For the 1983 America’s Cup, our plan was to do two new boats and to trial them against each other. We already had two decent boats, Freedom and Enterprise, for comparison. We suspected that the Australians would be competitive and planning to do something special following their clever bendy rig in 1980. Don’t forget that the Americans had won forever, and the foreigners were predisposed to losing—which might not be fair, but I think it was realistic.

We thought that if we designed and built two new boats that we would have the landscape pretty well covered. We decided to have Johan Valentijn design one boat and Olin Stephens and his Sparkman & Stephens office design the other. The Valentijn boat, ironically, would not have been able to race in the Cup because it was too short on the waterline and didn’t fit the 12-Metre Rule.

For the S&S boat, Olin Stephens was getting older, so some others on the S&S team were probably involved, such as Bill Langan and the team behind him. They designed a fairly large boat. Normally, a large boat would be fighting for enough sail area, but they got it by pushing the girth profile pretty hard to gain back some rating under the 12-Metre Rule. It pushed the rule on girth hard. It was large, and the reason it did not have a smaller sail area was because the girths were not penalized. It was V-shaped and not wine-bottle-shaped. You would think with that configuration it would be slow, but it needed to be that way under the rule to get a large boat with a larger sail area.

We tested it against Freedom and Enterprise and realized that the design did not work well. We decided that we needed to either build another boat or rely on Freedom to be a good boat. We decided to have another boat designed and built, and based on some of the innovation that Valentijn had shown with his design of Magic, we let him do it. He designed Liberty, but it was not a great boat. 

The first day, we sailed Freedom against Liberty—mind you, I hate to go swimming, but I said I would go swimming because there must be something stuck on Liberty to be this slow against Freedom. So that did not bode well for our future.

We decided that we would also let Valentijn make changes to Freedom because she was sticky in the light air, and we thought that would improve with more sail area. We decided that we would let him make Freedom a little shorter so that we could add sail area. However, Freedom had the lowest freeboard of any 12-Metre, and that had been grandfathered in because the rule on freeboard was changed in 1983.

Freedom had a low ­freeboard and was quite wet, but it was the low freeboard that gave her better aerodynamic and hydrodynamic qualities. Valentijn did not interpret or misread the rule, so in making the boat shorter to gain sail area, we lost the grandfathering of the freeboard. We ended up with a shorter boat and without any additional sail area. It made Freedom worse in light air without added sail area, and worse in stronger conditions because it was shorter and it rated the same. So Valentijn designed Magic, which could not race for the Cup because its rating was too short; he designed Liberty, which was not a special boat; and he negatively impacted Freedom, which was our best boat after all of this. We ended up having to race Liberty.

In the meantime, the Australians had built two boats: One was Challenge 12 and the other Australia II. They were identical except one had a ­regular keel and one had a winged keel. The winged keel ended up being the better boat. It was the shortest boat you could design and still race, which, if I remember right, was 42½ feet on the waterline.

The problem with a small boat is that it isn’t very good in windier conditions. They figured out how to make it better by turning the keel upside down. They attached the short part of the keel to the hull and had the longer part at the bottom of the keel. That made a short boat with a lot of sail area very stable in the breeze. The tank testing was done in Holland and the idea came out of Holland, which made it illegal, but that’s another story.

The problem with the long keel at the bottom was that it made excess tip vortices—or, in layman’s terms, there was too much drag. They figured that if you added winglets to the keel, it would reduce the vortices. They started thinking that if you were going to add winglets with that drag, you might as well make them out of lead, which would give even more stability. And, if you were heeled over, one of the wings would be more vertical and add lift. So, for Australia, it was all a gain—aside from some additional drag downwind—but the boat was short and had plenty of sail area, so it was not that bad. 

The fact that we were up 3-1 after four races was a ­miracle. But it was a combination of them having some bad luck and not sailing well at the beginning and us having some good fortune. Once they figured out that they were fast, they became formidable. They got stronger and stronger, and John Bertrand got less nervous; they had a good crew and a good boat.

We broke down in the fifth race when the jumpers blew off the mast, which was too bad because those were our best conditions. They had good fortune in the sixth race and were faster. In the seventh race, we were kicking their butts—but the wind dropped quite a bit, and they got stronger and stronger and passed us.

Would I have done anything differently? Maybe knowing what I know now, but what I knew back then, probably not. They were a good boat.

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Wingfoiling is a new and exploding addition to the world of sailing, and naturally it has a racing component built into its foundation. Wherever there’s wind and water these days, wingfoilers can be seen flying fast with light and minimal equipment, and when two ­foilers meet, who doesn’t want to see how fast they can go? And who’s faster? Even though wingfoiling is relatively new, there’s already plenty of racing developing, internationally and domestically. Whether you are new to wingfoiling and want to race for the first time, or you want to push yourself to the next level, here are my top-10 tips to make the most of your wingfoil racing.

Enjoy the racing. Wingfoil racing is a unique way to share the water with a lot of people. One of the coolest things about foiling is how silently you sail across the water. You can be very close to another person and have a conversation, which makes racing much more social and competitive.

Be open to learning new things. When I work with the kids on the Wylde Wind & Water Wingfoil Youth Team, I tell them that the best way to improve is to race. Racing teaches us so many invaluable lessons about equipment management, reading the water, sailing in a variety of conditions, and pushing our comfort zones. Every race will teach us something, so we have to remember to be open to learning from it. I learn as much from one regatta as I could from an entire month of training on my own.

