Emirates Team New Zealand emerged as the top points scorer from the Official Racing, held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Sailing in conditions at the bottom end of the foiling spectrum, several teams stepped into the foiling quicksand, which marked the first Preliminary Event sailed in Vilanova, Spain, in mid-September. Premature starts were also a race-killer, and there were plenty of basic errors to be worked through at the individual team debriefings.

First to transgress, the Kiwis were judged to have jumped the start of the first of three practice fleet races in the America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Jeddah, presented by NEOM.

At one stage, the current America’s Cup champions trailed by almost 1km but recovered to be fifth. For the next two races, Peter Burling and friends were locked into the front end of the fleet – and came away with a 3pt advantage on the “leaderboard”, which only has psychological value going into the racing proper starting on Thursday afternoon.

American Magic, winners of the Vilanova regatta, got into a few foiling difficulties on the start line but sailed well to be second overall, one point clear of the British and Italian teams on 15 points. Fifth overall, just one point behind, was the Swiss Alinghi Red Bull Racing.

The French team could not repeat their first race win of Vilanova and suffered technical issues. After today’s racing, co-helmsman Kevin Peponnet of Orient Express Racing Team reported “a leak of oil in the first race, so a hydraulic issue and the trimmers had less reactivity on the trimming and also an issue with the board manipulation. We also had one or two bad manoeuvres that cost us.”

The race committee started what was also an organisational practice session with three match-race practice starts, with ITA vs USA, FRA vs SUI and GBR vs NZ. The format of these practice match races was for the boats to engage in pre-start match racing, sail for just three minutes upwind, and head back.

Unfortunately, they each were of little competitive value, with one team having start-box issues of varying types.

In the first start, Luna Rossa came off their foils on a circling gybe, losing grip on the rudder, nose-diving and ending their race. In the second start, the French were OCS (On the Course Side), and so too, in the third race, INEOS Britannia was called over.

After the match-racing, the race management team quickly moved into the three fleet races as the breeze remained constant around the 7-10 knot mark.

Fleet Race 1

NYYC American Magic and Emirates Team New Zealand were eyeing each other up at the committee boat end of the line, and it was Tom Slingsby (AUS/USA) who put the first really aggressive move onto the Kiwis, squeezing them out at the buoy and effectively ending their race.

INEOS Britannia started mid-line and, with pace and point, headed out to the port boundary and ended up leading at the top mark starboard exit. Orient Express gave chase with Luna Rossa, but the story of the race was how American Magic kept in contention and then pounced right when it mattered.

The New York Yacht Club team had a close battle all the way with INEOS Britannia. The critical moment was the final port mark windward rounding where INEOS came in hot after making big gains out to the right, American Magic tacked inside, and a very near collision occurred with an unsighted Ben Ainslie bearing away over the bow of Tom Slingsby, who was struggling to keep clear.

The British copped a penalty that they didn’t take. This was a practice race, after all, and a great place to test boatspeed, and at the finish line, although disqualified, INEOS Britannia took a hollow first place with American Magic first/second.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing had a quiet race but eked out third on the water, second officially, after a super-close finish with Luna Rossa. Emirates Team New Zealand clawed back to 5th, with Orient Express in sixth after coming off their foils on a downwind whilst leading early on and never recovering.

Fleet Race 2

Keen to make amends for their first race snafu, Emirates Team New Zealand had a dominant start-to-finish performance, being in the race lead or within striking distance of it. They came off the start-line, in an even start as a group of four, and tacked with INEOS Britannia off to the right-hand side of the course. Alinghi Red Bull Racing copped an early pre-start boundary penalty. Ben Ainslie and Giles Scott looked fast off the line and briefly held the lead, but a tack just before the boundary saw the Kiwis take a leeward position and apply a big squeeze in a starboard tack drag race.

Inevitably, the British couldn’t live on the Kiwi’s hip, were punished with their turbulence, and were forced to tack away.

