Ben Ainslie’s ‘ruthless’ call gives hope Britain can end America’s Cup curse

A “ruthless” and “calculated” prestart call by Ben Ainslie, aggressively lining up Swiss rivals Alinghi Red Bull Racing and completely torpedoing their race before it had even got going, was the highlight of the second day of the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals in Barcelona.

Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia team had comprehensively won both of their races against Alinghi on the opening day of these first-to-five semi-finals on Saturday, going 2-0 up. But if that was a case of softening up their Swiss rivals, Sunday’s racing was a demonstration in bullying weaker opposition.

Ineos again won both races, surging into a 4-0 lead which should mean they wrap up victory on Monday and still have a bit of time to tinker with their boat before having to declare their components for the challenger series final, which begins a week on Thursday and is almost certain to be against Italians Luna Rossa. But it was the manner in which they won those races which will give their supporters hope that this could be the year Britain’s sailors finally end the America’s Cup curse which has hung over them for 173 years.

After a slow start to this challenger series, which determines who gets to face defenders New Zealand in next month’s America’s Cup match, Ineos really appear to have the bit between their teeth. Nowhere was that better exemplified than in the prestart to Sunday’s first meeting between the British and the Swiss.

Alinghi had actually tried to be aggressive themselves, circling around Ineos to try to pick them up on starboard. Fatally, however, they fell off their foils in doing so, leaving themselves exposed. Ainslie, a former match racing world champion as well as a four-time Olympic dinghy champion, needed no second invitation.

“We had a brief discussion and Ben said, ‘Yep, let’s go for them’,” reported Dylan Fletcher, Ainslie’s co-helm, later on. That was exactly what they did.

Bearing down on Alinghi at nearly 40 knots, and with starboard right-of-way, everyone expected the Swiss to duck out of the way early. But they appeared briefly to lose control of their rudder as they looked for a late turn-up, meaning the two boats very nearly collided.

Ineos were forced to gybe extremely late to avoid contact, but managed to stay up on their foils and start on time. Alinghi were not so lucky, dropping off their foils and taking an age to get going again, perhaps because they were so dazed and confused. By the time they crossed the start line they were 500 metres back. By the finish, that deficit had ballooned out to well over two minutes and two kilometres.

Alinghi fared better in the second race, getting off the line on time. But Ineos got their noses in front after covering the Swiss on the first tack to the left-hand boundary and went on to win by a kilometre.

“It was cool,” Fletcher admitted of the prestart to the first race, which coach Rob Wilson called “ruthless” and “calculated”.

“Obviously it was good that it came out well for us, but I think it is also good for the America’s Cup as well to show what these boats are capable of. I think it was a good demonstration as to how much the boats have come on since the last Cup and how aggressive the prestarts are. We’re pushing really hard and trying not to give the opposition an inch.”

Italy’s Luna Rossa on the verge of advancing

They will not be able to afford to give an inch against Luna Rossa. The Italians also lead their semi-final 4-0, after winning two more close races against American Magic on Sunday. The second race, in particular, was exciting, with the Americans – who have been done no favours with the positioning of a new camera in the cockpit showing their recumbent cyclors in all their pain and awkwardness – coming back on the final downwind leg and almost managing to snatch a dramatic victory.

They eventually lost by just two seconds, with co-helm Tom Slingsby suggesting their series might look very different now had British Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison not broken ribs last week helping to lug sails about the boat.

“Lucas [Calabrese, Goodison’s replacement] had never sailed in those conditions before,” he said. “He’s probably done seven days on this boat in his life, whereas Goody and I had done over 70 days together. So he’s learning on the go and he’s doing an unbelievable job. But he’s going to be stronger tomorrow. I’m still confident we can win two races tomorrow and stay in this.”