Don’t stress the gear. The best equipment with which to start racing is the gear you have. Use it to participate in a local race series, and as you get more familiar with the racing formats and as your skills improve, then you can purchase more-advanced equipment for wingfoil racing. Don’t let your equipment be your barrier of entry to try something new.

Learn the different starts. There are three types of starts in wingfoil racing: traditional upwind starts for when you are ­racing windward/leeward courses; reaching starts for when you are slalom racing; and rabbit starts for when you are distance racing or marathon racing.

As your skills improve, you can purchase more-advanced equipment for wingfoil racing. Don’t let your equipment be your barrier of entry to try something new.

The start sequence is typically a 3-minute countdown. Because wingfoilers sail very quickly, you cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time, so calculate this into your prestart routine so that you know where to line up at 30 seconds before your start. The goal is to cross the start line going full speed—and in control. You always want to be on foil during the prestart sequence, so jibe or tack in puffs—whatever keeps you on the foil—so you can ensure that you’re foiling when you cross the line.

Pump for extra speed off the line. When pumping for speed off the start, use your whole body, starting with your legs, to compress the foil into the water to generate lift. As the board starts to rise, extend your arms and capture more wind in your wing, which will counter the lift of the foil and propel you forward. When pumping, engage your core, not only for strength and power, but for stability as well. Remember, you are the connection between the wing and the board. Be a solid connection.

Stay fast and tight. On the typical wing racecourse, there are two major obstacles to avoid: dirty air and dirty water. Dirty air can be really disruptive to your top-end speed and your upwind or downwind angle, so do your best to find lanes of clean air to avoid wing turbulence. Wing turbulence is one of the easiest ways to catch a wing tip in the water, which often results in swimming. Foils disturb the water and create turbulence from the introduction of air down the mast. Somebody else’s foil turbulence can knock you off balance or cause your foil to cavitate. Learn how to anticipate foil turbulence, and if you can, avoid it.

Somebody else’s foil turbulence can knock you off balance or cause your foil to cavitate. Learn how to anticipate foil turbulence, and if you can, avoid it.

Embrace different courses. Wingfoil racing can be short and intense, which keeps it exciting. Slalom races are anywhere from 3 to 6 minutes, course races are about 8 to 12 minutes, distance races are around 20 to 25 minutes, and marathon races are at least 45 minutes.

Enjoy the entire wind range. Wind minimums and maximums depend on the ­location and sea state as well, but race organizers typically aim to sail in 6-knot minimum. And the wind maximum? That depends on the race committee, however, I recommend getting a small wing because wingfoil racing in 35 to 40 knots is chaotic but a ton of fun.

Clean and safe mark roundings. It’s especially important to pay close attention to your exit angle from a mark rounding. You’re moving at a high rate of speed, and your exit angle can make or break your race. Also, just as you would off the starting line, pump out of the turns to accelerate.

Find your fleet. Where to wingfoil race? There are many race opportunities around the world, including the high-level Wingfoil Racing World Cup tour, GWA Wing Foil, X-15 Class races (one-design), and national and local races. Connect with your local sailing club or federation to learn more information about the upcoming races in your region, and if you don’t have a local wingfoil racing scene, start one. All it takes is another winger.

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The Swan One Design Worlds came to a dramatic conclusion in Palma de Mallorca over the weekend with the world champions crowned in three ClubSwan Racing classes—two by a single point—and the season-long Nations League ultimately decided.

In the ClubSwan 36 fleet, teams from Brazil, Germany and Spain took the top spots with Haakon Lorentzen’s Mamao, of Brazil, claiming the ClubSwan 36 title after overhauling series leader and three-race winner Black Battalion. Edoardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone completed the podium.

“I am feeling great, it is our second time,” said Lorentzen, adding the key to their success was never giving up and fighting to the finish. “I was 68 when I won my first world championship, and now I am 70 and have won my second.”

Mark Bezner’s Olymp, hailing from Germany, claimed the ultra-close ClubSwan 50 title by a single point from Raquel and Graeme Peterson’s Moonlight. Leonardo Ferragamo’s Cuordileone, the 2023 world title holder toke the final place on the podium. The level of competition was highlighted by the fact that the top-five boats in the 12-strong class were each only a point apart.

“It’s outstanding and a great reward for our team,” Bezner said. “We’re a new team and the first day was a bit rough but today we had two great starts—we like challenging conditions, we do a bit better. I have only been with ClubSwan Racing for four years, having never raced a regatta before, so you can imagine how I feel.”

Perhaps appropriately, given the Bay of Palma arena, the similarly tight competition for the ClubSwan 42 world title was an all-Spanish affair, with Pedro Vaquer Comas’ Nadir edging out Jose Maria Meseguer’s Pez de Abril—again by a single point. Adriano Majolino’s Canopo, the 2024 Rolex Swan Cup winner with two race victories on its Palma card, was third.

Back ashore Comas said, “We’re feeling very good, it has been a very competitive event for everyone. The 42 class is very strong at the moment and this is the second time we have won the Worlds so we will enjoy it. The team has been together 10 years so I am very proud.”

The teams in the Swan One Design Worlds experienced varied conditions throughout the week, providing a suitable challenge of their skills across the wind range, as well as a rather different challenge for the experienced race management team at the Real Club Náutico de Palma, host for the ClubSwan Racing regatta.

It was an equally close-run affair in the 2024 The Nations League ClubSwan 50 series with Moonlight — despite a strong performance in Palma and victory in the recent Rolex Swan Cup — ending the season as runner-up to Marcus Brennecke’s Hatari, with the German yacht adding to her winning streak.

