Louis Vuitton Challengers Series
Round robin 2, 5 September, 2024
Both teams make a dip start. They are heading up the left hand side in synch. ETNZ picks up a nice right hand shift, which gives them enough gauge to hang in to windward of Ineos. On approach to the boundary, they go into boost mode, are three knots quicker than Ineos and push them up as they exit the tack. Ineos’ jib is depowered and they fall off the foils. Delta at gate one is 24 seconds to ETNZ advantage.
Leg two: here’s a chance for Ineos’ rumoured downwind pace and, yep, they eat into the lead. On approach to gate two, ETNZ reckons they need one less gybe to lay the mark. They round 15 seconds ahead and Ineos does another bow-down touch down exiting the mark. That’s a habit they need to break.
Leg three, ETNZ gybes back on a losing board to protect the right hand side. ‘Left is the danger zone,’ says Nathan Outteridge, ETNZ. They’ve rebuilt a solid lead to around 400m.
Text buddy Rosco and I are commenting that ETNZ is looking more comfortable today than two days ago. Maybe they have set up the boat differently or perhaps it’s easier to be comfortable racing Ineos instead of Luna Rossa.
At gate 4 the delta is 27, but Ineos misjudges the layline, has to put both boards down to stay in flight which washes off too much speed and they do a splash down. That will turn out to be the defining moment of this race.
In the final leg. Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge are having so much fun nailing the shifts they are laughing – literally. Back in the fleet, Ineos is more than a kilometre behind as the wind drops. They are not laughing.
Coming to the finish, the breeze is so light that ETNZ goes almost to the end of the course before gybing so that they come in on a hot, hot angle to build apparent wind and stay in flight to the finish. Glenn Ashby says they are sailing their AC75 like a Moth. Love ya work, guys.
© Rebecca Hayter
Photo credit: 5 September 2024, Ricardo Pinto, America's Cup
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