Overnight, the Italian shore team burnt the midnight oil repairing a damaged mainsail traveller track system that had given way in the semi-final race yesterday and gifted the American team a race win to close to 4-3 in this first-to-five series. The Italian shore team heroes were described as looking like ‘zombies’ this morning but their efforts were thoroughly rewarded with the Italian boat gleaming in the Barcelona sunshine, looking good as new and the team regaining its imperious form of earlier in the semi-final.
NYYC American Magic (Port Entry) vs. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Race 15
This is it. Everything on the line. Magic enter from the left and cross immediately. Luna Rossa go deep and then follow to the right boundary in the pre-start box. The Italians tack at the boundary and stay high initially but Magic are alive to it. At the final set-up, Magic is to leeward with both boats going for slingshot starts. Magic ace it and force Luna Rossa to tack away quickly which the Americans try to cover and a drag race to the right boundary ensues.
Luna Rossa looks rapid but it’s Magic with the control position and they tack right on the face of the Italians and force Luna Rossa to tack back to the right boundary. On the convergence, Magic just makes the cross and slam dunks on their bow but Luna Rossa has power to speed through to leeward and the Americans tack off to the right boundary. Two downspeed tacks for America opens the door and Luna Rossa capitalises to lead by 20 seconds at the first mark.
A boundary to boundary run ensued with few passing lanes and at the first leeward gate, Luna Rossa is 21 seconds up as Magic splits the tactics on the second upwind leg. Tough to see how American Magic can get back into this, passing lanes look few and far between as Luna Rossa bounces off the right boundary, playing the shifts well.
However, at the second windward mark, Calabrese and Slingsby have sailed the second half windshifts well to round just eight seconds adrift, with Luna Rossa taking the right boundary (looking downwind) whilst Magic gybes on the left boundary to come back on starboard gybe. Luna Rossa clicks into more breeze left and makes a huge gain. The Americans survive a small but costly touchdown in the final quarter of the run so that by the final leeward gate, the Italians turn up with a 22 second delta. Magic need something dramatic to happen now.
Luna Rossa keep a loose cover up the final upwind, protecting the right whilst Magic tries their luck out left, but at the final windward gate the Italians turn downwind to the finish with a lead that has extended out to 51 seconds. They make no mistakes on the final downwind, sailing their power angles and picking the pressure. A final port layline call and a smart gybe saw the silver dream machine cross the line and record a one minute and one second victory.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli advance to the Louis Vuitton Cup Final where they will face the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, with the first racing scheduled for Thursday September 26.
Remember if you want to watch the America’s Cup, you can view the races live at the Kawana Bar in Javea from the 12th to the 27th October. Just visit this link to sign up https://cbya.org/event/louis-vuitton-37th-americas-cup-match-2/