“It is disappointing to have lost the World Championship, but Olymp deserved it,” said Brennecke. “On the other hand, winning the Nations League title for the fifth time in a row shows that we are sailing well. But it is so competitive and everyone can win — that is the beauty of ClubSwan Racing.”

Despite their third-place finish in the Swan One Design Worlds, Cuordileone was able to secure the overall season ClubSwan 36 Nations League title. Edoardo Ferragamo said, “It was a very beautiful season even if the weather wasn’t the easiest, but we managed to keep the team strong to the end, so we are happy with that.”

A similar tale unfolded in the ClubSwan 42 class, where earlier performances in the season secured the overall title for Jose Maria Meseguer’s Pez de Abril.

“We are very happy obviously as the Nations League is a very important trophy,” Meseguer said. “The highlight for me is that we have been able to hit our targets through the season. We have so many new people who are coming in and they are improving a lot — so everyone is trying very hard to get better and it is a lot of fun.”

While most of the attention has been focused on the action on the water, as ever the shoreside made its own contribution to the ClubSwan Racing atmosphere. A major highlight of the social scene was the Owners’ Evening which was held in the historic and famed location of the 300-year-old Gordiola glass blowing factory, whose architecture is inspired by the Castle of Perpignan, and is a candidate for UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Summing up the season at the celebratory Prize-Giving on Sunday evening, Nautor Group President Leonardo Ferragamo said, “This event marks the conclusion of a Nations League season which has seen friendly and competitive racing merged with the lifestyle and friendship at the heart of the Swan family experience.

“As ever the Real Club Náutico de Palma has been the perfect host allowing us to celebrate the season to date which has been full of so many special events.”

Head of Sport Activities Federico Michetti added: “This has been another exceptional year for ClubSwan Racing and I would like to extend a heartfelt thank-you to all the owners, their friends, partners and crews who have done so much to make it so special.

“We have all been privileged to have been able to compete is so many welcoming venues, here now in Palma de Mallorca, and earlier in the season in Scarlino, Bonifacio, Alghero and Porto Cervo. Their contribution has been fantastic, as has the ongoing support of our partners Rolex, Porsche, Randstad, Henri Lloyd and Banor. Together we have made it happen.”

The post ClubSwan One Design Worlds Play Out in Palma appeared first on Sailing World.

Seven to two—that is the final outcome of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona following a decisive win for Emirates Team New Zealand, now third time defenders and supreme masters of the AC75 America’s Cup class of their design. While INEOS Britannia had high hopes and no lack of effort in trying, the Auld Mug remains firmly in the hands of Team New Zealand, now awaiting the next challenger and the next chapter of its dynasty.

On a warm and sunny afternoon on October 19, the New Zealand sailing powerhouse delivered its final and convincing blow to the British Challenger of Record on the sixth and final day of racing, stirring a black swarm of New Zealand fans into a frenzy along Barcelona’s waterfront. There were two races scheduled, but the Kiwis only needed one, and it was theirs from the first cross onward.

Scripted to perfection for a Saturday final race, the wind forecast was questionable with the remnants of the previous day’s northerly fighting the arrival of the sea breeze. At the morning race briefing, race officer Iain Murray alluded to the potential of a hard 3:30 cut off, but with only a slight delay, the sea breeze found its footing to the delight of crowds that worked their way to vantage points along Barcelona’s waterfront. To borrow a oft-heard phrase of Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Nathan Outteridge it was, “all good.”

Going into today’s do-or-die race, the British knew their fate was not with better boat speed, but rather a bare-knuckle approach to the pre-start.

And with 8 knots of breeze, Emirates Team New Zealand entered on port with INEOS on starboard entry going immediately on the offensive, chasing the Kiwis to the bottom of the starting box. New Zealand was ready for it and knew a jibe and tack would set them up for INEOS’s next move.

The British came at the New Zealanders once again, but with the maneuverability that has been the hallmark of their series, the Kiwis tacked and then went right back at them. After a Kiwi push to the line, INEOS was just ahead off the start, but with a slight right the New Zealanders promptly tacked and went for a bigger piece of the shift.

The Kiwis on Taihoro had the first cross by 24 meters, and while the chase was on and close at times over the six-leg, 26-minute race INEOS had no passing lanes. It was wire to wire again for Team New Zealand.

“It’s a surreal feeling, to know we’ve won it again, and seeing the crowd and the cheering,” Burling said after racing. “Our whole team is incredibly competitive and we get along and get the best out of one another—everyone pushing forward and that showed on the racecourse.”

The push to seven started with four straight wins early in the series before the Kiwis stumbled on the fourth day of the regatta with two surprise losses. The team’s regroup from those missteps, Burling said, was his personal highlight of the Barcelona experience—he was happy to silence the critics and get the job done with authority.

Much will be debated and analyzed once the champagne has been sprayed and the sting of the loss fades for the British outfit, but if there’s one undeniable fact of this regatta—Team New Zealand’s Taihoro was the fastest boat of the third-generation AC75s.

Emirates Team New Zealand’s Dan Bernasconi, architect of the rule that produced the most technical sailing craft of a generation says there’s still more to come with the big foilers, whenever that may be.

“With the performance of these boats you’re fighting over 10ths or hundreds of knots, but the way you can sail them can make a huge, huge difference,” Bernasconi said about the team’s developments through the Barcelona series that began back in August. “We’ve made real steps forward between the round robins and the final: how to minimize the losses in tacks and jibes, roundups, bear-aways, what you do in situations where the winds in a different direction for the waves, how you trim the sails, high modes, low modes, and positioning on the racecourse.”

