WOMEN & YOUTH REIGN SUPREME IN STUNNING SARDINIAN CONDITIONS

Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi and one of the most experienced sailors in the America’s Cup in this cycle put it best saying: “I think Cagliari is an awesome venue. You see today, that was some of the best racing I’ve done for a long, long time.”

As the wind built through the afternoon, the chop whipped up in the Bay of Angels making manoeuvres in yachts hitting speeds in excess of 42 knots, difficult. Nobody came away unscathed and we saw capsizes, broaches, and some dramatic nose-dives throughout the afternoon. Over long courses the cream rose to the top and local hometown favourites, Luna Rossa, were very much the talk of the Race Village after racing had concluded.

The Luna Rossa Women & Youth Team won the first race in commanding style and it felt very much like they had carried their form from the Official Practice Racing into the regatta. Skippered by Marco Gradoni, the current Youth America’s Cup winner, alongside Margherita Porro and Maria Giubilei, the current Women’s America’s Cup winners, with newcomer Giovanni Santi, Luna Rossa 1 were the team to beat all afternoon.

They sit at the top of the leaderboard overnight after scoring two race wins and a second place, ahead of the senior team led by Peter Burling with Ruggero Tita on co-helm, although that’s not the full story and the Italian Women & Youth team certainly didn’t have it all their own way.

Emirates Team New Zealand, the current Defender of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup, came into the regatta keen to know where they stood in relation to the other teams and after a tricky first race where they incurred a number of penalties, came out with everything to prove in races 2 and 3.

In winning the second race through some superb tactical sailing, fending off the Luna Rossa duo, they came into the third race and quickly established a lead. Nathan Outteridge and newly crowned 49er World Champion Seb Menzies, sailed supremely until the last leg to the finish when a foil oscillation led into a vicious ‘porpoise’ followed by a resultant nosedive. It ended their race and handed a victory to the hard charging Luna Rossa Women & Youth Team. How different the leaderboard could look this evening.

Speaking afterwards, Nathan Outteridge reflected on the day saying; Our boat’s going really well. We learned a lot in the practice racing in the last couple of days, and the guys are doing a great job to give us a boat that’s going nice and fast. The middle race was probably the highlight of the day. It felt like we had a Luna Rossa boat everywhere I looked - on the left, on the right - but it was really fun racing those guys. And the last race it looked like we stepped out to a pretty nice lead, and you’ve got to start these boats hard, you’ve got to push them hard, but it feels like every time you go for a gybe, it’s a bit of a roll of the dice in that sea state. The boats do a bit of bouncing and wobbling and unfortunately, we got a big bounce and then the rudder popped out - it was sort of all over from there.”

Margherita Porro, co-helm on the overnight leaders Luna Rossa Women & Youth was modest in victory, saying: “The trimmers onboard are super good, and in a day like today with choppy conditions and strong wind, trimmers make the difference. We were super-fast, so big shout out to them. Today it was hard because at the end of the day, we just wanted to keep things simple, don’t fall off the foils, and it wasn’t easy at all, especially downwind.

Reflecting on their position as leaders of the regatta, Margherita added: “I think it’s a good sign that Women & Youth are first at the moment. It’s a huge sign for women, a huge sign for young people to keep pushing and believe in themselves.”

Ruggero Tita, co-helm alongside Peter Burling on Luna Rossa 2 saw it as no surprise that their stablemates were doing so well saying: “We knew that we were coming here with big expectation, and of course, we did our homework at home during this winter. The Women & Youth had a bit more sailing in the one design boat. We sailed the AC40 as well, but in manual configuration, so it was a bit different. But we are slowly getting into it and taking more and more confidence with the one design system.”

Elsewhere, some of the greatest foiling sailors of a generation reflected on a tough sea-state with Quentin Delapierre, skipper of La Roche-Posay Racing Team saying: “I think, honestly, below 16 knots of true wind speed, we were super confident. First race we had a good comeback. We felt comfortable onboard and tactically we had a good communication, and we were probably on the momentum. When the wind increased, with the sea state, it was challenging for us...I don’t think the boat is difficult. It’s just managing and understanding the autopilot behaviour that is quite tricky - especially when you have sea state, the autopilot cannot anticipate what will come. So you have to tweak it and find good things to make sure that it will stay stable, especially during the gybes.”

Dylan Fletcher confirmed the boat damage onboard GB1 that kept them out of the first race and then forced the team to retire early in the second race, saying: “In the warm-up to the first race, we sheared the traveller sheave in the port side. We got a repair, which we managed to do for the second race, but then that broke unfortunately, so finally third time’s the charm. We got it fixed for that last race, and it was nice to get that race in. Felt like we were a bit green into it. Everyone else had warmed up. But I think we showed that we’ve got some of the pace out there.”

Hannah Mills of Athena Pathway, who had a ‘tough day at the office’ including a capsize in the second race commented: Definitely more wind than we’ve sailed in ever before and it was especially tough for our new people on board. It was a big day out for us and just lots to learn and take-away but you could see everyone struggling with the gybes and the roundups and yeah we learned that the boats like to bounce!”

Paul Goodison, skipper of Tudor Team Alinghi reflected on the racing, saying: “It was a great day to get out there and get into some real racing. We’ve had a few issues the last couple of days with the boat not working and a couple of other little gremlins the guys sorted out. But we found out this morning that we’re missing some flap range on our foils, which was a bit daunting when you go out in that much breeze. But I think the team dealt with it really well."  

Overall it was a spectacle of high-class foiling America’s Cup racing. The opening races of the first Prelim Regatta on the ‘Road to Naples’ was sensational and the forecast looks like more of the same into the weekend. The front-runners are established. The bar is set high. Whoever comes out on top on Sunday in the match-race final will have deserved the win.

