Ineos Britannia beat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli 7-4 in the Louis Vuitton Cup final
This will be the first time in 60 years that a British team has competed in the America’s Cup match
Emirates Team New Zealand have not raced since the end of the round-robins early last month
Professor Mark Orams is a former NZ and world champion sailor, Team New Zealand member, author, environmentalist and Professor of Sport and Recreation at the Auckland University Technology.
OPINION
The final scoreline of 7-4 for Ineos Britannia to take out the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup ChallengerSeries does not reflect how close this series was.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli will rue the breakdowns that handed two races to the Brits and then conceding the starts to Ben Ainslie in the final three races of the series.
The two boats were so evenly matched that it became old-school match racing where the boat that managed to win the start and the first cross was able to control the race and win.
The standard of sailing in top-end conditions was extremely high. When the margins for error are so fine it was an incredible watch from a sailor’s perspective.
Foiling yachts are precarious beasts, especially in waves and strong winds. The potential for a small error to result in a major spin-out, nosedive or capsize is very high.
These teams are both at the top of their game and to perform as they did under pressure was impressive.
What surprised me was how evenly matched these two boats were across a wide range of conditions. The British and Italian design packages are quite different from one another and, as a result, I expected boat speed differences to show in different wind strengths.
The British hull design is much higher volume and more robust, which is helpful in the frequently confused sea state and chop off Barcelona. Their trade-off is a higher aerodynamic drag. What the British design team, with the help of the engineers in the Mercedes Formula One team, have managed to do is to hold the hull volume high but project as low a drag form as possible to the wind. A useful combination and, in the higher wind strengths of this challenger final series, the high volume forward in the hull saved the Brits from a few potentially race-losing nosedives downwind.
Ineos Britannia celebrate winning the Louis Vuitton Cup. Photo / Ian Roman, America's Cup
In contrast, Luna Rossa produced a hull design that was less extreme and, potentially, with lower aerodynamic drag. This did not, however, translate into a boat speed advantage upwind where the lower drag package has greater benefit.
The answer to why Luna Rossa was not faster than Ineos upwind probably lies in the foil design. Luna Rossa chose a foil that was virtually flat in terms of its profile front to back whereas Ineos Britannia has a noticeable dihedral curve with a subtle turn up towards the foil tips. This design feature is better suited to waves and turbulence, and more forgiving in the turns.
The other key difference is that the Ineos foils are much straighter in plan shape [looking down from the top] on the leading edge whereas Luna Rossa has a more swept-back leading edge. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach but a key factor is being able to hold flow and stability without needing too much foil flap deployment to control the flight of the boat. More flap movement is more drag and therefore slower.
Looking forward to the America’s Cup, Emirates Team New Zealand’s hull design is more similar to Luna Rossa’s while their foil design is more aligned to Ineos Britannia. From a Kiwi perspective, the hope is that the Team NZ package has the best of both design features.
There is no question that the British will go into this 37th America’s Cup with their confidence high and race-ready. Their boat has been incredibly reliable (in contrast to Luna Rossa), they have the ability to push it hard, they have a pre-start routine nailed down which works and they have demonstrated they can control a race from the front to shut down the passing lanes for the trailing boat.
Team NZ will need to bring their A-game from the beginning of this Cup. Dropping races early through mistakes and falling behind by more than a race in the first-to-seven-wins series will be difficult to pull back.
Sir Ben Ainslie and the British team know this is their big chance to create history and realise their dream of returning the Cup to where it all started in 1851. For Britannia to rule the waves they will need to get a fast start in this series and use their advantage of completing 18 solid races over the past three weeks while Team NZ has had none.
Emirates Team New Zealand have been keeping a close eye on the Challenger Series. Photo / Ricardo Pinto, America's Cup
Ainslie is ruthless and will exploit any advantage wherever he sees the chance, both on and off the water. Team NZ’s counter to this will need to be composure, executing a pre-start routine that gets them off the line clean and at least even, then using their boat speed to get their nose in front.
I do expect Taihoro to have a slight speed edge in lighter wind conditions but probably not enough to manage a pass if they get behind off the start. Ineos has shown they are adept at not giving a trailing opponent any passing opportunities and shutting down a race.
This America’s Cup will be a huge test for Team NZ, the most successful team in the past 30 years. The Kiwis will need to be at their best to prevail once again. It will be a compelling watch.
