Louis Vuitton Cup: Luna Rossa wins with the French and loses again to New Zealand (but it doesn’t count)

First day of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Barcelona, which welcomes the challengers of the 37th America’s Cup on a typically summer day, 30 degrees in temperature topped by a southeasterly breeze around 7 knots.
Don’t miss at 6 p.m. our commentary on the first day of the Louis Vuitton Cup, with the third installment of The Cup Trial.

Louis Vuitton Cup – the chronicle of day 1

The day’s program opens with the regatta between Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Orient Express Team France, and a big surprise immediately arrives as the French, the least-ranked among the Challengers, bring home a round victory, dominating the regatta from start to finish.
It was an unpredictable result on the eve of the race, with the French crew that was given a big delay and instead goes on to win a heavy match in view of fourth place (out of the 5 Challengers one is eliminated at the end of the two Round Robins).

Emirates Team New Zealand vs Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli

Team New Zealand in the pre-start tries to attack Luna Rossa, which instead goes gybing on the far corner of the start box.
The Italian boat manages to position itself downwind, with the Kiwis, however, taking a large side separation to avoid risk.
Basically even start. First advantage for the Italian boat, which from downwind holds the confrontation on the starboard side and closes the side gap making Team New Zealand “jump”.
First cross for Luna Rossa, which, however, does not go into coverage and concedes a big separation to the Kiwis. Right gate for Bruni-Spithill, with the New Zealanders going on the left with 11 seconds left.
Stern to contact for the Kiwis as they shorten, with Luna Rossa not seeming intent on going into tight marking. There are 5 seconds left at the stern gate, with the Italian crew once again conceding separation without going into close marking.
Luna Rossa christens the right side of the course on the second upwind, but at the first crossing New Zealand passes: Bruni-Spithill execute a leebow that is not very tight, the Kiwis arrive at speed and hold out on the garbage, passing immediately after the following tack.
However, the Italian boat remains in the slipstream, the feeling is that the pure performances between the two boats are quite similar, at the finish line it will be 12 seconds ahead of the New Zealanders, who beat the Italians for the third time, in a race where, however, there was also the impression that Prada did not always keep its foot on the accelerator.

Louis Vuitton Cup – the surprises of the first day

It certainly seems to be the day of surprises, because in match number 3 of the day between the favorite American Magic and Ineos Britannia, the Americans fall off the foils in the pre-start and the race immediately takes the direction of Ben Ainslie’s men.
American Magic’s performance remains strong, however, with the New York Yacht Club boat coming to the finish line only 14 seconds behind from over 1 minute behind.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli vs Orient Express Racing Team

Luna Rossa goes after the French at the start, but they manage to position themselves to leeward of the Italians.
Luna Rossa has good lateral separation and arrives launched on the line, with a start that ends essentially even.
Team Prada, however, has a clearly superior pace to the transalpines; at the first crossing it is already in front and begins to stretch steadily and steadily.
They are 27 seconds ahead at the first gate, for a match that seems to be going downhill for Luna, given the 34 seconds at the first aft gate.
The music of the race does not change, the Italian crew remains in control and goes on to win the first point of its Louis Vuitton Cup. Mauro Giuffrè