'Comeback's on': Britannia strikes back in America's Cup

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Author: Christopher Reive,
Publish Date: Thu, 17 Oct 2024, 7:12am

A day to take stock appears to have been just what Britannia needed in their bid to claim the America’s Cup.

Needing to find a way to claw their way back into the contest while facing a 4-0 deficit against defender Team New Zealand, Britannia didn’t miss their opportunities as they won both of this morning’s races to close the gap to 4-2.

“Solid effort from the team today and that was really for everyone both on here and back on land,” Ineos Britannia starboard helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie said.

“It was a big, big team effort to try and get some performance back. Still a long way to go, but the comeback’s on.”

The races followed drastically different scripts, but the British won both starts and charged on to claim two vital wins in the best-of-13 series.

In the opening race of the day, the Kiwis fell off their foils early in the pre-start in the light breeze and lumpy seas in Barcelona, arriving into the starting box slightly late and not being able to build enough speed to accelerate out of a gybe.

“Biggest swell of the day right on that entry so it was a bit of a shame we couldn’t quite get across them or really get enough speed to gybe and then dropped off the foil. A building breeze, it’s pretty hard to make a pass,” Team NZ starboard helmsman Peter Burling said after race one.

“It’s always really frustrating to be off the foils. We made a little error being a tiny bit too late, but really just felt a bit unlucky with the way the phasing and puff worked that they got so close and we couldn’t accelerate enough to make the gybe in the dial-down.”

Race two saw the breeze step up but the sea stay bumpy, continuing to make life hard for the teams to navigate their way around the course.

After a game of cat and mouse in the pre-start, the British were able to build the speed to charge over the top of the Kiwis to hit the line on time and at speed.

“That was a bit disappointing,” Team NZ coach Ray Davies said. “We had them on the ropes in that pre-start and just let them roll us on that last gybe back to the line. That was a bit of a shame because they’d done such good work in controlling that start.”

With the defender a sitting duck in the pre-start for the day’s first race, Britannia sailed across their face twice during their starting routine to throw dirty air at them and make it even harder to get going, before the Brits started the race proper.

Team NZ were able to get going again eventually, but at that point they had to hope Britannia would fall off their foils and open the door for a comeback.

That didn’t happen; the Brits sailed an impeccable race in the tricky conditions to close out a big win. The 1m 18s margin was the largest of the series so far; an expected outcome after the way things started.

In race six of the series, the British got off the line better, but the Kiwis were hot on their heels the entire race.

Both teams had slight touchdowns in the race and it became a bit of a drag race down the last leg, but Britannia held on for the win.