INEOS Britannia Win a Double: America’s Cup Turning Point?
The America’s Cup Final Match has seen a tidal change, with the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, securing two wins against the Defenders, Emirates Team New Zealand.
It’s now 4-2 to the Kiwis, but is this the beginning of a history making comeback from Ben Ainslie and his team?
Race 5 Report: INEOS Britannia Win, a Great British Comeback
The Kiwi team came off the foils as they entered the start box, unable to lift as INEOS Britannia got their speed up and started the race without them. With more wind at the top of the course the British AC75 made huge gains, while the Kiwi’s remained in a treacherous light wind zone at the bottom of the course. By the time Ben Ainslie and his team entered leg 2, they’d taken a huge lead of around 1590m ahead of ETNZ. It’s likely that INEOS’ decision to use a bigger jib for this race gave them just a little extra horsepower, just enough to lift them out of this tricky low-wind area.
At this point, Hannah Mills (Athena Pathway Skipper) in the commentary box said: ‘I can’t say enough how challenging it is in these light winds just to keep the boats foiling’
Rob Wilson (INEOS coach) on board the British chase boat said: ‘The performance teams and all the guys on the shore have worked hard to make those improvements… It’s a nice step up – you know it’s really tricky because it’s light and super sloppy, and you know maybe it’s levelled the playing field a little bit, but I think we’ve made gains anyway’
While Ray Davies over on the Kiwi chase boat commented: ‘From what we’ve seen so far it just looked like they [ETNZ] were nervous about crossing then went into jibe, then obviously fell off the foils in that jibe, and got peppered by INEOS with a lot of dirty air, and struggled to take off’
INEOS took their first America’s Cup Final Match win, 1 minute and 18 seconds ahead of the Kiwis, in a dial changing, fighting comeback.
Reporting from the boat after the first race, INEOS Skipper Ben Ainslie told us: ‘We’ve sort of trained for those situations, we managed to make it stick and get the Kiwis off the foil… Look forward to the next one… We’ve obviously been working a lot trying to develop and observe the other teams and just how we could get more performance out of the boats, so good one for the team that’.
While Peter Burling aboard the Emirates Team New Zealand boat said: ‘It’s obviously always really frustrating to be off the foils, I mean, we made a little error being a tiny bit too late, but it kind of felt a bit unlucky… that’s sport’
Race 6 Report: Another INEOS Britannia Win
In the second race of the day, the British boat took another win off the start line, however, this time the competition was far tighter, with marginal racing from the get go.
Mid-race, with the British team still just in the lead, Rob Wilson (Coach) told the commentators: ‘Definitely not counting any chickens yet, Kiwis are sailing well, so let’s see’.
Nevertheless, INEOS steamed over the finish line just a few marks ahead of the Kiwis, taking their second win of the day, and of the America’s Cup Final.
In Ainslie’s post-race interview on board Britannia, he told us: ‘The comeback is on!… We were out here yesterday training on our own, just everyday we get better we get better at sailing this boat, and that’s down to the shore team delivering us a reliable package, and the designers and technicians helping us understand how we can improve the performance, and then obviously the squad out here doing their thing, so obviously it’s a huge team effort.’
The Kiwi Co-Skipper Nathan Outteridge spoke after, saying: ‘I don’t think any of us are surprised at all, we know they are very good sailors and have a great boat, we didn’t really execute the best day, so we sort of let ourselves down today. So, we’ll go and review that tonight and come back next time in better shape… We managed to do good a job keeping it close all race, and as you saw it was only metres in it at the end… so it’s all good here, we’ve just got to execute a bit better and get ready for the fight’
Peter Burling (Kiwi Skipper and Helmsman) added: ‘It’s awesome to have a battle on our hands now, and where would you rather be?‘
More for the History Books…
Great Britain last won a point in an America’s Cup match in 1934 – 90 years ago, with Sir Thomas Saltworth in Devon. The world of British sailing has waited a long time for this moment, and now the INEOS team have secured 2 wins…
Will this spur the Kiwis on, or is it all for the taking?
More on the America’s Cup
- Puig Women’s America’s Cup: All-Female Crews Take Centre Stage
- 37th America’s Cup: Key Info, Dates & How to Watch
- America’s Cup Boats: What it’s like helming an AC75
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