in a good groove up that first beat to claim a good lead. Later in the race we couldn’t buy a shift for a while. It was swings and roundabouts. But we did a good job holding our nerve bouncing them out and taking small opportunities.”
With the Challenger of Record making the America’s Cup Match for only the third time in history, Sir Ben Ainslie explained “By the end of leg 3 we almost overtook them. It felt like it was our moment, our chance to get back into the race. It gave us an opportunity to get to the right hand side which was quite powerful in this wind direction. We made some good gains but it wasn’t quite enough.”
Overall Ineos Britannia showed the greater trajectory of the Series. Barcelona is known to throw up a range of conditions. Much of their progression was learning how to sail the yacht ‘on the hoof’ in such varied conditions. While Emirates Team New Zealand were more seasoned with the software on their boat Inoes Britannia were sailing the boat accurately, locking the heal in, locking the sail train, details key to finding performance.
After conceding the Auld Mug Sir Ben Ainslie shared: “You’ve got to give credit where credit’s due. ETNZ, Luna Rosa, these teams have been around a long time. We got closer this time. Each time you do it you get more efficient. This is our third time around and we are determined to keep going. It has been a huge team effort with 150 people in our organisation. It’s a massive credit to their families, kids, a massive commitment.” Asked if he would be in the pilot’s seat next time around he conceded “I don’t know if I’m getting on the water or not.” Yet he was resolute: “I’m committed to the team moving forward and ultimately getting the job done and winning the Cup!”
Budget for the 38th America’s Cup is a key factor. Even ETNZ relied heavily on simulation for their design process saving on funds and enabling a good understand the physics of the boat thus good design decisions. The barrier to entry for new teams is quite high particularly in the complex electronics and hydraulics. Looking ahead some aspects of the electronics and tactical software will continue to be simplified as a money-saving exercise. Taking away some of the automation is also being considered providing opportunity for more sailors to get involved.
Reflecting on the opening day of the America’s Cup Dan Bernasconi, lead ETNZ designer commented “It is almost the most exciting day of the campaign when you’ve spent a couple of years optimising, you see other teams launch their boats and the smart guys are doing the same thing.” ETNZ was quick to reconstruct the geometry of their opponents’ hulls, running it through their dynamic software to see how it compared. “It’s exciting that boats being quite different are similar in performance.” He admitted if they remain in the same venue over the next four years they would struggle to make such gains.
As the Deed of Gift was being prepared for the next America’s Cup Sir Ben Ainslie added “We have such a progressive protocol particularly with the inclusion of the Women’s America’s Cup. There is so much more we can do with the event. It’s on us now to help the Kiwis promote that.” And as he turned to head back to the team base Ben concluded “Emirates Team New Zealand is the greatest America’s Cup team of all time.”
