As a soft opening of the 37th Louis Vuitton America’s Cup, all teams headed into the waters of Barcelona today for the third and final pre-regatta before the Louis Vuitton Cup series starts. While the results of this three-day trial run cannot be extrapolated to the Cup itself, there were many lessons to be learned.

In 12 knots and moderate seas, the Swiss of Alinghi Red Bull Racing and the French of Orient Express Racing Team were the first to enter the Cup course. After a broken mast on Tuesday, Alinghi left no stone unturned, using the old masthead they had been training with all summer. They were in the starting box on time, but the French were late and their duel was a straight affair. The Swiss were calm and mechanical, taking their AC75 around the course, and the French were not far off the pace the whole time, keeping the gate lap at 12-13 seconds for most of the race. Alinghi took their first win by 36 seconds and were very happy with the result.

Conclusion: Alinghi Red Bull Racing is in good form as a debut team and their platform is fast and stable enough. A good start and they will become even faster.

The following race, which should have been the duel of the day between the defending champion and his former Cup challenger, turned out to be a disappointment. Defending champion Emirates Team New Zealand had a slightly better and more controlled start than Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, which promptly moved off to the right side of the track and returned to the first junction with a slight lead.

The New Zealanders turned around and forced the Italian back to the right side of the track. Seconds later, Luna Rossa came back on starboard and it looked to be a close first crossing for Team New Zealand, but the battle ended when the control systems on board the silver AC75 failed. Like a car with a broken alternator, they had no control of the systems and the boat slowly came to a halt. They were able to restart the system but the team soon gave up, giving the New Zealanders a seemingly flawless solo lap of the track.

Conclusion: The incredibly high-tech and complex AC75s, with their reliability in software and electronics, remain an uncontrollable burden for all teams. Nothing about these machines is bombproof and electronic failures will continue to spiral out of control.

American Magic and INEOS Britannia were next in line and there was a lot of uncertainty before the race after American Magic had suffered a hard and wet crash the day before which gave their systems a proper Mediterranean shower (see above). But once again the crew were rescued ashore and the New York YC team AC75 crew were perfectly fine on race day. After an exemplary push and pull pre-start, American Magic held the leeward position and both boats crossed the finish line on time. INEOS broke away after holding its windward position for the first minute of straight sailing.

The weather trend for the day was more wind on the right hand side of the racecourse and INEOS dominated the first crossing. American Magic went for the clean duck, took advantage on the right hand side to take the lead and came through the first gate with a 6 second lead. Patriots co-skipper Tom Slingsby and Paul Goodison were comfortably in the lead, covering the distance on the second downwind leg and looking like they were pulling away.

As Patriot left the weather gate for the second time and began to bear away, there was a scary moment that no doubt gave the team bosses hearts palpitations. With the traveller stuck to leeward, opposing forces were at work and the boat quickly became unbalanced, bringing back memories of the big AC36 capsize in Auckland. Television commentator Glen Ashby later described the resulting imbalance as “going over the handlebars”.

At an urgent request from the cyclists, who were speeding up on their recumbents at the back of the boat, the teams were able to turn the maneuver around and simply break away from the Brits. From then on, they were able to take their best chances from the transition phases. The post-race interview with Ainslie brought back memories of the past: American Magic’s Patriot had wheels and the boxy Britannia wasn’t quite up to par.

Bottom line: The wobble of Patriot’s weather gate continues to underscore the Cyclors’ crucial on-demand oil supply. Low pressure creates high pressure situations. And here we are again with a British boat trying to gain speed out of the gates.

The French were back on the track for one final race of the day and again they were late to the start having been hit with a border penalty, allowing the newly started Luna Rossa AC75 to pull away as the winner. The final difference was 1 minute and 33 seconds, giving the up-and-coming French team plenty to worry about for the real race at the end of the month.

SW Author Bernie Wilson called Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli co-skipper Jimmy Spithill after the race and Spithill shared his thoughts on the boat’s system failure: “When something like this happens, on these boats the only thing that works is the steering because that’s the only mechanical device on the boat. Everything else is electronic and hydraulic. It was a real shame and we’re still trying to figure out what it was and what happened.

“But the guys were able to basically restart the boat for the start of the second race. The race was, let’s say, much easier because the French made a small mistake at the start. It was good to at least have a clean start in the second race.

“This is the first time something like this has happened to us. We saw the New Zealanders having to stop during a practice race recently. I don’t know if it was the same problem. I would much rather it happened now when it doesn’t matter at all anymore.”

The conclusion: One team goes home on September 8th and after two races the French and the British have their hands full.