Both British America’s Cup teams faced challenges on the opening day of the Preliminary Regatta Sardinia on Friday, as the women’s and youth team, Athena Pathway, suffered a capsize and the senior team, GB1, was forced to retire from two out of three races due to gear failure of a one-design supplier part. The issues mean that after the first three races of the event, GB1 is in eighth place and Athena Pathway is in seventh, but there are five more fleet races scheduled across the weekend before the top two teams enter the match race final.
The leaderboard after day one has the Luna Rossa Italian women and youth team first, Luna Rossa senior team second, Emirates Team New Zealand women and youth third, Switzerland’s Tudor Team Alinghi fourth, Emirates Team New Zealand’s senior team fifth and France’s La Roche-Posay Racing Team sixth.
GB1 skipper and helm Dylan Fletcher MBE said it was “super frustrating” to have to retire from the first two races, but added he was “proud” the team managed to keep pushing through setbacks to achieve a second-place finish in the third race of the day.
“We had a traveller sheeve blow up,” he said.
“We didn’t manage to fix it in time for the first race, then we thought we had fixed it for the second but that didn’t work. We finally managed to get a solution sorted for the third race and we knew we needed a good result - so we were happy to come away with a second. It’s frustrating but we just need to focus on the five races we’ve got left. Overall, I’m really proud of how the team dug deep and delivered a result when we needed it.”
The Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta Sardinia features eight teams from five nations competing in the one-design AC40 foiling monohulls. Each nation was able to enter up to two AC40s, one representing their senior team and one representing their women and youth team. Great Britain, New Zealand and Italy all entered two teams while France and Switzerland both entered one team representing their senior squads.
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After a better start to the day than GB1 and a sixth-place finish in race one, the British women and youth team, Athena Pathway, then suffered a capsize in the second race while on the final run to the finish line. All four crew members on-board were uninjured but they had to retire from the race. The crew then swung back into action for the third and final race of the day where they came seventh, ahead of New Zealand's senior team.
Athena Pathway CEO, skipper and helm Hannah Mills OBE said: “It’s frustrating to not be where you want to be. It was pretty tricky to sail the boat in those full-on conditions and unfortunately we had a few errors at really critical moments. We learned a lot from today though and we’ll go away and look at it all and try and make improvements for tomorrow. That was probably the windiest conditions we’ve ever sailed in here and with the waves on top it was full-on, especially for Sam Webb whose only three weeks into the role, but he did a great job.”
The action continues on Saturday with three more fleet races planed. There will then be a further two fleet races on Sunday before the top two teams progress to the match race final. UK viewers can watch the racing live on the America’s Cup YouTube or website from 14:00 BST.
THE RACE REPORT
Race one:
GB1 requested a damage extension before the start due to a block in the traveller system failing, which limited sail movement control. However, there was not enough time to fix the issue, and they had a DNS (Did Not Start).
Luna Rossa Women and Youth Team dominated Race 1, taking a commanding win by 650 metres and 35 seconds over the French team, with the Swiss finishing third.
Athena Pathway was early to the start, took the penalty, and dropped to the back of the fleet. They recovered well, rounding the top mark in seventh before threading through the field to eventually finish in sixth in their first official race of the campaign.
Conditions were full-on, with 15 knots of breeze, gusts up to 20 knots, and a south-south-westerly direction. The AC40s were fighting hard for control, reaching speeds of over 45 knots, a spectacular moment saw a close capsize by Luna Rossa Senior team who nearly capsized at the last mark rounding before wrestling it back but dropped back to seventh place.
Race two:
GB1 attempted to start the race but had to retire due to the same ongoing gear issue.
Athena Pathway endured a difficult start to Race 1 after falling off the foils and becoming stuck head-to-wind with the sails, dropping back to seventh place early on.
As the breeze built, Emirates Team New Zealand moved into the lead. Athena Pathway remained in seventh and struggled to make gains after their tough opening phase.
At the front of the fleet, it became a three-boat battle between New Zealand and the two Italian teams in choppy, breezy conditions. Wind speeds increased to 21 knots in the gusts.
Emirates Team New Zealand had to fight hard to hold off both Italian boats. A dramatic 47-knot bear-away at Gate 4 resulted in a huge splashdown for the Kiwis as the boats pushed the limits in the heavy conditions.
France then suffered a similar setback, falling off the foils on the approach to Gate 4, allowing Athena Pathway to move up into fifth place.
Emirates Team New Zealand went on to win the race, followed by the Italy Women & Youth Team and the principal Italian America’s Cup team.
On the final run to the finish line, Athena Pathway capsized. All sailors were unscathed, but the team was forced to retire from the race.
Race three:
There was a dramatic start with three boats over the line early, including Athena Pathway, who had to restart the race.
GB1 returned to racing after resolving their earlier gear issue. Crossing the start line in third place, they headed to the left-hand side of the course and gained two positions, crossing ahead of both New Zealand and Italy on the right to take the lead.
GB1 hit an impressive 49 knots on the bear-away at the next mark, extending their advantage to 150 metres.
However, at the bottom mark, GB1 suffered a big splashdown at the mark rounding. The team appeared to overload the boat while on maximum lift, dropping from first to third behind the New Zealand principal team and the Italian Women & Youth Team.
On the final run to the finish, principal Team New Zealand’s suffered a spectacular foil drop of their own, allowing GB1 to move up into second place behind the Italian Women & Youth Team.
Athena Pathway also capitalised late in the race, catching the recovering New Zealand boat to finish seventh.