Earlier in the series Burling had said they’d been modifying how they use the power team’s input and while Bernasconi declined to share specifics, he said, “there are a lot of decisions about where we direct the power. There’s a very tight limit of power to use, and you’ve got about 20 functions controlling the sails. There’s a lot of complex logic there, and we’ve been working on that way all the way through. It’s one of the few things you can change right until the end of the Cup, as to how you direct that power.”

Was maneuverability a real strength of the platform? “It’s been a massive learning curve for all teams where being able to minimize losses in tacks and jibes. I think we’ve seen these boats match raced very hard, and if you can save 5 meters in every tack compared to the other guys, that makes a massive difference.”

While much lip service had been given to the similarities of the boats in terms of all-around performance, Bernasconi—understandably—was perfectly happy with the package that got the job done in a wide range of conditions, but especially in the America’s Cup matches themselves.

“I think we had a slight edge in the conditions that we raced in,” Bernasconi said. “I think the two boats did target slightly different conditions. If every day had been in 18 to 20 knots of breeze would the results have been the same? I don’t know. You’ve got to pick your design and you have to put the target somewhere. Of course, we knew it could be 18 to 20, and we designed a boat which wouldn’t be bad in those conditions, but we wanted to be absolutely the fastest boat out there in 8 to 12.”

While the tradition of the America’s Cup is to have the next Challenger of Record step forward as soon as the Match is won, there were no such formal proceedings made known. Instead, the parade of yachts and small craft that had lined the racecourse to witness Team New Zealand’s historic third win on the water followed them into Port Vell, for the speeches, the champagne and the party over Kiwi Corner that will no doubt last until the sun rises again over Barcelona.

Whether the next Cup match remains in Spain or moves to the Middle East, as some rumors claim, is unknown, but one thing for certain is INEOS is not going anywhere, or at least not Ben Ainslie, who said, “See you next time.”

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Simple, but race-defining mistakes got the better of Emirates Team New Zealand on Race Day 4 of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, bringing the series to 4-2 before the reserve day on Thursday, but today on the waters off Barcelona the Kiwi unit promptly snuffed the British momentum with two decisive wins that now has them one race away from a three-peat defense.

With the winds blowing offshore (northwest) for the first time in the America’s Cup Match, over the high hills on the outskirts of Barcelona and through the city of 6 million, conditions delivered a different sort of racecourse with flat water and the unpredictability that comes with an offshore wind flow. Ten-degree shifts and skittering puffs put a premium on being in phase, and more importantly, being out front to cherry-pick the shifts.

As it has been thus far in the Match, the first cross came down to the start, and once again Emirates Team New Zealand got the starts right and led both races wire-to-wire. In the first of the day (Race 7) INEOS Britannia had port entry and just got across the Kiwis as they entered from the starboard end and went straight into the chase, jibing to follow. Pulling off an impressively tight figure-of-eight, INEOS reversed roles and played the pusher as New Zealand dragged them into the bottom right corner of the start box. INEOS turned back to the line early, leaving plenty of opportunity for Emirates Team New Zealand to start at the weather end with plenty of space between them. Starboard helmsman Peter Burling knew the right shift was coming and they owned it when it came.

“The pre-start meant getting to the first shift,” Burling said after racing, “and INEOS made it easy for us.”

How easy was it? According to data from the boats, the breeze blowing across the Kiwi bow as they started was about 288 degrees true. Twenty seconds later, the true wind was wound up to 311 degrees and Taihoro was shearing off INEOS to leeward. When the British came off their left-boundary tack the New Zealanders planted a hard cover, bounced their opponents back to the left and a 60-meter lead grew to 240 at their next intersection.

While INEOS sniffed out a good shift at the top of the beat to close the gap, the New Zealanders were easily across into the first gate and connecting shifts and puffs down the run to pad their lead.

“These boats go quick,” said INEOS coach Xabi Fernandez after racing, “so if you go the right side, you get there fast, and if you go to the wrong side you also get there fast, so the shifts were super important today.”

—INEOS Britannia Coach Xabi Fernandez

There was nothing INEOS could do except try splits and get out of phase as the distance grew and were able to keep the race within a few hundred meters, but on the upwind Leg 5, Emirates Team New Zealand locked into a puff had that them charging upwind a good 10 knots faster at times to grow their lead to a punishing 700-plus meters.

“These boats go quick,” said INEOS coach Xabi Fernandez after racing, “so if you go the right side, you get there fast, and if you go to the wrong side you also get there fast, so the shifts were super important today.”

Exiting from the final windward gate, the Kiwis jibed onto a puff that carried them down the middle of the course to nearly double their lead, and two jibes later they were across the line with the British chasing from more than half a mile behind.

To say Emirates Team New Zealand made it look easy would be understatement, but the precision and consistency of their flight throughout the race was apparent. For that, Burling credited his four teammates pounding away on the pedals for 27 minutes, putting plenty of oil in the tank to allow for the constant adjustments to the sails through the wind speed changes.

“It was a shifty, dynamic offshore day and I think one thing that stood out to me is how good our power train is,” Burling said, giving a nod to the power team putting out the wattage required to keep the boat on rails and fast out of every turn. “How we use our power, that’s been improving all the time and made our lives easy today.”

