INEOS Britannia has ended the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta with a win against the French Orient Express Racing Team. The British Challenger of Record, racing for the Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, fought hard to secure the win after incurring an early start penalty which meant the French took the lead. INEOS Britannia showed their resilience as the crew tackled tricky conditions of light wind with a very choppy sea state to take the lead from the French, extend and seal the victory.

The course for the final day of the regatta was set perpendicular to the Barceloneta beachfront heading out to sea with an east-south-easterly infill thermal sea-breeze producing dynamic winds in a range of 7-15 knots. While the wind was lighter than we had seen in previous days, the sea state was choppier, with swell of more than 1m. Emirates Team New Zealand was the overall winner of the Preliminary Regatta, after an extremely close race between the Kiwis and the Italian team Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.

INEOS Britannia’s race with Orient Express Racing Teams started with plenty of drama. The French were late and slow at their entry into the pre-start box on port gybe. This immediately handed INEOS Britannia an advantage as they were the starboard tack boat with the right of way. After the umpires judged France did not keep clear of the Brits on their overtake, Quentin Delapierre and his crew were handed a penalty.

Ben Ainslie and his team then disengaged and set up for a timed run, planning to tack and start immediately in front of the French, who were making a late start to wipe-off their penalty. Heading up into the tack, the British boat crossed the line early, and by the time they had returned to restart, the French had taken the lead.

Chasing a 16-second deficit at the first gate, INEOS Britannia’s AC75, Britannia, showed her downwind pace once again. After a poor gybe from the French, Ainslie and his crew were able to cross and take the lead by 11 seconds at the second gate. They held the advantage all the way to the finish line, extending dramatically on the last lap to win by 48 seconds.

INEOS Britannia Team Principal and Skipper Ben Ainslie said: “It was pretty tricky at the start, it was really light and the wind dropped down to 7 knots at one point and the sea state was also rough, not ideal for these foiling boats. We were trying to keep the boat on the foils as we headed to the start and we ended up over the line early, but the team did a great job to pull it back, particularly the Cyclors who were putting in some serious power.” 

The Barcelona Preliminary Regatta offered teams a chance to line up their AC75s against each other and refine their strategies and boats before the main event gets underway next week. The Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selections Series) begins on 29 August, leaving the teams just three full days to prepare and make any changes. As Defenders, Emirates Team New Zealand has a guaranteed place in the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match. The Challenger Selections Series will decide which of the five challenging teams will face them in the match. 

Ainslie’s Co-Helm Dylan Fletcher said: “This Preliminary Regatta has been our first real practice racing in the AC75 so we were trying lots of things in the pre-starts and different options so we will go away and refine those to make gains next week. We’ve built some good momentum and I think we’re in a good place heading into the Challenger Selections Series.” 

Ainslie said the team was looking forward to getting back out racing next week after “taking lots of learnings” from the Preliminary Regatta. 

“It was a good way to finish off the regatta with a win. We’ve learned a lot about how to sail the AC75 in the varying Barcelona conditions, so we will go away and make some tweaks and come out looking for a strong performance in the Round Robin stages.” 

The 37th America’s Cup kicks off with the Louis Vuitton Cup (Challenger Selections Series) on Thursday. UK viewers can watch live on TNT Sports from 13:00 BST (14:00 CET). 

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