‘Nothing lucky about that’: Ben Ainslie hits back at Italy with GB on verge of America’s Cup history

Ineos Britannia finally broke the deadlock in their nail-biting Louis Vuitton Cup match against Italians Luna Rossa, winning both races on Wednesday to move to “match point” at 6-4 up in the first-to-seven challenger series final.

Ben Ainslie’s team now stand on the verge of history. No British team have won sport’s oldest international competition, which originated in Cowes in 1851. The last British challenger even to make an America’s Cup match was the 12-metre Sovereign, in 1964.

No wonder there were smiles on the faces of Britain’s sailors as they made their way back to their base in Barcelona. They know that if they win one of Friday’s two races they will advance to face defenders New Zealand in the 37th Cup, which begins next week. Lose both and the series will go to a deciding 13th race on Saturday.

You could see what these wins – both convincing – meant to Ainslie in particular. As they crossed the finish line in Race 10, the four-time Olympic champion told his team pointedly over the radio: “Nothing lucky about that.”

It was, Ainslie admitted later, a reference to criticism of Ineos Britannia over the past few days from sections of the Italian media, who suggested the Britons were lucky to be level with Luna Rossa as they had been “gifted” two of their wins due to Luna Rossa’s technical issues.

They may well have won two races by default, but teams have to build a boat robust enough for all conditions. And Ineos Britannia appear to have built a tank.

While the wind on Wednesday was slightly less strong than it had been for the previous race days, it was still very fresh at 15-20 knots. And the sea state was far messier, with big chop and waves bouncing off the shoreline.

That made it very difficult for the sailors. Ineos Britannia, though, made their intentions clear from the off, hunting down their rivals in the pre-start to Race 9.

Italy’s co-helm Jimmy Spithill had suggested on Tuesday that the momentum was now with Luna Rossa after they had come back to win Race 8 despite a huge crash in Race 7, which had damaged their boat.

Ainslie fired back by saying Ineos Britannia were “up for a fight”. And so they were. In Race 9, Ineos Britannia moved up behind Luna Rossa in the start box, almost tagging the Italian boat as they looked for a penalty. As on Sunday, the umpires were unimpressed, turning down two protests.

‘Still a long way to go’

An exciting first upwind leg saw Ineos Britannia duck behind Luna Rossa on the first cross, then Luna Rossa duck behind Ineos Britannia on the next, as the two teams again showed how unbelievably well-matched they are. Ineos Britannia, though, made a decisive move at the top of the beat, managing a lee-bow tack and rounding the left gate with a two-second advantage as Luna Rossa split the course.

From there, Ineos Britannia controlled the race. Luna Rossa struggled with the conditions, possibly because they went with a slightly smaller jib, anticipating more breeze.

“We were just struggling a bit with the jib, but Ineos really sailed a nice race,” co-helm Francesco Bruni said after Ineos Britannia’s 23-second win. “It’s very loose because of the sea state obviously. And we were not set up well and that was making it even worse.”

The pre-start to Race 10 was almost an exact reversal of the first race, with Luna Rossa this time the aggressors, coming up behind the British boat but failing to stick a penalty on them.

Ineos Britannia, in fact, made an excellent start, hitting the line at 37 knots and forcing Luna Rossa to tack away as they headed out towards the left boundary. Apart from losing the rudder once towards the bottom of leg four, allowing Luna Rossa to close right back up, they managed the conditions extremely well again, winning by eight seconds.

Asked about his “Nothing lucky about that” comment, Ainslie said: “Yeah, there was a bit of a chat going around, that we couldn’t win a race on our own. I think we proved that wrong today.”

History beckons. Could the Cup be coming home? “It’s great,” Ainslie said on making it to match point. “A good effort from the team. It’s bloody hard to sail these boats in these waves. It’s hard to explain how hard it is. But there’s still a long way to go. We still need to get to seven.”

Much lighter conditions are expected on Friday. Ineos co-helm Dylan Fletcher said he anticipated it could be as light as it was last Saturday, the day the wind died on Ineos just as they were about to win a race. “It’s not only Italy who have had bad luck,” he pointed out.