Cup Spy - Day 29: America's Cup Match - Day 3 -The one that got away
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World NZ 14 Oct 2024 23:59 PDT
14 October 2024
INEOS Britannia and Emirates Team NZ - Louis Vuitton 37th America's Cup, Race Day 3 - October 14, .2024 © Ian Roman / America's Cup
Today's scoreline could have, should have, been 3-1, with the Brits getting a foot in the Kiwi's door for the first time in this America's Cup.
After yesterdays kerfuffle over the pre-start penalty, this morning, the British camp were clearly still quite aggrieved over the decision. This morning they had what still bristling rules coach and seven times world match racing champion, Ian Williams described as a "robust exchange of views" with Chief Umpire Richard Slater in the carpark outside the regatta media centre. The frustration seemed to have spread to the team who were fired up like no pep talk could have ever have achieved.
Looking at the body language in today's INEOS Britannia Dock Walk, with various team members participating, the relaxed discussion of previous days was gone. Now it was all short sentences, tense expressions and darting eyes. The Brits were keen to get into it.
The expectation was that maybe this could be their day - and the turning point that at least got one win for Challenger on the America's Cup leaderboard.
The start belonged to the Defender, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, by a few metres.
Again the RNZYS' team Emirates Team New Zealand continues to surprise in the pre-start - not with the dramatics of yesterday, when they were four seconds off the Mother of all Boat to Boat contact, but because they can more than mix it with the Royal Yacht Squadron - whose team INEOS Britannia - were so dominant in this area during the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Out of the start the lead flicked back and forth for the first minute and a half, and then the Brits came off the starboard (right hand)boundary, showing a lead of 65metres over the Kiwis. In the usual way it reduced as the boats closed, but off Virtual Eye we can see the margin at a minimum was 25metres as the Kiwis crossed behind INEOS Britannia for the first and only time in the race.
But the British elected let the Kiwis go, and didn't apply a tight cover as we have seen them do previously in a race winning move, in similar situations earlier in the Louis Vuitton Cup.
Emirates Team NZ continued all the way to the starboard boundary, under overcast skies, and an unusual haze which obscured the normally clear shoreline, while INEOS Britannia went almost to the port (left hand) boundary, coming back on the layline for the top gate, or Mark 1.
Immediately after they tacked it appeared the Brits had made the right move as their margin initially was almost 75 metres - but it reduced as the two AC75s converged.
A look on Virtual Eye revealed that there was a 12kt discrepancy in the VMG between the two boats with the Kiwis sitting on 25kts while the Brits were on 13kts. That disparity was sufficient to wipe out the Challenger's lead.
Again the Kiwis judged their tack perfectly, tacking underneath the British, and both headed for the first gate, side by side, taking opposite gates. They were recorded with a rare zero second margin, and they headed down opposite boundaries, hoping for more pressure or a windshift to give them the advantage.
Surprisingly the British did not have their expected speed edge downwind, and around the bottom gate officially it was a three second margin, but on Virtual Eye, it was next to nothing.
Again for the opening stanzas of the second windward leg, there was very little in it between the two AC75s. But at the halfway point in the leg, the New Zealanders got a "kiwi puff" and turned that slight but significant advantage into something more comfortable, and then the race was really the Kiwis to lose.
"We were evenly matched off the line, and they got the upper hand on us - off that first exchange." explained ETNZ's Andy Maloney. "So for us, that was the key moment of the race to try and wriggle out of that, and to give ourselves an opportunity on that first beat to get back in the lead," the Flight controller/Trimmer added. " Maybe they made a little mistake at the top on the lay line, and let us get inside of them on that right turn. I think that was sort of the key moment of the race for us. And from there we just sailed cleanly from there to extend."
With a Rest Day on Tuesday, and only one race today, both teams will be poring over their own race data, and the publicly available performance data for the other boat, and re-sailing all four races.
Both teams have enough information from the Louis Vuitton Cup to have a good match racing and starting playbook on the other. But the Brits will be revising their notes on the Kiwis, having not seen them in the starting box for several weeks.
INEOS Britannia will also have their team in Brackley, UK working over the same data, and looking for any edge that pop out of various performance simulators. There they also have access to the substantial F1 race team resources, which are many times greater than the America's Cup team, plus wind tunnel testing is legal in F1, and those lessons can no doubt be applied to the Cup boat without breaking any rules.
Today was the closest race yet of the 37th Match for the America's Cup.
The margins are small. However the truism remains now for 14 races that there has not been a lead change, once the first mark/gate has been passed.
Excluding Leg 1 of each race, that is about 70 legs that have been contested with the same boat leading at the start of the leg and still leading at the end of that leg. That is a very compelling statistic, underlining that on the first leg, if you have the opportunity to cover a competitor, it has to be done - because statistically once the lead boat has rounded the first mark it is race over.
The discussions between the Brits and the umpiring team continue over Sunday's near-miss in the pre-start for which the Brits received a 75 metre penalty - which could have been race determining - certainly it was an unexpected gift for the Kiwis.
That ongoing dialog cannot have the effect of overturning the umpires' decision even if in hindsight they admit they were wrong, on this or any incident.
Discussions between match race sailors and umpires have been part and parcel of match racing and umpiring since the inception of the system, and was initiated to speed the development of umpiring and allow new interpretations to introduced as required. The dialog is valuable as helps each "side" to understand the others thinking and logic - which means the sailors can understand the rules better, and that the umpires can understand how the sailors are interpreting the rules and the plays they are devising as a result. Quite often it is the umpires that tune up their thinking after these always robust discussions.