With one win in the bag, the Kiwis went right back to work in the pre-start of the next race, this time entering on port, getting clear across and jibing back to the line with the British sailing past them and setting up well behind. It was a free pass that allowed Team New Zealand to control the charge into the start and control the race from there.

“It was satisfying to have them go past us, and for them to try and push us back to the line,” said Emirates Team New Zealand trimmer Andy Maloney after racing. “We did a good job defending that push from them and leading off in a tight position to leeward.”

That strong position set them up for the next big advance. INEOS’s clearing tack had them 140 meters behind after only 2 minutes of racing and early into the downwind leg, the British battled through rudder control issues that trimmer Leigh McMillan later said were “distracting” but not consequential.

“We managed it as best we could,” he said, “but it didn’t affect the outcome of the race.”

One touchdown had INEOS’s speedo plummet to 27 knots, momentarily, while the Kiwis extended away at 44 knots, doubling their lead to 400 meters in a blink.

The distance between the two boats never dropped below 300 meters, and on the third leg (downwind) Team New Zealand locked into a puff that had them streaming down the middle of the course and boosting the lead to more than 700.

Sailing the course as they wished, the Kiwis put another point on the board, and that was that.

“Our biggest issue was they got the critical first shift right,” McMillan said. “We came out strong in the pre-starts and showed we’d made some big gains there, but once they got control it was incredibly difficult to get past. Frustrating.”

It’s clear what the British challenger must do, should Saturday’s light-wind forecast allow the Match to continue, McMillan said: “We’ve got to win every race and the only way we can do that is to really take it to them. We’re ready for that.”

And so too are the defenders and the swarms of black-shirted fans that are swarming Barcelona’s waterfront. They can smell victory, and it’s only one race away.

The post Emirates Team New Zealand On the Cusp of Three appeared first on Sailing World.

When Emirates Team New Zealand entered the start box on port entry of Race 5 of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup, INEOS Britannia was charging at them in a good puff, with 30 knots of boat speed and their target locked. And in the split-second decisions that these AC75 helmsmen must make, there were only two choices for port helm Nathan Outteridge—go for the marginal cross or jibe for safety.

And it was Option B that was the New Zealander team’s undoing, entering the jibe below target speed, turning straight into light spot and through their own disturbed air.

“It was a downwind spiral once we knew we weren’t crossing,” Outteridge said after racing, admitting that they were a few seconds late and slow to enter, which set up the chain of events and had them off the foils and watching INEOS Britannia sail circles around them before starting alone and sailing to their first race win and halting what was fast becoming a Kiwi sweep.

It was the start of a momentum-shifting day for the British Challenge of Record, desperate to turn their series around and rewrite their Barcelona story. And while a win is a win, it was also a day where the New Zealanders can look back at the obvious mistakes.

Self-inflicted wounds aside, the Kiwis are plenty fast.

INEOS Britannia was a third of the way up the first leg by the time Emirates Team New Zealand was up to speed and chasing. The delta through the first gate was a healthy 2m:15s, by far the biggest lead of the America’s Cup matches. With both boats free to sail the course as they wished, it was, as INEOS’s Dylan Fletcher told his teammates mid-race, a “time trial.” In other words: sail the course as fast as possible.

“Once you get to a certain point ahead of the other boat it’s challenging to control them,” said INEOS trimmer Bleddyn Mon. “So, you have to race your own race, which is especially hard when it’s tricky conditions like we had today; that means looking for the pressure and getting on the right shifts as nicely as you can.”

It was the same time trial for Emirates Team New Zealand, which shaved 16 seconds off the British lead on the first downwind leg and then another 22 seconds on the next, and then 8 more by the time they were through the final gate. When it was all said and done, INEOS’s 4-minute head start was reduced to 1m:18s.

A Momentum Shift for INEOS

With a wind increase to 12 knots for Race 6 of the Wednesday doubleheader, both teams delivered another interesting pre-start, one that Mon said they had practiced in the simulator, one of the hundreds of possible starting scenarios.

This time, INEOS entered on port and Emirates Team New Zealand went straight from starboard entry into jibing and pursuing the British. INEOS tacked high then tacked again with the New Zealanders mimicking their every move. As both boats paralleled to the right boundary, INEOS pulled off a quick jibe that the Kiwis were late to respond to, opening up the door for the British to roll the Kiwis and make a straight and clean run to the start.

It was a humbling moment for the New Zealanders, but they knew exactly how they’d let their rivals get off the hook.

“What we saw today was how difficult it is to win races,” Outteridge said after racing. “If we had just jibed half a second or a second early, and they can’t roll us, then we’re luffing them out of the start. “So, they did a great job to pull off the jibe and build speed quickly to get across us.

“We were a little bit late on our jibe and our timings to defend that,” he added. “We’ll review that and next time make sure we’re on the good side of that one.”

Immediately tacking away, the early advantage went to the British, winning the first cross by nearly three boatlengths. The next cross was a similar margin, and a good indication that this race had the makings of another sword fight.

With a split at the first gate of only 6 seconds, INEOS doubled their lead initially on the first downwind leg, but there was only 9 seconds between them through the next gate. As both teams worked the wind shifts up the beat, each essentially sailing their own race to minimize maneuvers in the confused and steep waves, there was still only 9 seconds difference through the windward gate once again.

It was 16 seconds at the bottom of the run when Team New Zealand lost control of their rudder through the split turn, but with one favorable shift that went their way they were breathing down the necks of the British again, bringing the race back to boatlengths.

On this seventh of eight legs Emirates Team New Zealand well and surely had Ben Ainslie and his co-helm Dylan Fletcher looking over the shoulder as they loosely covered the Kiwis who were goading the British into a tacking duel.

