The top-ranked team coming out of the Louis Vuitton Cup challenger series round-robins, the British earned the right to choose their opponent for the best-of-nine semifinal series.
After mulling their decision over for a couple of days, skipper Sir Ben Ainslie has confirmed they will be racing against the Swiss crew of Alinghi Red Bull Racing.
Alinghi were the lowest-ranked of the four teams to qualify for the semifinals, finishing with three points from eight counting races.
“Every team has their strengths and weaknesses, especially in different conditions, so the forecast for the semifinal period was a really important factor in our decision,” Ainslie said of the decision on the team’s Inside Tack x Performance People podcast on Friday night (NZ time).
“In all honesty, we didn’t actually confirm our decision until a few hours ago and we had input from our sailing team and coaches as well as our performance, analysis and technical teams. We think Alinghi will be a good test and give us a good chance to keep learning, developing and progressing through the competition.
“Obviously it’s a great position to be in, coming top of the round-robins and choosing our opponent in the semis, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. We know there’s a lot more to do and our main focus now is getting points on the board and making good performance gains.”
Ineos Britannia will sail against Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Photo / Ian Roman, America's Cup
Ainslie also confirmed his team would be starting with starboard entry in the opening race of their series, and would be the second race of the day rather than the first.
Both Ineos Britannia and Alinghi were the big improvers through the second of the two round-robins. The British went into the second round slightly off the pace, but returned in threatening form to win four of their five counting races and surge up the leaderboard, before beating Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli in the sail-off tiebreaker for the top seed.
Alinghi had a similar change of fortunes between round-robins. They finished the first without a single win, before sailing well to beat now-eliminated French outfit Orient Express Racing Team as well as the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic, before getting a disqualification win over Luna Rossa.
Ineos Britannia’s decision means Luna Rossa and American Magic will meet in the other semifinal; the two teams billed as the favourites to challenge Team New Zealand in the Cup match going into the regatta perhaps meeting a little sooner than some expected.
Sailing begins again early on Sunday morning (NZ time), with the first two legs of each semifinal match on the schedule.
Team NZ will be keeping a keen eye on the action over the coming weeks, with the defender not back in action until the beginning of the Cup match in October.
In the meantime, they will work on honing their performance and making sure their AC75 is as fast as possible when the time comes to return to proper racing.
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.
