Louis Vuitton Round Robin 2
7 September
A chink in the silver armour...
American Magic has a perfect entry on port; Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is a tad late. It’s 11-12 knots and bumpy. On Thursday American Magic seemed to have problems generating power – let’s hope that’s not a problem today.
Both boats are in the bottom right hand corner, plenty of talk, Luna Rossa is hunting for the hook and American Magic is zagging to avoid them getting it. Both boats cross the line on starboard with American Magic to leeward. Luna Rossa has to tack away. When they come back, they are bouncing back into the swell; American Magic is surfing.
The lead is minimal and is more about starboard rights than speed heading up the first upwind leg. Near the top of the course, American Magic tacks on top of Luna Rossa which pulls out one of its tricks – its ability to almost crab to windward and eek ahead.
Italy leads into the top mark in a confident manoeuvre that gives them the favoured right hand side. The delta is 14 seconds.
Leg two, Italy gains slightly in every manoeuvre. ‘We find a nice flat spot and we gybe,’ says Spithill. ‘A little bit of trav up.’
I text Rosco to say the race is done, but legs 2 and 3 are is a string of lead swaps. The third delta is just 3 seconds. American Magic has gained 11 seconds and is hanging in there and seems to have plenty of power.
The sea state is a major player in this race with both boats talking a lot about where to tack or gybe to pick up the best surf or avoid the biggest holes. On leg four American Magic tacks just a tad too soon and lose speed as they exit a swell and just aren’t quite as smooth and serene as Luna Rossa; that’s just enough to hand the advantage to Luna Rossa.
As Francesco Bruni says after the race: ‘We had the waves coming from behind and we had to pick the right one to surf because sometimes the boat is faster than the waves and there was a lot of debris in the water.’
Delta at the final mark is 19 seconds and the Italians lead to the finish, 300m ahead. Luna Rossa is undefeated.
© Rebecca Hayter
Photo credit: Ian Roman, America's Cup.
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