Jimmy Spithill and Luna Rossa to face Team New Zealand again in America’s Cup preliminary final

Sunday, 25 August 2024

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It will be Team New Zealand against old nemesis Jimmy Spithill in the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta final in Barcelona, with Italy’s Luna Rossa confirmed for the match race on Monday (NZ time).

Luna Rossa beat a penalty-hit INEOS Britannia and Team New Zealand prevailed after a startline duel to beat Red Bull Alinghi by 1min 15sec to be finalists, even though three races remain.

“The team's been sailing well and we're just looking forward to getting another crack at the Kiwis,” Spithill told Stuff.

The one-race final is not the America’s Cup, where Spithill has helmed Team New Zealand’s opponent in the match three times: 2013 (San Francisco), 2017 (Bermuda) and 2021 (Auckland).

Team New Zealand are through to the preliminary regatta’s match race final.

Both teams put on slick performances, though a weather change for Monday (NZ time) could roughen things up.

“We're definitely expecting waves,” said Kiwi skipper Peter Burling,

Luna Rossa helmsman Jimmy Spithill will line up against Team New Zealand in the series final.

A swell of up to 1m is forecast thanks to a Mistral wind to the east, which delivers the waves and variable winds.

The US, French and Italian boats have all suffered technical difficulties which the Luna Rossa helmsman partly put down to the Kiwi-supplied software.

The third day saw reliability in the AC75 foiling class play a role, with American Magic rearing up spectacularly in its pre-start with Orient Express, causing it to retire with a rudder breakage.

“It was a pretty big bang, and we weren't sure if we had hit something or it was just a failure or what it was,” said helmsman Tom Slingsby.

“We're still assessing the damage now and trying to figure out what happened, but quite frustrating. We've never had that issue before.”

The sudden retirement left France’s Orient Express to pick up its first point, but missed valuable race experience which all the teams are keen to maximise.

It was particularly sweet for the French who worked through the night after a systems failure caused them to retire before the start of the previous day.

Quentin Delapierre, skipper of Orient Express, was happy to score a first point, even through retirement of American Express/

“It's pretty good to have a point, honestly, for the whole short crew, just to show them that they worked pretty hard and pretty good,” said the skipper Quentin Delapierre.

Team New Zealand heads into day four in the lead, with two other boats suffering drama and technical disappointments.

“I truly believe that today they won a match, and it can happen during the Cup,” he told Stuff.

Winless after the first two days, INEOS Britannia’s owner and skipper Sir Ben Ainslie hoped the bad moments were behind them.

“We've learned a lot of frustrating lessons over the last couple of days, some silly mistakes which got in there, which we've figured out,” Ainslie said.

“Certainly a lot on the boat handling, particularly watching some of these other teams doing a better job, and we've taken a lot from that. We've got some good momentum behind us.”

Alinghi lost their two races on day three in Barcelona.

The opening race with a 33sec win over Alinghi Red Bull racing was offset by a paper-thin early entry to the start box against Luna Rossa, with the British boat 2.4m into the box before the correct time. The British trailed by 46sec at the finish, after being penalised.

Alinghi RBR had two races on day three but no win, despite giving INEOS Britannia a battle in the first leg of their encounter, and duelling with Team New Zealand to an even start in the last race.

“I think we showed what we can do on the pre-start, and I think this was a good improvement for our team,” said the Swiss challenger’s helmsman Maxime Bachelin.

Team New Zealand heads into the remaining points races with four points, Luna Rossa three, American Magic two, and a single point for INEOS Britannia, Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Orient Express.

Even if some teams managed to haul themselves up the scoreboard, none can overcome the tiebreak criteria which mean it will be the old rivals in the final.

There is no big prize, and no carryover advantage into the round-robin stages of the Louis Vuition Cup itself which begins just four days later.

But Burling is pleased to be there: “To make the final you get an extra race which is really beneficial for us. You only get so many opportunities to race the good teams.”

Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, day three results:

Race nine: Britannia beat Alinghi

Race 10: Orient Express beat American Magic

Race 11: Luna Rossa beat Britannia

Race 12: Team New Zealand beat Alinghi

Standings: Team New Zealand 4, Luna Rossa 3, American Magic 2, Britannia 1, Alinghi 1, Orient Express 1.