Miscellaneous 37th America's Cup 2024 - Barcelona

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Great start by Alinghi's Boat one (what a name) over Britannia. But unfortunately they can't keep up and Britannia leads by 28 seconds at the bottom of leg 3 or 6.

I can't see the Swiss coming back. They don't appear to have the speed and their opponent sails really well so...
 
Terrible prestart for Alinghi's team who fell off their foils outside of the racing area so received a 75 m penalty before they even started. Against Britannia that's just asking for the death penalty!

All Britannia needs to do now is sail safely and make sure they keep foiling. They are already leading by 1:18 at gate 1.

Alinghi needs a miracle to catch up.
 
Slight variations on the themes of yesterday's racing but identical results.

4/0 for both Luna Rossa and Britannia against the USA & Swiss teams.

The Americans cam very close with a 2 seconds loss on race two. But they were trailing all the way, so didn't really show they could beat the Italians who remained in control. That's what you want in a match race. Be in control of the opponent.

That means tomorrow will most likely be the end of the semi-finals. It was to be expected but you never know.

The very shirt time between the round robins and the semi-finals didn't allow the teams to make any significant improvements to their boats.

It must be very frustrating for the teams who worked so hard to see everything going so fast with no way to change the course of events.
 
Big surprise today in the first two races where both the Swiss and the Americans saved the day in very light conditions.

The Americans did a fantastic job maintaining pressure on the Italians and forcing them to make a mistake they did not recover from.

So they proved they can do it. They don't have any margin for errors but we've seen worse situations being overturned in the America's Cup. In 2013 in San Francisco, the USA were lead 8/1 against team NZL and came back to win 9/1. Anything is possible.
 
Today was a day off for the AC75, the big boats of the America's Cup. But the Youth competition started. They race on a smaller monotype version of these amazing foiling monohulls.

To keep things simple, they are absolutely identical, that's what monotype means, and they are much simpler than their big brothers. Flight controls are automated and the power required for triming the sails and lifting the foils is provided by batteries. So there are no cyclops involved. Just 4 crew members operating the helm, trimming the sails and last but not least managing the tactics.

I was disappointed to see the races didn't start as expected and the AC website is far from ideal for keeping us updated with the status of races. Anyways, racing finally got under way and it was fun to watch. Especially the second race with some breeze and hectic seas.

Unfortunately two of the four teams were forced out of the race for technical issues. It is unclear what were the issues but they were awarded 4 points... The French team was disqualified in the first race but I don't know the reason why they exited the race course. My guess is they had an issue already that was not resolved before the second race.

But the Italians and the Americans sailed beautifully and won each one race and were second in the other so they are leading the pack with 17 points each.

I just read that the French team was awarded 4 points for race one so as I assumed they had a technical issue that was not in their control.

Tomorrow is the other group of AC40s. There are two. One with 6 teams associated with the main event's teams and 6 invited teams.

For details, here:

RACE FORMAT
The fleet of twelve teams is split between the invited teams and the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup teams. The Qualification Series sees a total of eight races completed for both groups. The top three teams from each group progress into a Final Series of four races to decide the top two teams that will go head-to-head in a winner-takes-all Final Match Race. Racing starts at 2pm (14:00 CEST) on race days (times might adjust slightly on the days that coincide with Louis Vuitton Cup racing), and runs until 4 or 5pm, depending on the race schedule
Read more…
 
Another great day on the water, at least for those watching.

In the youth competition, the Italians continued to dominate group A. They are now leading with 37 points (10+7+10+10) followed by the USA with 25 points (7+10+4+4) and GBR with 22 points (3+5+7+7).

BUT, I must say that I'm thourourly disturbed by the fact that in the last couple of days totaling 4 races, there's been 7 occurrences when boats did not race due to technical issues. They were given points to compensate but how frustrating that must be. The two teams that have been most affected are the French: 4 times and the USA: twice. Both teams were very promising in the training leading to the event. The USA matched the Italians in the first two races. The French so far have been denied a chance to compete. That's unfair. How can you compare teams that are not 'allowed' to race?

Now, in the BIG boats, the Real America's Cup, the Swiss managed to save another race today in the light air but only to loose 5/2 in a final race against Britannia who were clearly superior in these series. It was not a big surprise but the Alinghi's team fought hard and can leave the event with pride. Like the French of Orient Express, it was their first challenge in these foiling monohulls and it was a very tall order.

In the other duel, the Americans managed to survive twice again today facing the very strong Italian Luna Rossa Prada team. They are now lead 4/3 and proved they can do it. It must be reported that the Italian boat suffered a serious breakdown in the last race.

So the show will go on tomorrow between Luna Rossa and Patriot.

We should also see the group B of the youth battling for the first time. Teams from Spain, Netherlands, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Australia.

The forecast indicates another light day. So tricky conditions where anything is possible...
 
Make or break day for the Americans today. They can't loose or try just pack and go. The breeze was light but not as tricky as in the last few days.

They took a good start and tried to maintain the pressure on Luna Rossa but we're quickly distanced and never really got a chance to come back. Luna Rossa stretched away to win convincingly once again. So 5/3 is the final score.

American magic was a great team and Patriot a very good looking and quite fast boat. With those boats it is very difficult to know when you're not in the team if the potential was there to get much better. I feel sad for them but that's the game. It feels like this year, all goes so fast with no time to recover or improve between races.

Now the two finalists have a week to get ready for the last duels. And in the meantime we can enjoy the Youth competition. It is slightly different but fun too. And those guys will matter in a few years. They are already 'la crème de la crème' in competitive sailing... Some of them are women too! :thumb:
 
Jeanette said:
Got away with it yesterday but woke to rain this morning.

Jx
Read more…
Sorry you got there when the weather is deteriorating.

On the sailing front, yesterday was the first race for group B of the Youth teams. The Spanish team did a great job. But then the wind failed to meet the requirements for racing. Too light and unstable.

Today should be better on the wind front. Group B again. The schedule is unclear after today. I guess the delays and have caused this.

So I'm not sure when group A will resume racing. At least I hope they will have resolved the technical issues some teams suffered, preventing them from an opportunity to race.

Let's wait and see. But today should be good despite the unpleasant weather.

@Jeanette I'm sure you'll have plenty to enjoy that you don't find at home! 😉
 
A great racing day for the youth (group B) today. I find those fleet races more fun than the match race. Especially with those boats and young crew.

One team came on top race after race. The Swedes. The Aussies and Spaniards were showing strength but made mistakes or had some technical issues resulting in irregular scoring. But those are currently the teams leading that group.

1000020707.webp


A couple more races for group B so the Swedes are qualified for the next round.

Group A has 4 more races to run. So a lot can still go on but the Italians are in a strong position.

1000020711.webp
 

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