Sardinia is putting on a spectacle. It’s utterly amazing.

Race 1
GB1 call a delay to the race and play their one permitted ‘delay card’ with issues in the rear of the port pod but are unable to make the start and are scored a DNS (zero points). Marco Gradoni opts for the space option at the leeward end of the line on the lead-back and finds acres of room to unleash the power and known-pace of his AC40, sailing free out to the left-hand boundary. It was a slingshot start and gave the Italian Women & Youth team a couple of boatlengths, so when Gradoni handed over to Margherita Porro in the port pod, she was able to cross Emirates Team New Zealand and Tudor Team Alinghi to establish an early lead.

The Kiwi and Swiss teams were fighting for second but on the tack back, ETNZ were penalised (the first of many in the opening legs) and effectively dropped out of contention. With Luna Rossa Women & Youth streaking away, Tudor Team Alinghi gave chase with La Roche-Posay Racing Team, who started on port and headed to the right boundary off the line, also in contention.

The first run was uneventful, but the second windward leg saw Gradoni and Porro stretch out into a lead that was to prove unassailable and by the second windward mark, the lead delta was out towards 30 seconds. The action was behind though with Emirates Team New Zealand Women & Youth, Luna Rossa 2, La Roche-Posay Racing Team and Tudor Team Alinghi fighting for the podium places. By the second leeward gate, Peter Burling and Ruggero Tita looked to have secured second but a poor layline call forced a gybe-gybe around the mark that caused a heavy broach and the boat to be off the foils.

In essence that was the end of Burling & Tita’s race, and Quentin Delapierre & Diego Botín steered around them into second as Athena Pathway also struggled around the gate. A conservative final windward leg, as the wind gusted above 20 knots, saw Gradoni & Porro ease away but behind, ETNZ with Nathan Outteridge & Seb Menzies, took advantage of a penalty on Tudor Team Alinghi to squeeze into third place and those were the finishing places after Luna Rossa Women & Youth sunk the ride-height low and powered around the final mark at speeds above 40 knots to sail off to a 36 second victory.

First blood to Marco Gradoni & Margherita Porro who carried on their form from the Practice Racing on Thursday where they were almost untouchable, recording an average VMG of 26.72 knots and performing the least number of manoeuvres in the fleet.

Race 2
Seb Menzies, the new 49er World Champion showed his mettle and determination off the start in Race 2 as skipper Nathan Outteridge called for a port tack start. The ‘wind whisperer’ as Outteridge is known, had spotted a late shift and Menzies nailed his angle, taking ETNZ into an early lead by crossing the fleet. A repaired GB1 started but were forced to retire soon after the start, whilst Tudor Team Alinghi copped multiple penalties and fell out of contention.

The race quickly became established as an arm wrestle with ETNZ fighting for survival out front against Luna Rossa 2 (Burling & Tita) and Luna Rossa Women & Youth. It was a fascinating duel, with ETNZ only losing the lead once on the first downwind leg but then regaining it after a gutsy one-board rounding of the first leeward mark as Gradoni & Porro opted for ‘safety first’ and went around with both boards down.

The Italians recovered but their wide angle allowed Outteridge & Menzies to get a windward position and tack off to the middle of the course early. From there, over the next four legs it was nip and tuck, but the Kiwis showed remarkable fortitude in covering when they could, accepting some nervous speed-testing side-by-side with the two Italian boats and making the right calls tactically. Meanwhile, the Luna Rossa boats threw everything at them, splitting the course both upwind and downwind and by the final leg, ultimately the race became one for second place in a tournament where famously ‘There is no Second.’

In fleet racing however, second is nine points and whilst Burling & Tita held the initial aces in second and opted to split at the final windward gate, a more conservative Gradoni kept the racing tight with ETNZ and was able to call a perfect layline into the finish and snatch that crucial second to extend the lead at the top of the standings. Elsewhere, Athena Pathway capsized and La Roche-Posay Racing Team endured a massive nosedive on the final downwind leg. All action in Sardinia.

Race 3
GB1, after a DNS and a retirement in the opening races, came back into the third race and impressed early with a great start on starboard tack off the middle of the line, leading a pack out to the left-hand boundary. Dylan Fletcher handed over to Ben Cornish on the first tack and GB1 held the early lead after crossing the starboard tack Luna Rossa Women & Youth and ETNZ who had opted for port tack starts.

Rounding the first mark ahead, GB1 called to go down the right side of the run (looking downwind) and came into the left-hand leeward gate just ahead of ETNZ, who went to the right gate. GB1 opted for a one-board rounding and got high on the foils before crashing down and losing a place quickly to Luna Rossa Women & Youth. ETNZ meanwhile had a clear path to get into the lead, and they took it with both hands, recognising now that just like in the second race, it was a two-boat race between them and the charging Marco Gradoni and Margherita Porro.

It was a lead that the Kiwis retained through superb tactical acumen and big fleet racing for the next three legs and bore away around the final windward gate looking like the day was theirs. It was not to be. With the waves building, and the wind above 21 knots, ETNZ gybed on the left-hand boundary and on the exit began to porpoise high on the foils. The result was a considerable nosedive and the fleet sailed through.

Out on the right boundary, the Luna Rossa Women & Youth team executed a gybe to perfection and came across the line to record their second win of the day and establish a commanding lead in the overall standings. GB1 recovered into second place, whilst Luna Rossa 2 secured the final podium place. Special mention to the ETNZ Women & Youth Team who were always in contention in the pack, and who sailed supremely to finish in fourth place.