America’s Cup, race 3, 13 October, Barcelona time
A tricky easterly, 8-10 knots, easing.
Emirates Team New Zealand: 2; Ineos Britannia, 0.
Ineos Britannia arrives on port and here come the Kiwis. UK does its same-old loop-de-loop – but it’s getting predictable and ETNZ has set an ambush. UK is on port, ETNZ is on starboard and swings in. Ineos audio: ‘Jesus Christ!’
‘This is the umpires. Penalty GBR.’ Ineos later describes it as ‘controversial’.
Even Pete Burling says it looked like crossed swords and, yep, the foils were overlapped. It’s a split tack start. Ineos has to clear its penalty of 75m within a minute or get another one. ‘Penalty clear.’
And people have been saying Peter Burling is weak on starts, even though his coach said they’ve been practicing starts since 2021.
Both boats are on J2s, as ETNZ was potentially a tad light on the jib department yesterday. Up the first beat, New Zealand plays from the matchracing handbook: in light airs, cover, cover, cover. Stay in phase. Defend.
The lead extends to 130m, drops to 5m up the course. Then Ineos is slow out of its tack off the boundary and the advantage bounces back to 130m as both boats manoeuvre for the gate. The Kiwis round the right hand gate; Ineos takes the left 19 secs behind.
The boats speeds and VMG are pretty even, but ETNZ is accelerating faster out of the tacks and gybes, and getting the picks of the shifts. GBR is sailing slightly faster but further.
Gate 2: Ineos does a touch down out of the last gybe. The breeze is softening. Ineos is 27 seconds behind. ETNZ is flying its hull close to the water, maximising its endplate effect. Tactically, it’s protecting the right because that's where the breeze is and staying in phase with Ineos.
‘Not a lot we can do here, lads,’ says Dylan on Ineos.
Coming into gate 3: Pete and Nathan are making a plan. ‘Just got to do it on our terms,’ says Nathan.
‘Just laying a trail,’ says Pete. He’s talking exhaust. It turns out I love eavesdropping.
Heading down leg 4 of six: ETNZ coach Ray Davies reflects on the start. ‘It’s good to see a bit of matchracing creeping in there. Ben has been asking for one of those for a while, so it’s good to give it to him.’
The breeze has dropped by around 4 knots since the start of the race and the boats need to change gears. The advantage is 335m to the Kiwis.
Gate 4: delta 33 seconds. Ineos makes an early tack out of the gate to get out of phase and hope they find some fast breeze in a place where ETNZ hasn’t been lately.
The UK coach says: ‘We're just trying to put pressure on them and it’s just one bad manoeuvre from them and we’ll be back in the race.’ But Ineos rounds the final gate 43 seconds behind.
‘This one will hurt,’ says the commentator.
ETNZ cruises across the finish line, 52 seconds ahead.
'Oh, this is bad. This is very, very bad.' That's a line from Love Actually, but right now it applies to the Ineos side of the scoreboard: now three races down in a first-to-seven wins. Race four is postponed by one day due to lack of wind – that's a chance for Ineos to regroup with another starting strategy and their hopes for rewriting the history of the Auld Mug.
There is no doubt they have a boat capable of winning the America's Cup - it just depends on the opposition.
© Rebecca Hayter
Photo credit: The pre-start penalty. Ricardo Pinto, America's Cup
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