One and Done on Drifter Day of Cup Challenger Series

American Magic heads to the start at foiling pace with Alinghi Red Bull Racing stuck in the water. Ricardo Pinto/America’s Cup

With the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC75 in the shed for significant structural repairs following a crane-drop incident on Thursday afternoon, the second day of the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger Series carried on with American Magic and Alinghi Red Bull Racing meeting on the racecourse once again, this time in marginal foiling conditions. Marginal enough to put the race to bed before the starting line was struck.

In a reversal of fortune, American Magic, which gifted INEOS Britannia a point after dropping off the foils in the prestart the previous day, got a point gifted to them when Alinghi dropped off the foils while following the Americans through the starting box.

The Americans were promptly launched, building a 600-meter-plus lead once the Swiss the team finally got across the line. The lead grew to 900 and by the time Patriot was turning the corner onto Leg 3, they were a full leg ahead.

To keep the race within the time limit, the race committee shortened the course length to less than a mile and four legs, and only then did American Magic finally succumb to the bottom end of the AC75’s wind limit, touching down and then reaching back and forth across the racecourse, trying desperately to get back on the foils and tapping the collective willpower of its power group to grunt enough wattage to force power into the sail plan.

With American Magic sailing away, Alinghi’s crew pulls the jib to weather to get the boat to bearaway for a speed build. Ricardo Pinto/America’s Cup

Alinghi was doing the same, trying to make its way upwind. The boats paralleled each other making little progress either way until American Magic starboard helmsman Tom Slingsby made the call to give up and instead focus on getting the boat across the finish in displacement mode.

The delta between the between the boats by the time Alinghi Red Bull Racing made its way around the mark was 15m:27s, which was plenty enough for American Magic strike the finish line in displacement mode and pocket its point.

“It wasn’t pretty at all, but it’s just tough conditions,” Slingsby said after racing. “You get a nice gust of eight and a half knots, and then it comes down to five and a half, and it’s a real battle to stay on the foils. So, look, we got the win, but there’s plenty we can do to improve too.”

Tom Slingsby (starboard) and Michael Menninger, stand up to look for wind as they crawl toward the finish and an eventual race-winning point. Ian Roman

With New Zealanders sitting out the next race against INEOS Britannia, the British team started its race and picked up a point. The following race between American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli was eventually abandoned, to relief of both teams and spectators not keen to endure another displacement drift fest.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing and INEOS Britannia get the action started on Day 3 with more light wind in the forecast for Saturday and onward through next week.

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