Only 7 seconds separated the two through the final windward gate, and following a split, the jibing duel was eventually brought to the middle of the course with the Kiwis gaining on every exchange, reducing the British lead to two boatlengths until INEOS was able to clear the finish for a 7-second win.

“We’re back in it,” Fletcher said in celebration.

“We really needed that,” Ainslie said after racing, acknowledging that it has been 90 years since a British team had won a race in the America’s Cup Match. “It’s a long way to go in this and we just want to make sure we keep that momentum going now and keep making gains, and if we can do that we can take it all the way.

“We’re not here to just win races, we’re here to win the America’s Cup.”

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The 37th America’s Cup final between the Challenger, INEOS Britannia, and the Defender, Emirates Team New Zealand, is currently underway and revealing a few tactical trends over four races thus far. Let’s take a look at the key decisions teams must make and which strategies are being employed to attack from behind or defend when leading.

Pre-Start Positioning

At the press conference ahead of the 37th Match, a coin flip determined that Emirates Team New Zealand would start the first race on port, while INEOS Britannia would start on starboard. In the age of AC75s, where the priority is to remain on the foils, some of the traditional moves are no longer applicable.

In general, the boat that enters the start box on starboard 10 seconds later and from behind controls the pre-start and is better positioned to attack. Normally, if the starboard-entry boat executes standard pre-start maneuvers, it will end up to windward of its rival during the final starboard approach to the starting line. This gives it the power to decide how to proceed in the final seconds, based on its strategy and race plan.

Regardless of whether the boats approach from deep in the start box or higher than the starboard end of the line, the windward boat can choose whether to push the rival to bear away toward the leeward end, hook them from the leeward side, or stay far to windward to start on the right side, based on various tactical reasons. Only a few races in the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series saw the port-entry boat gaining decision-making power in the box, though this didn’t always materialize into a starting advantage.

After the start: Push to the Boundary or Split

Starting to windward generally provides control, allowing the boat to either sail on starboard tack and push the opponent toward the left boundary, or execute an early tack to head toward the right side of the course for a strategic advantage, such as more wind or shift. The latter option is typically favored in southwesterly Garbi sea breezes, where the right side of the course often proves advantageous.

On the other hand, starting to leeward reduces the risk of a poor start, as no other boat can disrupt acceleration or changes in speed at one of the most critical moments of the race. Once across the line, the leeward boat can control its sailing mode toward the left boundary until the windward boat tacks. However, the distance from the start to the left boundary is much shorter than the one the leeward starting boat will have to face after the first tack on the left boundary, all the way to the opposite one.

Consequently, after the tack, the boat going for the leeward start, must commit and be confident that after the first tack will achieve a comfortable relative position to sail potentially from boundary to boundary. Being lifted from leeward by the opponent early after the first tack could result on two extra tacks when close to the port side boundary, that could result on irreversible differences in a very early stage of the race.

In the Louis Vuitton Cup Final, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli often opted for a windward start, while INEOS preferred the leeward position. Both took advantage of their respective positions without much interference.

Upwind Tactics: Cover or Stay in Phase

Once a boat establishes a lead, the primary goal is to cover the opponent, either pushing them toward the unfavored side in terms of wind intensity, wind shifts phase or toward the nearest boundary, which could force them into two extra tacks on the upwind leg.

Meanwhile, the trailing boat aims to minimize damage by staying in sync with wind shifts and looking for an opportunity to create a split, either on the same upwind leg or during the top-mark rounding. Though a split often only requires one additional tack, if mistimed with the wind shift, it can lead to costly losses, so waiting for the right moment is crucial.

After the Top Mark: Downwind Tactics

Downwind tactics depend on whether the trailing boat rounds the same top mark as the leader or a different one. If both round the same mark, the leader can simply mirror the trailing boat’s moves and stay between them and the next mark. The high speeds of foiling boats also mean the boat behind cannot disturb the leader’s clean wind.

However, if the trailing boat achieves a split at the top mark, and both head toward opposite boundaries, the leading boat will have to execute at least one extra jibe to align and regain control. In conditions where wind pressure and shifts vary across the course, this is a common strategy. In contrast, in strong winds and choppy seas, minimizing maneuvers becomes the priority, allowing for sailing from boundary to boundary with minimal interference from the opponent.

The Final Stages

By the second lap, one boat is usually clearly ahead, while the other attempts to create a split to gain leverage and increase the chances of a comeback. In windy or rough seas, the leader often avoids engaging directly, focusing on sailing cleanly from boundary to boundary, minimizing extra maneuvers and concentrating on boat handling.

In more variable conditions, staying close to the rival becomes more important, even if it means executing additional tacks.

Racing these high-speed foiling boats requires thinking two to three steps ahead before execution and anticipating multiple scenarios that could unfold during critical moments, especially when crossing paths with an opponent, easier said than done when the world is watching, the racecourse is small, and the pace is rapid.

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The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match was envisioned to be a marathon to seven wins, with a calendar of potential race days stretching into October 27. But only three days into this regatta, it’s looking as though the base pack-ups for challenger and defender alike could very well be happening sooner than later.

With another convincing defeat on the waters off Barcelona, Emirates Team New Zealand has brought the series to 4-0, leaving INEOS Britannia with an impossible task. Yes, the British Challenger of Record can and will get faster, and that’s all fine and good, but therein lies the rub: Emirates Team New Zealand can and will too.

