Blain’s Morning Porridge Extra – America’s Cup Update: 3 Nil to the Kiwis! Not Over Till Its Over!
A matter of life and death? No, it’s far more important than that..
3-Nil to the Kiwis is a Scoreline that will be making Ben Ainslie angry – something other competitors soon discover is a terrible mistake. Despite the scoreline, the America’s Cup is not over yet. The Brits just have to stop making mistakes, sail fast and true, and win the next 7 races!
Simples….
If you are a regular reader of Blain’s Morning Porridge, then you’ll know I only work to feed my serious Sailing Habit… Sailing is an expensive and somewhat addictive passion….
And in case you’ve been hiding under a stone, we are now 2 days into the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona. It is not going well for the Challenger, Team GBR, Ineos Britannia, who are losing 3-Nil to the Holders, New Zealand. Today will see yesterday’s postponed fourth race – and with the Wind expected to be a bit stronger, it may just help Britannia.
The America’s Cup is the World’s Premier Yachting Trophy. It’s contested by teams representing competing nations. To race in the final against the holder, New Zealand, Team GBR had first to beat America, Italy, Switzerland, and France in the Louis Vuitton Cup last month. Global sailing is becoming a must-own sporting brand, recently a chum acquired the SailGP Canada Team, with champion Olympic sailor Giles Scott to drive it! Doing the dockwalks in the America’s Cup race village is some big money – the heads of F1 and Louis Vuitton (which just put $1 bln into motor-racing!).
The Auld Mug is also the oldest contested international trophy. It was first raced for in 1851 after an American yacht, the “America” owned by a syndicate of New York Yacht Club members, challenged the Royal Yacht Squadron (based in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight) to a race around the Island.
What is little known is America won that first race by sailing a shorter course. All 15 of the Squadron members boats rounded the Nab Lightship off the Isle of Wight’s eastern shore, to Port (their left) – the then traditional Round The Island course. America sailed inside it – cutting a considerable distance. The American skipper had taken the time to read the sailing instructions, and noted the lightship was not defined as a “mark of the course” – the Squadron members just assumed it was. That lesson is drummed into sailors today.
Reading of the rules, strict legal interpretations and legal shenanigans favouring the holder of the Cup have characterised every single running of the race ever since. And in 173 years, Great Britain has never won!
The current America’s Cup final is not going well for Britannia. Surprisingly, Ben Ainslie’s team has made a number of mistakes, and been unlucky with a battery problem on Race 1. They sailed with what looked the wrong jib up on the first race, got a penalty on the start of the third, and have made some bad tactical calls. At times they’ve looked wobbly. Yachting is a game of who makes the least mistakes – and the Kiwis aren’t making any.
It’s left the British boat sailing in the Kiwi’s “Dirty Air”; smooth, undisturbed airflow over the sails allows a yacht to sail fast and high (closer to the wind). Sailing in the disturbed air left by a competitor invariably will cause you to lose. By making fewer mistakes, and critically winning the start on every race, the Kiwis have left the Brits stuck in their dirt, giving NZ control of the tactical options, like which side of the course has the better wind. It looks like Britannia is a slower boat – I don’t think so.
Watching the boats over the weekend I think Ineos Britannia is marginally faster downwind, and nearly as fast upwind. There isn’t anything wrong with the boat. And there should not be anything wrong with the team – Ainslie is one of the most dangerously competitive sportsmen ever. Charming off the water – implacable on it.
There is some needle developing. Yesterday we were treated to Ainslie describing a Kiwi race commentator as a “clucking banker” (I think he said) on an open mike after a question designed to goad him.
3-0 down is not irrecoverable. It’s a first to 7 wins championship. Famously Ainslie took over the American Team Oracle when the American’s were losing 1-8 against the Kiwi’s in 2013 in San Francisco – it was a first to 9 series. Guess what.. Ainslie won it for the Yanks, 9-8!
Today the wind will be slightly stronger, Ainslie slightly angrier and my money is going on Britannia to break the duck.
In Yacht Racing – there famously is no second..
Full Morning Porridge to follow…
Bill Blain
Author of the Morning Porridge, founder of Wind Shift Capital
RORC, RSthYC, HRSC
3 Comments
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Spot on. At this level in this sport it’s usually about who makes the fewest mistakes. I’ve watched much of the racing over several weeks and seen Britannia mess up the start repeatedly. Is Ainsley off form or is he hustling?
Funny you ask if he is hustling…. wheels within wheels…
The starts are crap. Boat that wins start and first tack invariably winds by gassing the other. Basic match racing.
Well.. 4-0 down. Ainslie running out of solutions. He’ll be hoping the wind is going to kick in.