America’s Cup: American Magic, Alinghi Red Bull Racing avoid elimination as light winds see racing end early

Alinghi Red Bull Racing and American Magic live to fight another day.

With their America’s Cup journeys on the line, both the Swiss and American challengers avoided elimination from the Louis Vuitton Cup semifinals this morning.

On a day where light winds wreaked havoc on racing, both best-of-nine semifinal series only completed one of two scheduled races.

For Alinghi, they took advantage of an error from British challenger Ineos Britannia on the third leg of their race, before also beating the clock in a match that was completed in displacement mode.

“It was quite an interesting race,” Alinghi starboard helmsman Arnaud Psarofaghis said on the broadcast.

“The guys did a good job fighting all the way and then we got lucky on one puff. It was really nice. Of course, we want to cross the finish line at 45 knots, but we will take eight knots as well if it’s a win.”

The wind showed up in a more meaningful way for American Magic’s race against Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, and the Americans prevailed in an exciting match with multiple lead changes.

Racing was called off for the day following that contest, after several delays in trying to get Alinghi’s second race of the day against Ineos Britannia under way.

There was hope that the wind would fill in again, but that didn’t happen so Ineos Britannia and Luna Rossa will have to wait until Wednesday to have another chance to close out their series.

The British looked well-positioned to sweep their series against Alinghi at the start of their race. Despite struggling to stay on the foils as they made their way into the starting box, the Brits got off to a good start – helped by Alinghi being penalised for getting their timing wrong and crossing the starting line early which meant they had to start behind Ineos Britannia.

The British held a solid lead through the opening couple of legs, but came off the foils when trying to sail out of a tack at the bottom end of the course on leg three.

That opened the door for Alinghi to catch up, and with the Swiss successfully staying on their foils they charged past the British.

As Ineos Britannia tried to find some breeze, Alinghi built their lead before they too came off the foils. With a big enough lead and both boats stuck with their hulls in the water, it became a case of whether or not they could get over the finish line within the 45-minute time limit.

It was touch and go, but a small puff came through just at the right time to help the Swiss put their first semifinal point on the board.

In the other race of the day, an aggressive all-or-nothing move from Luna Rossa when rounding the fourth gate saw them hand the win to American Magic in a race that had been highly competitive to that point.

While Luna Rossa went into the contest 4-0 up on the scoreboard, American Magic have been right with them the whole way.

Today, the Americans finally got their reward with a come-from-behind win. They edged into the lead on the fourth leg, and kicked on when Luna Rossa tried to draw a penalty against them for not allowing enough room for the Italians to get around the marker.

The aggressive move not only didn’t draw the penalty – the race umpires deeming American Magic gave Luna Rossa all the room they needed – it also saw the Italians come off their foils.

From there, American Magic were able to sail on to an important win.

The teams will have tomorrow off, with racing resuming early Thursday NZT. Instead, the Youth America’s Cup begins tomorrow, with New Zealand among the nations back in action.

Results

Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland) beat Ineos Britannia (UK) who did not finish

American Magic (United States) beat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (Italy) who did not finish

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Ineos Britannia lead their respective series’ 4-1

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.