Cup Spy: August 29 – Louis Vuitton Cup – Day 1 – Live Coverage

Cup Spy: August 29 – Louis Vuitton Cup – Day 1 – Live Coverage

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 29 Aug 08:22 UTC
29 August 2024

Welcome to Sail-World’s coverage of Day 1 of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona. Four races are scheduled to be sailed, with six teams competing and two of those will be sailing twice.

Today we are expecting winds of 7-9kts, and a flat sea. The course is orientated in an easterly direction, meaning that the raceboats will start off PortVell and sail a race consisting of three laps (six legs) of approximate 1.5nm leg length. Race time is usually about 18-22 minutes.

Racing gets underway at approximately 1400hrs CET or 1200hrs UTC.

Live Coverage:

12:12hrs UTC: Wind is too light to start – is being pushed back a minute at a time. Wind hard to read but is about 6kts in start area.

12:46hrs UTC: Race 1 starts – split tack start FRA first across at port end. Lead Alinghi by 140metres in first 25% of Leg 1.

Mark 1: 3m 55sec FRA leads by 27 secs

Mark 2: 7m 50secs FRA leads by 13 secs

Mark 3: 12m 25secs FRA leads by 46 secs or 546metres – went to the left corner got more pressure – boats doing 37kts downwind in 7kts of windspeed

Mark 4: 16m 15secs FRA leads by 33 secs. Lead varying on Leg 5 to 375 metres at the top.

Mark 5: 20m 55sec FRA lead by 48secs. Both sailing at 31.8kts margin on Leg 6 is at 548 metres

Mark 6: 24m 55sec FRA lead by 24secs and win Race 1 – same as France did in Race 1 of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Bermuda over Artemis Racing (SWE)

Race 2 Luna Rossa vs Emirates Team NZ

1323hrs UTC Race 2 starts ITA leads across the start line going for port end led by 17 metres just after start. Boats take opposite sides halfway up course Luna Rossa gone right, Kiwis left.

Mark 1: 3m 19secs ITA leads by 11 secs.

Mark 2: 6m 23 secs ITA leads by 5secs. Boats split with ETNZ going left. ITA tacks to cover when they come back lead 68 metres. ITA goes back to the right. Covers again on the cross margin 61 metres. ETNZ tried to live on Luna Rossa’s quarter, and when they tack back ETNZ squeezes Luna Rossa out. Kiwis better in high mode but ITA probably affected.

Mark 3: 10m 26sec NZL leads by 6 secs. ETNZ extends led out to 192 metres downwind. Kiwis coming across very fast to Mark 4. Luna Rossa has to put in slow gybe before mark approach.

Mark 4: 13m 39sec NZL leads by 22 secs. Lead out to 250 metres. Boats split tacks ETNZ to left corner, Luna Rossa to right. 250 metres lead for NZL at Mark 5.

Mark 5: 17m 52sec NZL leads by 21sec. Boats sailing at 40 to 42kts on Leg 6.

Finish: 21m 7sec NZL leads by 12 sec.

After the race both crews said they were a little over-range, meaning they had an oversize jib. Italy lost grip in with their rudder in the crucial slow tack when ETNZ took the lead, with the Italians sliding sideways into the Kiwis and their turbulence. ETNZ also spotted a helicopter puff and was able to use that, while the Italians missed it.

Race 3: INEOS Britannia vs American Magic

USA came off their foils 1 minute before the start and was unable to recover before the start. Sailed over start line to left and got foiling, but was penalised. Brits stayed on foils and led off start by 700metres. Light winds at top of course. USA has a smaller jib than GBR

Mark 1: 4m 13sec GBR leads by 66secs. Separation out to 900metres on Leg 2.

Mark 2: 8m 8secs GBR leads by 62sec separation down to 600metres at start of Leg 3.

Mark 3: 13m 8secs GBR leads by 59sec. Brits speed drops to 22kts on final approach to Mark 3 by stays foilborne. USA drops to 18kt at the same spot but speed drops to 18kts and they touch briefly but recover. Margin 700 metres on Leg 4.

Mark 4: 16m 53sec GBR leads by 39sec and lead down to 300 metres on Leg 5.

Mark 5: 20m 54sec GBR leads by 41sec. USA sailing with a much faster VMG in the later stages of Leg 6 and cuts Brits lead down to 120metres at finish.

Finish :24m 16sec GBR leads by 14secs at finish for a great recovery.

Race 4: Orient Express (FRA) vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA)

Both boats have J1 jibs set.

Even start with Orient Express having a narrow lead of less than 10metres as both head to the left hand boundary. Orient Express gets rolled by Luna Rossa exiting the boundary. The French have no option but to go back and their VMG drops to 10kts for a time – lead stretches to 290 metres.

Mark 1: 3m 43secs ITA leads by 27secs or 380 metres. Spithill asks for helicopter to be removed on Leg 2 “right on our wind”.

Mark 2: 7m 10secs ITA leads by 34 secs. Orient Express has a glitch on finals approach to Mark 2, when mainsail did not go through and they sailed for a time with the jib properly set and the mainsail stuck to windward. Lead now 220 metres on Leg 3.

Mark 3: 11m 36 sec ITA leads by 26sec, or 535 metres mid-way down Leg 4. Luna Rossa had another rudder issue losing grip again for a significant period. They got it under control but did not lose much.

Mark 4: 15m 10 sec ITA leads by 56 sec. FRA appeared to get stuck in the left hand corner of the course and came out at a slow angle – accounting for the big increase in margin. margin 500 metres in Leg 5.

Mark 5: 19m 51 sec ITA leads by 51sec or 600 metres.

Finish: 23m 20 sec ITA leads with the margin over Orient Express blowing out to 84secs.

Series format

There are two phases of Round Robin racing, four races are scheduled to be sailed, with six teams competing and two of those will be sailing twice. The day’s pairings can reread from the graphic below.

Weather Prognosis:

America’s Cup Weather Partner PredictWind has provided a dedicated Race Weather Center offering fans access to detailed daily weather breakdowns, live webcams and historical weather data to daily weather breakdowns written by meteorologists.

Forecast Race Day 1: This Thursday 29th, in early afternoon winds from the East should blow around 7-9 knots over the race course. During the afternoon the wind is expected to turn right and settle in a South-East direction with not much change in wind strength. Sea state will be relatively calm with 0.5 meter coming from the East with a 3 second period. The sky will be partly cloudy with temperatures reaching 26°C over the water and 29° over land.

Tomorrow Friday 30th, similar conditions are expected than the previous day. The winds from East/South-East will be light around 5 to 10 knots with calm sea and cloudy sky.

Course Location:

Crew Lists: