37th America's Cup Louis Vuitton Cup Day 4 Report 4 ETNZ, American Magic, INEOS, LRPP, Orient Expres

Subscribe to this channel for exclusive AC content.
The concluding race of the Louis Vuitton Cup opening Round Robin was something of a classic between Emirates Team New Zealand and New York Yacht Club American Magic – two teams who both had something to prove, gain and learn from each other. It was a tense, close battle right from the start with some textbook match-racing and pin-point execution that saw lead changes aplenty before the Kiwis ultimately came up with masterful positioning on the second downwind leg and some great reading of the pressure to seize a lead that they never lost.

For Emirates Team New Zealand it was a chance to check in after their repairs on Friday, and Andy Maloney, trimmer on ‘Taihoro,’ appeared more than pleased in the race against American Magic, saying, “It was an amazing effort by the shore crew to get us out there yesterday like they did, and the boat was feeling good, the phases though were extremely difficult out there. We didn't read them that well on the first upwind, which we sort of kick ourselves for, but then from then on, I think we re-grouped well, and sailed a really good race, keeping in phase when we could, and splitting when we had the opportunity to get past them. But extremely difficult, and I think you can both be in phase with different puffs around the racecourse.”

Tom Slingsby, starboard helm on American Magic, shouldered some of the blame for their loss today saying: “We had a really good first lap, we were behind on the first cross, and then got back, and got them at the top mark. We had a nice run, led them around the bottom mark, which was nice, and then the second beat it felt like they were potentially manoeuvring a bit better than us. We tried matching them a couple of times, and then they seemed to be closing in on us and, my hands are up, I decided to say: ‘look we're bleeding here, let's let them go and just concentrate on ourselves and try to pick the shifts’, and I chose the wrong time to do that.”

There is now just one scheduled day off before the regatta rolls into Round Robin 2, and most teams will elect to take a maintenance day before racing is scheduled to start on Tuesday with what could be a semi-final decider race between Orient Express Racing Team and Alinghi Red Bull Racing, in the very first race.

The pressure is white-hot and rising at the Louis Vuitton Cup, with one of these excellent teams going home exactly one week from today, and no-one, but no-one wants to be that team.