The race statistics don’t lie—Emirates Team New Zealand’s Taihoro is a faster boat. And the visuals from the water paint a vivid picture of a lethal package—the Kiwi AC75 is a low-flying “aeroplane” that helmsmen Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge with trimmers Andy Maloney and Blair Tuke can throw around with ease and confidence—as they’ve done since the day they launched the boat in April. The boat is rock-steady in a straight line and tack losses are a sniff, and this is no hyperbole.

Today’s one and only race provides compelling proof.

With both boats getting across the starting line relatively evenly—Emirates Team New Zealand at the port end and INEOS at the starboard end—a small wind shift gave the British initial advantage as both boats tacked off the boundary. INEOS planted a proper lee bow tack and Emirates Team New Zealand waited just long enough to open up a bit of runway along the left boundary.

Here’s the impressive part: Consider that the Kiwis first tacked off the boundary 50 seconds into the race, then tacked away from INEOS’s cover 20 seconds later, and then tacked back off the boundary with roughly 20 seconds of speed build. The simple math is this: three tacks within the span of 40 seconds—with 29-knot entry speeds and 24 knots at the bottom end—and when it was all said and done they were still only a boatlength behind.

So much for pinning the Kiwis against the boundary.

“They were in a strong position off that first boundary and we had to wiggle our way out of that situation and had two pretty nice tacks to keep it close,” said Emirates Team New Zealand trimmer Andy Maloney. “One of the cool things about these Version 2 AC75s is that they tack extremely well with the bigger span foils and you can build speed and get up to your tacking speed pretty quickly, so it does give options when getting squashed against the boundary.

Once on the open course the New Zealanders put the throttles down and ducked INEOS in their next intersection to set up for the next intersection at the top of the course. Now on starboard tack, they executed a perfect leebow tack that set them up for an easy layline through the gate, forcing INEOS to tack away to the unfavored left gate.

At the first downwind cross, Emirates Team New Zealand had starboard advantage again, forcing the British to duck. While still close at the second gate the New Zealanders were in complete control of the race, sailing the course as they wished and piling on the distance leg by leg until finishing a good 350 meters and 23 seconds ahead.

With a welcome reserve day on tap for INEOS Britannia on Tuesday, it’s back to the data analysts said trimmer Bleddy Mon after racing when asked whether it would be a sailing day or a date crunching numbers with the performance team. “We don’t need more time on the water at this point,” he said. “We just need to work on the last bit of details.”

The teams are set to meet again on Wednesday for two more races and the forecast is similar to the races thus far, 6 to 10 knots. Should the Kiwis continue to march toward a sweep, the regatta could well be done by Friday, October 18.

“I think we’ve made a step forward again with the performance of the boat and are attacking nicely,” Outteridge said after the race. “So, we are going really well upwind, obviously we are very happy with that but plenty more to come still.” 

The British are confident they can find a way to get more performance out of their craft as well, but at this point, details may not be nearly enough to stop the bleeding. Slow it, yes. Stop it. Not likely.

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It is said that sailboat racing is a game of chess on the water. Match racing is all of that and then some, a game of practiced moves and countermoves, of studying and knowing one’s opponent and eventually exploiting their tendencies.

In match racing, however, repetition is the kiss of death and INEOS Britannia is certainly guilty of in their pre-start approaches in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup: enter, tack high and pursuit. This execution worked surprisingly well for the British Challenger of Record in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final matches against Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, but Emirates Team New Zealand has studied the Challenger of Record enough to pad their simulator and playbook with all sorts of kill scenarios.

Twice now Emirates Team New Zealand has targeted the British at the bottom of their first circle. In the second race of the series, INEOS was able to just cross ahead of the Kiwi starboard attack and get away, but today, in Race 3, Team New Zealand lined them up and went for the jugular, hunting the British on starboard as they were exiting their jibe at the bottom of their circle. Out of the turn, port helmsman Dylan Fletcher saw himself bow-to-bow with Taihoro, with a closing speed of roughly 50 knots. He chose to dive low, and seconds later the British team’s fate was sealed, giving the umpires their first and only penalty call of the day.

“We have a tactical app so we can see what they’re doing,” Ainslie said after racing. “Dylan felt that when we came out of the jibe and the Kiwis turned down his only option was turn down to keep clear, which is what he did, but the umpires saw it differently for whatever reason.”

Ainslie compared it to a similar dial-down incident in the Semi Finals with Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Race 3, September 15). “It was quite similar and normally the umpires give leniency to a give-way boat to have the opportunity to keep clear, which is kind of what happened in this one, but obviously they felt that we took too much time.

“Dylan did the right thing. As soon as they started pointing at us to turn down that was the only thing to do and normally we feel we have some protections against that…but will have to have a chat with the umpires to see how they saw it.”

Dinged in the pre-start, the British were there scrambling to shed the penalty as they crossed the starting line on port at the pin end with the Kiwis turning up on starboard at the opposite. The typical option of scrubbing the 75-meter distance penalty would be pass to leeward of Team New Zealand, but that option was taken away when the Kiwis promptly tacked to cover off the start, forcing INEOS to tack away for clear air.

With only a minute to clear the penalty, the British were in real danger because, as both boats sail up the course on opposite tacks they’re essentially climbing the ladder at the same rate, which makes it difficult to giveaway the 75 meters.

After tacking at the left boundary, INEOS had to then sacrifice VMG in order to clear the penalty. Once it was finally cleared the Kiwis were tacking off the opposite boundary with a 100-plus-meter advantage. To make matters worse, the New Zealanders were now in better breeze and in full control of the race, able to tack and cover through every exchange in the first leg, bouncing the British to the unfavored left each time, before leading through the first gate with a comfortable lead.

