Luna Rossa lead after a stop-start opening day in Naples

If any team was going to own the bay in Naples, surely it was the Italians. Luna Rossa arrive to the second Preliminary Regatta of the 38th America’s Cup bursting with talent across the board, with more AC40 training time than anyone else in both their senior and Women & Youth (W&Y) boats. So who, if anyone, was going to bring the home team down?

For much of the day, though, our first taste of the Bay of Naples – venue for next year’s Match – looked set to be a bit of an anticlimax. Racing was postponed again and again as the fleet waited for the breeze to clear the 7.5-knot lower limit, and two attempts at the opening race were started and then abandoned. Just when it looked like we wouldn’t see anything, the race committee squeezed in two races after hours of waiting.

As expected, Peter Burling and Marco Gradoni’s senior Luna Rossa crew look like the team to beat. But the day also belonged to ARC USA, who won their debut race in the America’s Cup. The Americans sit third overnight, with Nathan Outteridge’s senior Emirates Team New Zealand crew in second.

Race 1, take #1 (abandoned)

Towed out to get foiling, the AC40s had one job in the light breeze: stay up. With 9 knots at the top of the course but just 6 on the start line, half the fleet was soon back in displacement mode, and with 30 seconds to go the start was pushed back five minutes.

When the gun did go, only the senior Kiwis were off their foils. Burling’s Luna Rossa led away, but La Roche-Posay Racing Team shook off being over the line early, Diego Botín spotting a right shift that launched them to the front. Neither could stay up through their tacks, and both splashed down. Dylan Fletcher’s GB1 foiled past from the right to lead at the top gate, the last boat flying amid a graveyard of stalled AC40s. Moments later, the race was abandoned.

Race 1, take #2 (abandoned)

Two hours into the afternoon the breeze had filled a touch, to 8–9 knots on the start and 10 at the top mark, and the fleet shot cleanly off the line. Tudor Team Alinghi led the charge to the left, with La Roche-Posay Racing Team and senior Luna Rossa tucked in behind. Outteridge’s senior Kiwis went it alone on the right and crossed ahead just before the top gate. Then their tack wouldn’t go through, and down they came. The Swiss took back the lead to round first, but it was déjà vu from there: once again every boat off its foils at the top gate, and another abandonment a minute later.

The wind finally kicked in, the gradient breeze swinging more than 100 degrees and registering 15 knots at some marks. A minute out from the start, some of the AC40s were already foiling at over 30 knots.

For the first time in Naples the whole fleet came into a punchy start on starboard tack. GB1 were fractionally over the line and an OCS penalty dropped them from first to last. Outteridge’s senior Kiwis took an early lead, but newcomers ARC USA came in from the right to snatch it on pure boat speed. They rounded the top gate with ETNZ and GB2 both 12 seconds back, while both Luna Rossa boats were stuck in the middle of the pack.

The Americans still led at the bottom gate, with Hannah Mills’s GB2 hot on their heels and opting to split. Behind them, La Roche-Posay Racing Team were penalised for straying inside Alinghi’s keep-clear zone, dropping from sixth to ninth.

Burling had hauled the senior Italian boat up to second by the third leg, but the Americans were a comfortable 160 metres ahead and looking in control. On the second run USA and both Luna Rossa boats went left while GB2 split again in search of pressure. GB1, meanwhile, were all the way at the back, a kilometre off the lead.

Twenty-five seconds ahead by the penultimate gate, Harry Melges IV and Lucas Calabrese’s crew didn’t let it slip. Coming off second overall in yesterday’s practice racing, ARC USA had won their very first America’s Cup race.

Burling and Gradoni took second for Luna Rossa, with Mills and Ellie Aldridge third on GB2.

Fleet Race 1 results

1. ARC USA 16:47
2. Luna Rossa senior +0:18
3. GB2 +0:33
4. Luna Rossa W&Y +0:47
5. ETNZ senior +1:21
6. La Roche-Posay +1:31
7. ETNZ W&Y +1:52
8. GB1 +2:07
9. Tudor Team Alinghi +2:09

Race 2 was over for La Roche-Posay Racing Team before it began. Seemingly aware they were coming into the line early, the French tried to slow down and bear away. The rudder lifted clear of the water and the AC40 nosedived into a capsize on the line. So then there were eight.

Luna Rossa’s senior crew led up the first beat, and Tudor Team Alinghi briefly nudged ahead towards the top mark. The Italians then tacked across to round with a comfortable lead, followed by the Swiss and ETNZ W&Y. Luna Rossa W&Y were penalised for getting too close to the Kiwi W&Y boat at that rounding, dropping them to the back.

Alinghi split at the second gate, and when the pair met halfway up the next beat just 75 metres separated them. Burling switched into match-racing mode to cover. At the third gate ETNZ W&Y squeezed Luna Rossa W&Y into an extra manoeuvre, costing the Italians a place to ARC USA.

Luna Rossa and Alinghi broke clear on the fourth leg, Burling still blocking Paul Goodison’s crew around the course. Further back, a scrappy rounding cost the Americans a couple of places, with Luna Rossa W&Y sweeping past into fifth.

Burling’s Italians went on to take the race by 21 seconds. “Awesome to finally get some racing,” Burling said from the water. “It’s been a long time waiting with no breeze, a couple of false starts, but we put together two sort of races on day one. It’s the first time Gigi [Gianluigi Ugolini] has sailed in the trimmer seat in this much breeze, so awesome job by the team, and looking forward to building into the rest of the week.”

“It was a tricky day and we managed to stay focused again,” added Gradoni. “But I want to say that the trimmers today did an amazing job, because it’s really difficult out here.”

Quite the reversal in this race, with Alinghi going from last to a strong second while race one winners ARC crossed seventh. Outteridge’s senior crew fought back from seventh to third, but it wasn’t looking good for Fletcher’s crew. Having dodged last place by two seconds in race one, GB1 spent much of this one at the back, and that’s where they finished.

Fleet Race 2 results

1. Luna Rossa senior 17:33
2. Tudor Team Alinghi +0:21
3. ETNZ senior +0:49
4. ETNZ W&Y +0:50
5. Luna Rossa W&Y +1:00
6. GB2 +1:06
7. ARC USA +1:10
8. GB1 +1:28
9. La Roche-Posay RET

Two races in, the form book says Luna Rossa: second, then first, and top of the standings. Emirates Team New Zealand have had a quietly consistent day, doing just enough with a fifth and a third to sit second. ARC USA’s win followed by a seventh still leaves the newcomers in third. Alinghi and GB2 have each shown flashes, while GB1 and La Roche-Posay Racing Team will want to forget day one in a hurry.

Four races are scheduled for tomorrow to make up for the one lost today. There will be eight fleet races in all before the top two meet in the match-race final on Sunday.