From there, it was all Emirates Team New Zealand as they rounded the port gate with Alinghi Red Bull Racing in second place, whilst third-placed Orient Express took the starboard gate in third place. The French took the left side of the course (looking downwind), clicked into a bit more pressure and for a moment looked like they might have eked out a lead as they gybed back to the middle of the course and the first cross. Luna Rossa was called as a premature starter but recovered to be fifth later in the first leg.

However, Nathan Outteridge, co-helmsman on Emirates Team New Zealand, spotted a “kiwi puff” [a phrase coined by an exasperated Luna Rossa co-helmsman Francesco Bruni in the 2021 America’s Cup] and crossed Orient Express to seize the right and the added wind pressure. From there, it was a case of using the clear air to build a lead of some 750 metres over Alinghi Red Bull Racing by the finish. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli finished third, 75 metres astern, after a very close Italy/Swiss battle to the finish line, with both boats hitting almost 30kts in the funky breeze.

Post-race, the Orient Express Racing Team reported an unspecified hydraulic issue. They stopped racing in Race 2, but the issue was resolved before the third race started.

Blair Tuke, Trimmer, Emirates Team New Zealand, summed up the reasons for the Kiwi dominance: “The smoothness in how you sail and having the boat in the right mode as much as possible is something that we work hard at. Trying to keep in the right phases of the breeze today was difficult. It was actually more shifty than it looked, especially as the day went on – all the teams are getting closer now, and it’s the team that puts it all together that will be in front.”

Fleet Race 3

Off the start-line, INEOS Britannia led the fleet back and nailed the pin-end to head out to the port boundary in pole position. However, it was close, and with Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand playing the middle of the course, wind bends dictated the outcome. Unfortunately, pre-start, American Magic fell off their foils and was called OCS (On Course Side), and their day was pretty well done.

The rest of the fleet headed off in a pack. Alinghi Red Bull Racing, who appeared to have a click more speed, emerged fast on the right side wind bend. However, their race was to be undone by an umpire call at the top mark as they bore away over the bow of INEOS Britannia and then were awarded a further three penalties for twice ignoring their penalty call. Ultimately, the umpires had no option but to hand the Swiss a disqualification whilst leading.

However, this was a Practice Race, and an opportunity to check boatspeed is more important than an immediate penalty response.

The race devolved into a three-way battle between the British, Kiwis and Italians, who swapped places as the wind filled and died around the 7-9 knot mark.

After three laps, there was nothing to choose between them. At the final windward mark gate, the Kiwis squeezed beneath the Italians on a brilliant inside manoeuvre followed by a bear-away to set up a thrilling three-way battle downwind.

Ben Ainslie (GBR) called for a split gybe out to the left side (looking downwind) and set up for a starboard gybe fast reach close to the layline to the finish whilst Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand, sailing at over 30kts, match raced down the right side.

When the fleet came together, the British held the most slender of leads, just tens of metres, and a clever gybe with pace saw them cross the line and take their first win. The top three – GBR, NZL and ITA were covered by just over 100 metres.

For the Brits, it was their first win in the AC40 class, and their two co-helmsmen, with six Olympic Golds between them, required all that experience and tactical cunning to control the race and Ainslie and Scott were masters of the outcome.

After their tribulations over the past few weeks, the win was a big boost for the British, and the relief was palpable.

“Full credit to everyone in the team, the sailors, the performance guys, and the technical team that have been working on the boat over the last few months to eke every bit of performance they can,” trimmer Bleddyn Mon remarked after the finish.

“I think our understanding of the boat is a lot better than it was in Vilanova, but as you saw in the racing today, we had different teams in the lead in various races. It’s really close, and one mistake and you are right out of the back and, especially in that windspeed when there’s a lot of dirty breeze – it’s really hard to pull through. Happy with today and looking forward to tomorrow,” he added.

Emirates Team New Zealand was second, with Luna Rossa third, but it was the quality of the racing that marked out the race and provided an appetiser for when racing gets underway on Thursday when the wind forecast is for more of the same.

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by America’s Cup Media/Sail-World