The 37th America’s Cup Match kicks off on Sunday in Barcelona between Ineos Britannia, winner of the Louis Vuitton Cup, and defender Emirates Team New Zealand, who will be aiming for a three-peat. Tip & Shaft was assisted in its assessment by Franck Cammas, performance director of Orient Express Racing Team, Nicolas Charbonnier, helmsman/trimmer of Alinghi Red Bull Racing, Dimitri Despierres, head of American Magic’s mechatronics department, and Philippe Presti, coach with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
Just over two and a half years after the 36th edition ended in Auckland with Emirates Team New Zealand’s 7-3 victory over Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, the New Zealand challenge is once again defending its title against its challenger of record, this time Ineos Britannia. For the first time since it was created in 1983, the Louis Vuitton Cup, an eliminatory competition between challengers, has fallen into the hands of a British team, which is thus keeping alive its dream of reclaiming a trophy abandoned to the Americans at the first edition in… 1851.
And for the four experts interviewed by Tip & Shaft, Ben Ainslie’s men’s qualification for the America’s Cup Match comes as a surprise. “If you’d asked me after the Preliminary Race (in which the English took 4th place at the end of August), I wouldn’t have imagined them winning the Louis Vuitton Cup,” Franck Cammas sums up. “There was a pretty pronounced cut between the two round robins, they’ve acquired a solidity they didn’t have before, and you could sense from his comments that Ben Ainslie’s confidence level had changed completely, they’re the team that’s progressed the most.”
In what areas in particular? While Nicolas Charbonnier believes that over the summer the Brits were able to iron out a number of faults that became apparent fairly quickly on their AC75 – “they didn’t hesitate to cut off a piece of the hull underneath, as they had probably been a little ambitious at the aero level in wanting to push the plate effect, but with the waves, it often dragged” – all feel that it is above all in terms of the boat’s handling that they have made progress. “A few months ago, they were very unstable when flying, whereas now, in maneuvers, transitions, it’s clean all the time”, continues the helmsman/trimmer of the Swiss challenge.
Team New Zealand advantage
Dimitri Despierres adds: “Against the Italians, they stand out thanks to the stability of their flight. It’s a matter of an inch, but at this level, it makes all the difference. I think that their different use of cyclists, with one person dedicated to trim, i.e. the longitudinal adjustment of the boat, and another to the flight, has enabled them to be a little more consistent, where Prada has made a few mistakes, and in these regattas, it only takes one mistake for the match to be over.” Philippe Presti confirms: “They used more pure sailors in these energy-supplying positions, with the advantage of making regulations that we weren’t necessarily able to do on our side. That’s where their progress really lies, in the coordination and sharing of tasks.”
The conditions of the Louis Vuitton Cup final, contested mostly in fairly strong winds, also played in favor of the British AC75, more at ease above 12 knots. Reliability was also to the advantage of Ben Ainslie’s men, with Luna Rossa failing to start the third race and retiring in the seventh. These are all assets that will not be in short supply when it comes to challenging the defending champion, with the first to seven wins earning the right to lift the coveted silver ewer.
However, our four experts believe that the defender is still in a strong position to complete the hat-trick. Firstly because, according to most of them, the Kiwi boat seems to them to perform better, or at least to be more versatile, than its rival. “In light airs, the Kiwis clearly have the advantage,” notes Dimitri Despierres, ”so much so that if the Match is played out in 6-9 knots, I’m afraid it’ll end 7-0.” Franck Cammas agrees: “In light airs, the New Zealanders have shown some pretty extraordinary things. Despite their small foils, they’re able to fly very fast with very little sails, I’ve rarely seen them put a J1 in these conditions, when there’s the risk of landing, it’s pretty amazing and it shows that they’ve mastered the hydrodynamic part very well.”
And while Ineos Britannia shone in steady winds, the same Franck Cammas believes that in these conditions too, the New Zealanders have their say: “We’ve seen some pretty impressive training outings from them, with speed, an ability to maneuver in difficult conditions, we feel they’re serene, they’re not holding back.” Nicolas Charbonnier believes, however, that “conditions with lots of waves may give Ineos an advantage, as they don’t have the bulbous species on Team New Zealand’s foils, which cause a lot of drag when submerged, so the sea state may favor the English.”
Ben Ainslie vs Peter Burling
The fact remains that, unlike Ineos Britannia, the defender, “after using the two round robins to validate its performance, has had a month to develop its boat, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them even faster”, notes Philippe Presti. “Since then, they’ve made new sails, modifications to the foils, it’s rare for them to make a mistake in their evolutions. And we can expect them to be very solid in maneuvers, a point they insist on a lot,” adds Franck Cammas.
Does this mean that the match is a foregone conclusion? None of our experts think so, firstly, because as Philippe Presti explains, if there are differences between the boats, they are much smaller than in the 36th edition: “In the last Cup, we were 3-3, whereas we were supposed to be more than a knot and a half slower than them in VMG; here, we’re talking about tenths of a knot.” Hence the importance of pure match racing, an area in which, for all our experts, the British start with an advantage insofar as they are on the Louis Vuitton Cup momentum, whereas Team New Zealand’s last match dates back to September 9, hence the risk for the latter to be “a little rusty” according to Nicolas Charbonnier.
“The challenger has sailed another twenty or so matches at a very high level and in increasingly close quarters, which has enabled it to make a lot of progress in the pre-start and pure speed phases. It’s the best possible training, which the New Zealanders haven’t had,” confirms Franck Cammas. However, according to Philippe Presti, “it’s really going to come down to the start phase and how the boat in front controls the situation. You have to be in front at the first crossroads and not make any more mistakes, because after that, it’s very difficult to overtake.”
Can Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher, the other helmsman of the Ineos AC75, beat the Peter Burling-Nathan Outteridge duo? “The Kiwis have clearly strengthened with Nathan Outteridge, they’re a very solid group. Now, Ben is the greatest racer in the history of sailing, four times Olympic champion, once vice-champion, he’s already won the Cup (in 2013 with Oracle), he’s been sailing for several seasons on SailGP, and when he’s got his project well in mind, he delivers quite a bit”, smiles Nicolas Charbonnier.
“Ben Ainslie is a scary guy. When he’s in the right frame of mind, he’s a very tough opponent, and his rivals may be reluctant to go too far against him in the contact phases,” adds Franck Cammas. Dimitri Despierres is more nuanced: “Opposite him, there are also Olympic champions, who have sailed on Moths or 49ers, boats that are closer to flight than a Finn.” The American Magic engineer has the final word: “Whatever happens, we’re in for a moment of history: on the one hand, it would be extraordinary for Great Britain to win the Cup after losing it in 1851, on the other, no team has won three times in a row in modern times.”
Photo: Ian Roman / America’s Cup