Team New Zealand doubled its advantage on the next leg, padding it to nearly 300 meters and 27 seconds at bottom of the course, and halfway up the third of eight legs INEOS’s Fletcher summed up the British team’s fate: “Don’t think there’s anything we can do, lads.”

The Kiwis simply extended over the following legs with a wide-open course, sailing the shifts and strolling through their maneuvers to pile on the pain and a final race-win delta of 52 seconds, the biggest margin of the Match thus far.

The fading breeze brought an early end to the day, and Monday’s reserve day now has one race on the schedule.

Down 3-to-0—or nil, as the British press prefer as they begin to skewer the hometeam—Ainslie and his longtime trimmer Leigh McMillan, marched to the party line in post-race interviews: they’re not out yet, they’ve got cards yet to play in their hand, and they can dig themselves out of a deep hole. It’s a hole they’re plenty familiar with, but a flawless Team New Zealand outfit is standing atop it, shovels sharpened and ready.

“Now seeing what the Kiwis are doing and the way they are approaching the starts and races, we can learn from that and come up with another plan,” McMillan said. “We have slightly different options under our hat that we have not pulled out yet and we’ll find the right time to do that.”

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In the full glare of the world’s media spotlight, in a race sandwiched between the opening two races of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match, Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli beat Britain’s Athena Pathway to win the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup after an impressive demonstration of cool, calm, and collected match-racing of the highest order.

This was a titanic tussle between the two outstanding competitors to emerge from a super-competitive Qualification and Semi-Final series that signaled and signposted the very future of the America’s Cup. The Final was set to be a classic with Athena Pathway coming in with momentum whilst Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli knew that they had inherent speed if they could keep their nerve and deliver when it mattered.

A nervy start from the Italians saw them enter the box late and it was decision time for Athena Pathway on starboard whether to get aggressive or gybe away and lead. The British elected the latter and then set up for their final approach to windward – hoping for the speed advantage that they had enjoyed in previous races.

However, from the very outset, it was Giulia Conti, skipper of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and starboard helm, who eked out crucial meters off the line, to tack at the left boundary to gain the early control. From there she and her Italian crew – co-helm Margherita Porro, with trimmers Maria Giubilei and Giulia Fava – kept calm despite intense pressure from the British to never relinquish the lead over the next six legs.

Athena Pathway – led by Great Britain’s most decorated female Olympic sailor Hannah Mills, alongside Tash Bryant, and trimmers Saskia Clark and Hannah Diamond – were always a threat as they refused to give up and kept the deltas super tight all the way around the course. At times they closed up, but the Italians covered tenaciously and despite splitting tactics all over the course to get out of phase with their opponent, there were simply no passing lanes for Athena Pathway and no possibilities to capitalise on any leverage.

By the final upwind leg, the Italian team were sailing supremely after Conti had called for calm on the preceding downwind leg where the ride height in the increasing chop briefly got out of kilter and caused the boat to punch-through a wave. With the wind speed at a steady 11 knots, the Italian team could sail conservatively, pick their shifts and headed for home around the final gate with a 19-second lead.

Athena Pathway were anything but done and threw everything they could at the leaders down the final run to the finish line. But a slick gybe at the port layline brought Luna Rossa across the line to secure an eight-second victory and a place in the history books as the first ever winners of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup.

Cue wild scenes of celebration onboard the Italian AC40 and also back ashore as the Italian team celebrated ecstatically the fact that they had added the Puig Women’s America’s Cup to the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup won earlier by the Luna Rossa Youth Team.

To celebrate this landmark moment in Italian sailing the victorious Youth Team, led by skipper Marco Gradoni, jumped aboard to join the celebrations as the Juvé & Camps Cava was sprayed around with abandon.

Later, ashore, Maria Giubilei trimmer aboard Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli said she was struggling to take in the womens’ achievement. “I don’t know how to describe how this feels. I’m super super happy and proud of the team – this is just a wonderful feeling. I’m not sure we really can understand it yet. Maybe in the coming days we will understand properly that this is a really big thing that we have done and how important it is for girls everywhere. I hope this will inspire people to follow their dreams and live the life they want to lead.”

Asked if this is the first step along the way to having female sailors racing aboard AC75s in the future America’s Cups, she answered: “I hope so. I think that would be a good thing – especially because I really want to go on the Luna Rossa boat one day. I think it would be great for women at some point if there was not a race just for us but we were mixed in with all the other sailors.”

Understandably disappointed, but still smiling, Hannah Mills – Skipper of Athena Pathway – came ashore and said: “It’s just tough. We couldn’t quite get back at the Italians. They did a really great job of defending and it really came down to the wire on that last run, but we couldn’t quite get past them.

“I guess bigger-picture-wise, Ben and I set up this programe, Athena Pathway, to try inspire, particularly, young girls coming through the sport of sailing – or ones who might want to try sailing – to showcase that there is much more opportunity coming, whether it’s on the water, racing, or off the water in shoreside roles. We’ve really delivered on that in terms of what we’ve created here, so that for me is everything. I’m so proud of everyone in this team and the wider team for helping us to achieve that.”

In a stunning win – and a notable marker of both present brilliance and future intent – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli faced down an enormous challenge from Athena Pathway to come out victorious as the very worthy winners of the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup – an achievement that bodes well for the future of Italian sailing.

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