The Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta got underway in Barcelona yesterday in near-perfect conditions. The eye-watering performance of the new generation AC75s on the opening day was stunning with speeds regularly approaching the 50-knot mark and thrilling racing.

Four teams sit on one point after yesterday’s racing but – by way of the event rules on splitting ties – it is America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand who sit atop the standings ahead of Switzerland Alinghi Red Bull Racing in second, NYYC American Magic in third, and the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in fourth.

The British Challenger of Record INEOS Britannia and France’s Orient Express Racing are both yet to put points on the board and sit in fifth and sixth respectively.

Racing continues today (23 August) with four more races scheduled, and runs through until Sunday August 25 when this event culminates with a match race final between the two top teams.

Swiss back on water after dismasting

The Swiss team means business after loosing its mast and then getting back onto the water 24 hours later, says Matt Sheahan, from PlanetSail. That’s impressive enough, but then Alinghi Red Bull Racing went onto win the opening race of the preliminary regatta, against France’s Orient Express.

“There is still many things to improve, but the team did a fantastic job,” says Alinghi helm, Arnaud Psarofaghis.

“Obviously, we never want to break a mast, but it was a good exercise for getting everyone on the same page,” says Juan Vila, meteorologist & testing manager for Alinghi Red Bull Racing. “It brought the team closer together and gave us extra motivation to perform well in the races. For now, we are very happy with both yesterday’s practice day and today.”

Italian America’s Cup team suffers electrical problems

The Italian team suffered a system shut down an electric problem which meant that it had no functions for 20 seconds in its race against Emirates New Zealand.

“Basically the only thing that works at that point is the steering cuz it’s mechanical,” says helm Jimmy Spithill, for Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

“You know they’re really so many electronic features . . . it’s no different to a Formula one car, we’re pushing the edge here and look we hope that’s the last issue for us from that point of view.”

Emirates New Zealand off ‘to learn’

Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) began as they left off with a win in their first race against long time adversary Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. ETNZ says that there are ‘clear signs that the close battle from AC36 is set to continue each time these teams meet’.

“We are really happy with how we executed that first part of the race,” says flight controller Andy Maloney who is looking forward to some ‘epic racing’. “We’re looking forward to a good battle there. We will go debrief that race and start seeing what we can learn from there.”

Americans beat Brits in 173 year repeat

NYYC American Magic suffered a serious nosedive in practice racing the day before but beat INEOS Britannia by a margin of 29 seconds. This was a historic pairing, given it was 173 years ago on the same date that the two nations battled it out in the first ever America’s Cup match around the Isle of Wight. The Americans won that race in 1851, and unfortunately for INEOS Britannia, history repeated itself.

“It was a tight race all the way. There didn’t seem to be much in it in terms of boat speed. Once we were ahead, we were able to protect the right and it felt like we were making little gains all the time,” says Tom Slingsby, helmsman on NYYC American Magic.

“Strategically we didn’t defend the right enough,” says Sir Ben Ainslie, skipper and CEO of INEOS Britannia. “We felt like we were in good shape halfway up that first beat. We wanted the right-hand side, and we got that, but then it became a tricky balance between do we have enough of a lead to just go to layline? Or do we just want to hammer it home and try to defend that right hand side? The Americans were close enough to us and did a nice job of making that a difficult call. They got to the right of us and really made it pay.

“The Americans sailed a great race and they had the edge on us for pace. It was perfect conditions out there and we sailed a reasonable race, we were just lacking a bit of horsepower, so we will get the boat back to the shed and work out what we can do to get some more pace.”

French ‘underdogs’ content

The French are the most ‘content’ of the teams says Matt Sheahan. He believes that comes from knowing that they’re the underdogs – but also from knowing that they’ve got a rocket ship of a boat.

“According to them [the French], the British are very quick downwind and sail very deep,” says Sheahan, but even so it’s clear to the French that there are two divisions at present: the Kiwis and the Italians . . . . and then the rest.

The advancements in the AC75s was truly centre stage. It’s been over three years since they last raced and significant development has taken place over this period, with the performance of the boats expected to reach new heights.

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