Frustrating race conditions
After all these years of buildup, unfortunately today’s match against NYYC American Magic wasn’t the kind of contest we’ve been looking forward to.
With Barcelona providing extremely light airs, it didn’t look sure whether the match would even happen, but after multiple delays the call was made to start. Before the race had even begun, BoatOne fell off its foils in the pre-start, putting the team on the back foot right from the get-go.
It didn’t improve from there, with both the American and Swiss teams falling off the foils throughout the course. As both boats slowly drifted around the course in displacement mode, the race officials repeatedly reduced the length of the course, finally deciding to cut the race down to just four legs.
Especially frustrating call considering the boats were already on Leg 4!
Sailing Team Manager Rodney Ardern shared his views after the race. “We understand in the rules you can shorten the legs—range and bearing of the marks—during the race, but today we had multiple length changes of the course while boats were already on that leg. On an ever-shrinking course, that made it virtually impossible to catch up.”
After the race committee’s decision, the remainder of the race saw a slow grind to the finish, with American Magic displacing over the line as the Swiss team’s hopes to mount a comeback vanished. All other matches today were cancelled due to the lack of wind.
“We're all here to race against each other,” Rodney went on to say. “Unfortunately today, we were both racing against challenging conditions and congrats to American Magic who managed them better than us. They had the same issues; they were on and off the foils as well. In that respect, it's swings and roundabouts. For the next few days, I think we're hoping to have good, fair racing and good conditions. Hopefully, all the racing can happen and we get some quality races for both the competitors and the spectators.”
Now we’re into the Challenger Selection Series, we’re hoping for conditions that will clearly reveal the most deserving Challenger for the America’s Cup. But when the weather doesn’t show up, it can turn the competition into more of a lottery.
Nils Theuninck, one of the cyclors onboard today, also reflected on the match. “It was a really strong effort from the cyclors in today’s race, and we had plenty of power in the tank, but obviously a disappointing result. There’s still a lot of racing ahead of us, so let's make every race count.”
Red Bull TV has a brand new series, Flying On Water, all about the America’s Cup and the six teams battling it out for sailing’s most prized trophy. The show just launched today, with the first three episodes going live here. Maybe not the most appropriate title considering today’s conditions… But hopefully they pick up soon!
