Ainslie pledges to ‘keep striving all the way’ in 37th America’s Cup Match
by INEOS Britannia 14 Oct 08:39 PDT
14 October 2024
Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Race 4 – October 14, 2024 © David Maynard / www.alleycatphotographer.com
Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Race 4 – October 14, 2024 © David Maynard / www.alleycatphotographer.com
Ben Ainslie, the Team Principal and Skipper of INEOS Britannia, has committed to ensuring the team will “keep striving all the way” in the 37th America’s Cup Match.
The British Challenger of Record, representing the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, is competing against Defenders Emirates Team New Zealand and is currently trailing 4-0 in the best-of-seven series. The fourth race occurred on Monday and was the closest so far in the Match.
Ainslie remarked: “It was a solid race, and we succeeded in making the first cross, but the Kiwis are performing exceptionally well. For us, it’s about figuring out how we can achieve some performance gains to challenge them. We have our strong moments, but there are instances where we’re losing a little bit, and that’s really the difference. We’ll keep striving all the way; they’ve had a potent start, but we can definitely bounce back from this.”
The pre-start had a distinctly different vibe compared to Sunday’s race, with no interaction between the two AC75 racing yachts. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) led down to the boundary, and when they turned to head towards the starting line, INEOS Britannia opted to tack around for windward separation. The Kiwis crossed the line first, but the Brits were two knots quicker, allowing them to take the lead. This was just one of 10 lead changes during the first leg, highlighting how closely matched the two boats were. At the first gate, the AC75 racers split around the mark, with New Zealand going right and the Brits to the left.
INEOS Britannia commenced the second leg ahead; however, after Emirates Team New Zealand found better wind conditions on their side, they pulled ahead once more. That leg became a series of three crosses — first, INEOS Britannia ducked behind ETNZ, then the New Zealand boat narrowly crossed in front of the right-of-way British boat. In the third, ETNZ gybed in front to take the left gate, forcing INEOS Britannia right – now the margin was three seconds.
The Kiwis leveraged their slight advantage on the upwind third leg to gain race control. They worked diligently to push the British boat backwards, willing to execute an extra maneuver to hit them at the course’s top. They chose the right gate, with the British trailing by 13 seconds. The Kiwis maintained their lead to the finish, crossing the line 23 seconds ahead of INEOS Britannia.
INEOS Britannia Co-Helm Dylan Fletcher stated: “It was very close throughout the course, especially that first leg. It’s fine margins separating the two boats, but we know we must return stronger. They clearly had all the data from our boat during the racing period, and now we can analyze theirs to identify where we can improve. We are confident we can come out on top, and we will be ready to fight on Wednesday.”
The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup resumes with races five and six on Wednesday. UK audiences can stream it live on the Sail-World.com and YachtsandYachting.com homepages starting at 13:00 BST (14:00 CEST).
