Cup Spy - America's Cup Match: Day 4 -Brits return fire in Battle of Barcelona

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 17 Oct 09:46 NZDT 16 October 2024

INEOS Britannia wrote another page in the history books scoring the first win by a British yacht in America's Cup racing for 90 years.

The last win was by Endeavour (Sir T.O.M Sopwith) in The 1934 America's Cup, sailed in J Class. Like today's racing Endeavour won two races and came close to winning a third and uplifting the America's Cup.

Wednesday was make or break for INEOS Britannia to stay as a serious threat in the America's Cup regatta. Ashore officials were quite openly talking about a proposed race schedule if the Emirates Team NZ juggernaut rolled on to score six wins. The writing was on the wall.

As revealed in Cup Spy's pre-race commentary, it was apparent after Monday's Race 4, that the British were on the cusp of scoring an upset or maybe two. Today they got the double.

Statistically in the last 18 races sailed by the top three teams in the the regatta, Luna Rossa, Emirates Team NZ and INEOS Britannia, the lead around marks, has not changed, and the boat that has led around the first mark has gone onto win the race. Prior to Monday's race the Brits have trailed around the critical first mark by substantial margins of 11-24 seconds, leaving the America's Cup Defender to sail out the course for relatively untroubled wins.

However that trend changed on Monday when the British dead heated with the Kiwis at Mark 1, and it was clear that the Brits, who have been the big improvers in the America's Cup Series, were lifting their game yet again.

On Tuesday, a no race day, there was a fresh breeze with a big seaway. The British went training with practice list to check off in the tricky conditions. It paid a big dividend.

Emirates Team New Zealand scored an own goal early in the Prestart for Race 5 when they gybed in the wrong place at the wrong time, and were caught in the double whammy of a hole in the breeze, and struck an awkward sea just as they gybed to chase INEOS Britannia who had entered from the opposite direction. ETNZ came to a near complete stop in the final minute of the pre-start.

When the Kiwis made their entry the breeze at their end of the line, was recording 7kts, a few seconds later it was down to 5kts, and on the British boat was about 4kts when they sailed through the same hole. The difference was that the Brits were sailing at 30kts, while the Kiwis belly flopped in the confused seaway, and came off their foils.

From there it was game over, with little chance of ETNZ being able to self-start and be able to rejoin the race in the breeze which stayed very light at the bottom of the course, for the duration of the race. The focus for INEOS was to stay foiling and get out of the quicksand of the start box and get into the fresher breeze further up the course.

The breeze was up for the second start at around 10kts with no risk of a repeat of Race 5.

Both team had problems with their onboard event supplied race computers. The British team must have got their system working after it went offline in the first race of the day, as the effected a near perfect start in Race 6.

Emirates Team New Zealand tried hard, but was unable to get control of the Race 6 start, with Brits administering the coup de grâce in the final 30seconds, driving through the windward at 44kts and running down into the start box, before turning up and heading the the outer (port/left hand) end. They hit the start line at top pace, with Emirates Team NZ opting to get clear of the Brits exhaust by getting a split tack start.

INEOS Britannia used their slingshot start to get quickly to the port boundary and when the two AC75s came together for the first cross, INEOS Britannia although the give-way boat had enough margin to be able to comfortably cross ETNZ, and it was race over from there, provided they could hold their advantage at Mark 1. The Brits rounded with a 6sec margin which was as close as the Kiwis got all race.

Emirates Team New Zealand fought hard, but couldn't achieve a pass despite being just 7secs back for the final three legs. The British did get a away to a 16 sec lead, mid race, however they had trouble with the seaway with their rudder rake appearing to be forcing the bow to punch into the head sea - and as a result were slow to build speed out of the tack.

The Kiwis didn't suffer from the same issue but took the pressure off the Brits with a poor rounding around the bottom gate, with the rudder washing out for a short time.

According to the Brits' public debrief, there was no pep talk before the race, everyone knew what they had to do, said Head of Sailing, Giles Scott - and they did it.

"With two wins, we're now back in the fight," he added.

There will be no racing on Thursday, two races will be sailed on Friday, and there will be at least one race on the weekend.

And to update our Preview story, with the conclusion of Races 5 and 6 there have now been 111 legs sailed in 20 races between the top three AC75s in this America's Cup, when there has not been a lead change after the first mark. That is the boat which is first to round Mark 1, has gone on to win in the last 20 races. The last time there was a lead change was back in Race 2 of Round Robin 1.

In Auckland of 10 races sailed in the Match between AC75s of comparable speed there were mark lead changes after the first mark was rounded in four out of ten races or 40% of the races. Most of that occurred in the back end of the 36th Match, where lead changes often on the last two legs of the races. And the back end of the 36th Match lead there were lead changes in four of the last five races - or 80% - compared to 0% in Barcelona.

From the Mixed Zone

A tipping point for INEOS? Ben Ainslie (BA): "It's a massive day for the team. We really needed that and to come out and get two wins on the board. It's a real shift in momentum. The trick for our team now to jump all over that momentum and take it all the way."

