The America’s Cup race begins in Barcelona with a historic pairing for INEOS Britannia

by INEOS Britannia 22 August 19:41 UTC
22-25 August 2024

The 37th America’s Cup has begun. The pre-regatta in Barcelona will kick off two months of racing to see who will win the world’s oldest international sporting trophy.

INEOS Britannia, the British Challenger of Record racing for the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd., took on American Magic of the New York Yacht Club in its first race of the event. It was a historic pairing, as on this very day 173 years ago the two nations battled it out in the first America’s Cup match around the Isle of Wight. The Americans won that race in 1851 and unfortunately for INEOS Britannia, history repeated itself today.

Although the American Magic team took the win, it is nothing to brag about as the preliminary rounds do not count towards the official event. The preliminary rounds are purely for ranking purposes and provide the teams with the opportunity to race their AC75s against each other and refine their strategies and boats before the main event.

The return of AC75 racing has been a long time coming, 1,255 days to be exact, with the boats last competing in the 2021 America’s Cup in Auckland, New Zealand. The teams competing in the 37th America’s Cup have spent years carefully designing, building and testing their AC75s, and INEOS Britannia has partnered with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team to support this process.

The first day of the pre-regatta saw a 12-14 knot breeze from the south-southwest. Although conditions were perfect, not all six teams had a perfect day in the four boat-versus-boat match races. INEOS Britannia lost their race to American Magic after taking a strong windward position on the final approach to the finish line. They won the start and the ‘first crossing’ – the moment on the race course when the boats come together for the first time and it is clear who is ahead and who is behind.

Ben Ainslie and his co-helmsman Dylan Fletcher decided to keep manoeuvres to a minimum and sailed to the left limit. They found the Americans in a strong position at the second tack, where the US trajectory had put them in a better wind shift, giving them a shorter distance to sail and one less manoeuvre.

The Americans finished just six seconds ahead and from there it was very difficult for Ainslie and his team to find a way to overtake. The British boat floundered but this only cost them more manoeuvres and in the end the statistics of two extra tacks, an extra gybe and over 500m of extra distance added up to a loss of 29 seconds.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA) handed the win to Emirates Team New Zealand after the team lost control of the boat for 20 seconds on the first leg. Earlier, Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI) had beaten the French Orient Express Racing Team, a result the Italians then repeated in the fourth race of the day.

Ben Ainslie, Team Principal and Skipper of INEOS Britannia, said: “The Americans sailed a great race and were the better of us in terms of pace. It was perfect conditions out there and we sailed a pretty decent race, we just lacked a bit of horsepower, so we will take the boat back to the hall and see what we can do to get a bit more pace.”

Joining Ainslie on board INEOS Britannia’s AC75 “Britannia” for the first race were Dylan Fletcher as co-helmsman, Bleddyn Mon and Leigh McMillan as trimmers and Matt Gotrel, Neil Hunter, Matt Rossiter and Ben Cornish as cyclors.

On Wednesday it was announced that Olympic gold medallist and reigning Moth World Champion Fletcher will join Ainslie as co-helmsman for the 37th America’s Cup. INEOS Britannia coach Rob Wilson said Fletcher was doing “really well” and the team was “very lucky to have three great helmsmen in Ainslie, Fletcher and double Olympic gold medallist Giles Scott, who has taken on the role of Chief Sailing”.

The Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta continues tomorrow, with INEOS Britannia taking on defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand. The action starts at 13:00 BST (14:00 CET) and UK viewers can follow it live on TNT Sports as well as on the Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com websites.