America’s Cup: Alinghi Red Bull Racing eliminated; Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli suffer mid-race damage

The bell has tolled for Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s campaign in the 37th America’s Cup.

In their return to the arena for the first time since 2010, the Swiss entry was eliminated 5-2 by Ineos Britannia in the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series this morning.

It was a match-up chosen by the British, who earned the right to select their semifinal opponent after finishing the round-robin stage at the top of the leaderboard. With the Swiss coming into the semifinals as the lowest-ranked team, it made sense – and looked like a smart play when Ineos Britannia raced out to a 4-0 lead.

But Alinghi fought back, winning Tuesday morning’s race to get on the board before claiming their second win in the first outing this morning. However, they weren’t able to double the dose as the British sailed a strong seventh race to end Alinghi’s campaign.

“Happy with that. [It was a] tough day out here. For people watching on the telly it probably looked like we were doing a pretty bad job, but it’s pretty hard out here with the wind all over the place and the waves,” Ineos Britannia starboard helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie said afterwards.

“Also, credit to Alinghi. They sailed a great first race and pushed us hard in the second race. It’s obviously hard on them to not make it through this stage. They’re a great team.

“I think we’re all very relieved to have got through today and survived and made it through to the final, because in this stuff anything could happen.”

The Brits now await their opponent for the final of the challenger series, with American Magic winning both of their races against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli to bring their semifinal series to 4-3 in favour of the Italians.

The Italians suffered a gear failure in their second race of the day, with the traveller track on their AC75 breaking with a loud bang and forcing them out of the contest. At the time of the incident, the Italians were winning and looked well-positioned to consolidate their lead late in what had been a razor-thin contest to that point.

Their shore team will now be working around the clock to repair the damage before tomorrow’s action, with that semifinal to be settled – should the weather play ball.

“We’ve got a lot of faith in our shore team,” Luna Rossa starboard helmsman Jimmy Spithill said.

“They’re definitely one of the best in the business. We have to wait until we get back to shore, but there’s no doubt our boys will pull out every stop we need to get us back out there.”

Results

Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland) beat Ineos Britannia (UK) by 1m23s

American Magic (United States) beat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy) by disqualification

Ineos Britannia beat Alinghi Red Bull Racing by 1m10s

Ineos Britannia eliminate Alinghi Red Bull Racing 5-2; Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli lead American Magic 4-3

Team NZ hit the halfway mark

Team NZ’s youth team have hit the halfway point of the first stage of the Youth America’s Cup regatta, with Group A completing another two races last night.

With the Youth America’s Cup comprised of 12 teams, the entries have been split into two groups – America’s Cup teams in one, invited nations in the other – with each completing eight fleet races before the top three move into the knockout stages.

Now through four races, Team NZ have work to do if they are to be involved in the next stage of the Youth America’s Cup, currently sitting fourth in their group.

It was another mixed day for the New Zealand crew, with a big splashdown in race four providing costly as they came away with a third and a fourth from the day’s two contests – the same results they posted on day one.

Italian crew Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli look like the team to beat as they again excelled and hold a comfortable lead atop the standings.

On day two, the two outings only featured four teams, with the French and Americans not racing. The French are yet to complete a race in the Youth America’s Cup after issues with their boat saw them ruled out of day one as well and have been awarded four points in every race so far due to their non-participation being out of their control.

Youth America’s Cup Group A standings

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli 37

American Magic 25

Athena Pathway (UK) 22

Team NZ 16

Orient Express-L’Oreal Racing Team (France) 16

Alinghi Red Bull Racing 14

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.