What’s changed in the last couple of days? (BA) "It's a real credit to the whole team in terms of analyzing the performance and trying to improve, as we said, all the way through this each day around the water, learning more about how to sail this boat and derive performance from it, obviously learning from the Kiwis as well some of the some of the areas where perhaps they were outperforming us.

Nathan Outteridge (NO): We're a bit disappointed we didn't get a win today, but we ultimately made too many mistakes and, didn't really deserve the wins today..

Race 5 Start - NO: We were a little bit late on our entry.. when we went to build and get going, we got caught up on the back of a wave, and didn't really get enough speed for entry. And then it looked marginally if we're going to make the cross, so we rolled into a gybe. But we were not really at speed to pull off that maneuver.. once you're doing a down speed maneuver and you're off the foil, it's, it's tough to get going again.

Race 6 start - NO: “It was an unforced error by ourselves in the first [Race 5] start, in the second [Race 6] start, we thought we're actually in quite a strong position. We're just a little bit late to lead it back to the line, which gave them the chance to jump and roll us on the line."

"Starting is critical in this America's Cup, and if you start well, it makes your life so much easier. "

"In one race today, we gave up minutes, and the other one, we gave up a couple of meters. "

Race 6 start - On letting INEOS escape - NO "I'm still kicking myself for that one. We got them in a good spot. We had the right chats about wanting to lead it back. They managed to just get the gybe and swing behind our transom, and get the reroll back to the line. Two seconds earlier us, gybing would have been an easy win for that start. So that's obviously very frustrating, and it put us on the back foot."

Race 5 start: Blair Tuke (BT): We made quite a big mistake there at the at the beginning. The sea state was from the south east and quite big and confused, And when the wind was lighter, it was it was quite difficult to sail downwind. We tried to pull off a low speed gybe, and came off the foils and it was race over. We shouldn't be making those mistakes, but that happened

Today a wake-up call? BT: We've known we're up against a tough opposition, and if you aren't at the top of your game, then you'll get beaten. that's the way it went today. The team’s upbeat and ready to get back out there, and pretty hungry to make amends.

Work ons? BT: “Just the small details in the start. I think for sure there's some things to tidy up there. Keep looking at some different strategies. They're going to keep changing up, and we're going to have to try and combat that.

Full Replay America's Cup Day 4, Races 5 and 6

Inside Tack:

Race 5: Emirates Team New Zealand (Port Startbox entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard Startbox Entry) Scheduled Start: 1410hrs CET

Emirates Team NZ belly flopped in the confused seaway in the prestart area and was unable to get back on their foils before the race start. GBR's lead extended to 1.6km before NZL got established on their foils, and were able to close the margin, but it was mission impossible. Start:
Mark 1: 05m 41sec GBR led NZL margin 2m 15sec
Mark 2: 08m 58sec GBR led NZL margin 1m 59sec
Mark 3: 13m 15sec GBR led NZL margin 1m 37sec
Mark 4: 16m 26sec GBR led NZL margin
Mark 5: 20m 36sec GBR led NZL margin 1m 28sec
Finish: 24m 15sec GBR led NZL margin 1m 18sec

Race 6: INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Port Startbox entry) vs Emirates Team New Zealand (Starboard Startbox Entry) Scheduled Start: 15:15hrs CET

Start:
Mark 1: 03m 26sec GBR led NZL margin 06sec
Mark 2: 06m 35sec GBR led NZL margin 09sec
Mark 3: 10m 53sec GBR led NZL margin 09sec
Mark 4: 14m 09sec GBR led NZL margin 16sec
Mark 5: 18m 10sec GBR led NZL margin 13sec
Mark 6: 21m 31sec GBR led NZL margin 07sec
Mark 7: 25m 23sec GBR led NZL margin 07sec
Finish: 28m 13sec GBR led NZL margin 07sec

Boat Performance Data

Race 5 - Boat speed When considering this data, remember that the boats are usually on different sides/places on the course. Times are in UTC (2hrs behind CET) You can see the boat position on the course by using Virtual Eye, which can be synchronised approximately using the UTC time and then positioned more precisely by cross-referencing with the actual boatspeed. The charts enable you to see macro view and trends while VE shows the micro view and data.

Race 5: Wind Speed

Race 5: Boat Speed

Race 6: Wind Speed

NB to show the windspeed in more detail the speed on the left axis does not start at zero. This accentuates the drop shown for ETNZ just before 1315hrs - which can be cross referenced on VE to be the time they had blown the start with INEOS and were having to tack away - the TWS recorded on ETNZ dropped momentarily, with no long term effect.

Race 6: Boat Speed

Virtual Eye

After the racing you can replay the key points, or the whole race using Virtual Eye from ARL This is the tool that Inside Tack are using to demonstrate various points - using the actual tracks of the AC75s.

You can go directly to the Virtual Eye America's Cup coverage by clicking here and click on "Watch Previous" then select the race you wish to view. Virtual Eye is a 3D viewer so you can zoom in, out, around and up and down just like you could in a helicopter.

INEOS Britannia Dockwalk

Crew Lists

Onboard video

Race 5:

Race 6:

Additional Images: