British, Italians off to flying starts in Louis Vuitton Cup semis

BARCELONA: Ineos Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli started the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals on Saturday strongly with a pair of victories each.

The eventual cup winner will face double defending America´s Cup champions New Zealand in the October final.

The semi-finals are played on a first-to-five victories basis and both the British and Italian teams went 2-0 up on their Swiss and American opponents respectively.

“It´s good to get a couple of wins on the board the first day of the semis, we know we need to keep working hard and find more performance,” said Britannia helmsman Dylan Fletcher.

Winners in the group phase, Britannia picked Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing as their semi-final opponents and got off to a perfect start with a dominating first race victory. Alinghi edged the British team over the line but were trailing by 28 seconds at the first leeward mark.

Making no mistakes, Ineos Britannia claimed victory by two minutes and five seconds.

Alinghi struggled in the pre-start of the second race, falling off the foils and incurring a boundary penalty. The British team found the pressure and stayed well ahead of their opponents to secure a delta of 1 minute 37 seconds.

“We just need to stay focussed and stay fighting, anything can happen... there´s a lot of races to go so we just have to look forward and be ready tomorrow for the next race,” said Swiss skipper Arnaud Psarofaghis.

New York Yacht Club American Magic requested a delay at the start of their first race because of a suspected cyclor issue onboard. However they led the Italians to the line with Luna Rossa forced to tack.

American Magic held the lead for much of the race, covering the Italians well, until a near splashdown which allowed their opponents to cut the distance. Luna Rossa battled back in on the fifth leg, finding the pressure they needed to power into the lead.

The Italians finished seven seconds ahead of their opponents at the end of an enthralling battle. The second race was another tight affair and although Magic nailed the pre-start, Luna Rossa managed to edge ahead and secure a victory by 18 seconds.