Luna Rossa 1 set the early pace on the Bay of Naples for the second Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup Preliminary Regatta (PR2).
The first day of Practice produced a masterclass of pace, precision and patience from the new-look Luna Rossa team led by Peter Burling in the starboard pod, with co-helm Marco Gradoni and trimmers Maria Giubilei and Gigi Ugolini. In all three starts they were conservative by their standards but were able to wriggle through the fleet, seize the lead and streak off into the distance.
The senior Luna Rossa team read the wind to perfection and predominantly played the right-hand side of the course (looking upwind), bouncing off the starboard boundary and reading the wind bends at the top of the course in the southerly conditions that shifted to south-west as the afternoon wore on.
The most remarkable performance of the day came from ARC Team USA who proved to be on the pace having come together in training out of Pensacola, Florida and in Naples over recent weeks.
Harry Melges IV (recovering from a broken foot) and Lucas Calabrese were showing a smooth style to their tacks and gybes – even making a double gybe look easy at the leeward gate in race two – and they finished second overall after the Practice Racing – not count towards the regatta overall.
Elsewhere it was a tricky day, particularly for Emirates Team New Zealand with Nathan Outteridge and Seb Menzies having some start-line gremlins that kept them fighting out of the pack, finishing third overall.
Challenger of Record, GB1, were well in the hunt all afternoon and finished tied on (non-counting) points with Luna Rossa Women & Youth and were ruing some mis-steps that would have seen them finish higher.
Dylan Fletcher reflected: “I think we were pretty rusty today. It showed that we haven’t done much sailing [in AC40] compared to some of the others but for us, it was a fantastic opportunity to see what the racecourse was like in that direction. I need to learn how to start on port! Looking forward to the rest of the week and racing.”
For the Swiss Tudor Team Alinghi and La Roche-Posay Racing Team France it was a tough day in the office with errors, penalties and boat issues creeping into their scorelines.
Hannah Mills OBE, skipper of GB2 echoed the technicality on the course saying: “It was a tough day in terms of the results, but in terms of what we were trying to work on with the starts, we actually had some really strong starts, it was good.
It’s all to play for Friday with three counting races scheduled starting from 2pm CEST and with the weather looking tricky.