Sir Ben Ainslie ‘bricking it’ but Britain build America’s Cup momentum after ‘Super Saturday’

Ineos Britannia won one and lost one on day three to move to second overall in standings

Sir Ben Ainslie declared himself happy with the start his team had made to the Louis Vuitton Cup as Ineos Britannia won one and lost one on day three to move to second overall in the standings.
The five challengers for the 37th America’s Cup – Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland and the United States – are all competing to face New Zealand in October’s final, with the bottom-placed team to be eliminated next Sunday after an initial round-robin stage.
Ainslie’s men had opened their account with a nervy win over the United States on Thursday, a victory they almost threw away on the final downwind leg.
And they produced a near carbon copy performance in their first race on Saturday against Swiss challenger Alinghi.
Ainslie admitted he had been “bricking it” when Britannia fell off its foils midway through the final downwind leg in light, shifty breezes in Barcelona allowing Alinghi to come roaring back at them.
The Swiss challenger’s hopes had looked sunk after being outmanoeuvred in the pre-start, Britain forcing them into their dirty air and off their foils. GBR duly opened up an almighty lead which stood at well over a kilometre at one point.
But the 8-10 knot easterly which had been forecast in the morning was not at all consistent and Britannia’s momentum stalled midway down the final leg, the AC75 eventually splashing down. Alinghi were able to claw back a minute of their near three-minute deficit before Britannia got up and foiling again.
“I was bricking myself but what can you do?” Ainslie said. “You just have to stay calm. Luckily we did that, got back on the foil, and made the final gybe stick.”
Britain’s second race of ‘Super Saturday’ – so-called as it was meant to feature six races to make up for the races lost on Friday over a lack of breeze – was against Luna Rossa, the Italians who have firmly established themselves as the best of the rest behind New Zealand.
Ainslie and co-helm Dylan Fletcher won the start again, for a third time in three races, forcing the Italians to tack away, and winning the first cross on the first upwind leg. But a poor tack out on the right allowed the Italians back in front and Luna Rossa led by 25 seconds around the top gate.
That deficit blew out after Britannia fell off its foils towards the end of the second leg, leaving the British team hoping for a mistake from Luna Rossa which never arrived.
Still, Ainslie said his team could derive some satisfaction from the way the day panned out.
“There were some good moments and some not so good moments,” he said. “We are frustrated to have come off the foil twice in two races. We need to have a good look at what went wrong there.
“The positives, though, were that we had two really strong starts and we still feel we are building momentum.”
Ainslie conceded in his Telegraph Sport column earlier in the week that Luna Rossa looked to have the edge on them for now, and he praised them again after their win. But he was still adamant Britain might have won the race given just how flukey the shifty were.
“The performance against Luna Rossa was tough to read really. We got the first cross but it certainly felt like there was better pressure where they ended up in the top left [of the first beat].
“I always felt we were still in it just because the wind was so shifty and patchy and so hard to read on the water. It’s almost impossible to see it. Normally you have a good idea from reading the wind on the water. But falling off the foil killed us.
He added: “The Italians are really polished. They can go from quite a big deficit and still win races. And the Kiwis as well. Both those teams look really strong. But we could easily have won that second race, with the start we got and the way the boat is going. So that is a positive.”
GBR have one scheduled race on Sunday against France. The French team, who have had the shortest build-up to this Cup and are operating off the smallest budget, have been difficult to read so far. They suffered in last week’s preliminary regatta before beating Alinghi impressively on the opening day of the challenger series on Thursday and even pushing Luna Rossa close.
France had to pull out of their scheduled clash with New Zealand on Saturday due to a technical issue, before losing to the Americans in their second race of the day.
The Kiwis had managed to get back out on the water after a frantic 35-hour repair job to their boat, having dropped it 6m from a crane onto its cradle.