It is not unusual both parties to agree to disagree, and the discussions often continue long after the regatta has concluded - and eventually there is some rule or interpretation tweaking.
The next race day is on Wednesday - which is make or break for the British. They have to salvage one win and hopefully two, to stay in the Cup.
"We're three days in, and we're obviously four nil down, which is not where we want to be," said co-helm Dylan Fletcher. "But I think if you just look at the performance from Race 1 to Race 4, we've got much faster than they have in that time. So we're looking forward to the fight ahead."
If the score is 6-0 after Wednesday it is unlikely that there will be any racing before Saturday. The regatta organisers have always been very clear that their intention is to conclude racing this weekend, if possible. But it is unlikely they will do it before.
Then there is the small matter of both side doing their homework as to who will be the next Challenger of Record, if the America's Cup does end on Saturday, and the ritual of handing over a Notice of Challenge takes place within seconds of the outcome of the 37th Match being decided.
The expectation is that the breeze and seastate will increase on Tuesday for testing, and on Wednesday for racing. For INEOS Britannia that will get them back into the conditions in which they looked so strong in the Louis Vuitton.
It would be a surprise if Emirates Team New Zealand were not equally at home in fresh winds. In test sailing in Auckland they certainly didn't shy away from strong winds, sailing Taihoro in winds gusting to 35kts just a week after its launching.
This America's Cup continues to intrigue - and there's plenty of golf left in this hole.
Race 4: Emirates Team New Zealand (Port Startbox entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard Startbox Entry) Start: 1415hrs CET
Start:
Mark 1: 04m 36sec NZL and GBR Even
Mark 2: 08m 25sec NZL led GBR margin 03sec
Mark 3: 13m 53sec NZL led GBR margin 13sec
Mark 4: 17m 35sec NZL led GBR margin 15sec
Mark 5: 22m 59sec NZL led GBR margin 24sec
Finish: 26m 50sec NZL led GBR margin 23secs
Onboard video
Pre-Race Commentary
A solid onshore breeze looked to be in the offing for Day 3 of the America's Cup when just one race will be sailed.
The easterly breeze means that the sides of the course should be more equal than previously when the wind is from a more southerly direction.
That should make it less easy for the early leader to shut down and control the race.
The Brits are on fire this morning, as evidenced in Lady Ainslie's Dockwalk this morning.
Rules coach Ian Williams had what he described as a "robust exchange of views" with the umpiring team this morning - his second or third session with the panel since the controversial penalty was imposed in the British crew in yesterday's Race 3.
We have included the stern camera video of the incident in yesterday's story which shows just how close the two AC75s came to a collision.
The Brit's argument is that they were hunted by the Kiwis. Both boats were in quite rapid gybing turns. A look at the video shows both boats turning sharply. Generally the right of way boat is not allowed to hunt a yacht that is making a good attempt to keep clear. In this instance the Kiwis kept turning into a gybe. The Brits' claim is that the Kiwis should have held their course at some point and passed across their transom. There is no evidence of a straightened course. It is hard to see what the Brits should have done. They are entitled to take a reasonable option to keep clear of a right of way boat, which they did. While the near-miss aspect of the incident is very alarming, but that should not colour the application of the Racing Rules.
Unfortunately there is quite a variation between what the crews saw and the available video (allowing for lens distortion) and what is seen by the Umpires' computer system, which recommended a penalty - which was confirmed by the Umpiring team. In reality it is a situation that is easier to judge from an umpire boat than evaluate on a computer screen. But on the water umpiring is impractical chasing foiling AC75s in a powerboat in a seaway chasing AC75s foiling at 40-55kts.
The off camera riposte from Ben Ainslie, in reaction to a very provocative question from the lead TV commentator, has made the headline in mainstream media in New Zealand and Great Britain, overshadowing the race result.
"‘F---ing w-----’: Ben Ainslie hits out at New Zealand commentator" was the headline in the Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk/sailing/2024/10/13/sir-ben-ainslie-swears-profanities-new-zealand-commentator and similarly in the Daily Mail
INEOS Britannia Dockwalk
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.
Current Forecast Race Day 28:
Forecasts for Monday by Arnaud Monges, former America's Cup Team Meteorologist
Monday October 14
Forecast for Monday 14 Oct - America's Cup Day 3
By mid-day, winds from the North-East/Easterly will establish. In the first part of the afternoon we expect the wind to increase from 7 to 12 knots, with the wind turning right into an Easterly wind. Gusty conditions are possible as the wind speed is expected to build during the afternoon. Winds will increase up to 15 knots late in the afternoon.
Sea state of half a meter from the East at a 4-second period.
The sky will be cloudy with temperatures up to 25°C
Course Location:
America's Cup Race Schedule - Races 4: Monday October 14, 2024
- Race 4: Emirates Team New Zealand (Port Startbox entry) vs INEOS Britannia (GBR) (Starboard Startbox Entry) Start: 1415hrs CET
Virtual Eye
After the racing you can replay the key points, or the whole race using Virtual Eye from ARL This is the tool that Inside Tack are using to demonstrate various points - using the actual tracks of the AC75s.
You can go directly to the Virtual Eye America's Cup coverage by clicking here and click on "Watch Previous" then select the race you wish to view. Virtual Eye is a 3D viewer so you can zoom in, out, around and up and down just like you could in a helicopter.
Crew Lists
Additional Images: