America’s Cup postponed as Covid-19 looms

The first weekend of the America’s Cup match has been postponed.

This comes as a level three lockdown has been put in place by the government of New Zealand.

The purpose of this early postponement decision, says organisers America’s Cup Event (ACE), is to provide at least some certainty in planning for all event stakeholders with regard to the next weekend.

“ACE has always said that it wishes to hold as much of the racing under Level 1 restrictions as possible,” says Tina Symmans, ACE chair. “But to be prudent, ACE will apply for an exemption to race under level three restrictions so as to keep as many options open as possible. However, racing will not occur before at least Wednesday 10th March.”

In the meantime, ACE will continue to work closely with the relevant authorities over the next few days as this latest Covid situation unfolds.

“We need to understand all likely scenarios so that an updated racing schedule can be put in place whilst also ensuring the regulatory requirements are met,” says Symmans.

The delay means it will be at least 80 days between races for Emirates Team New Zealand, who have not been in the competitive environment since December last year.

Challenger of record (CoR) representative, Francesco Longanesi Cattani, told the New Zealand Herald that the team accepts the delay, and is in contact with the defender and racing director to start racing as soon as possible, pending government decisions on the matter, “but always in respect of the calendar”.

If the government grants an exemption to allow racing under alert level three by the March 10 date, he says COR would want to get the series underway.

“We want to go in the water as soon as possible,” he says.

Ainslie reflects on aggressive design

Meanwhile, Sir Ben Ainslie says Team Ineos UK will be ‘back stronger’, in the Daily Telegraph.

“That may sound like a cliche, but I firmly believe it. If you look at where we are now compared to where we were four years ago after Bermuda, there is a world of difference – our knowledge, our IP, our personnel. The linear progression has been constant. We are a much stronger team now and I have to thank every single team member for their commitment and determination to see this challenge through to the end.

“I have to give credit to Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa. The AC75 was their creation and it has proven to be, in my opinion, a perfect embodiment of what the cup should be about: technology, power, grace, speed and, most importantly, it has the ‘wow’ factor. In some ways, we should not be surprised that we now have the challenger of record, Luna Rossa, joining the defender in the cup match itself. Their understanding of that concept better prepared them to develop a faster package across the wind range and they stepped up their performance on the water to match.

“Ourselves and American Magic made considerable gains with our second race boats but it always felt as if we were chasing. That was why we went for an aggressive design. We did not play it safe at all. Perhaps that cost us in the end.

“Clearly the Prada Cup final was very one-sided. We cannot hide from that. Our performance in light airs throughout the challenger series was not good enough. As much as we took satisfaction from the improvements we made after Christmas, the results in the round robins probably flattered us with the conditions disguising Britannia‘s inherent weakness. Plus we sailed some good tactical races. I was proud of the way we fought, though, and without giving anything away, because that is our IP, we have a good idea of where we went wrong.

“Inevitably there is already talk about what the future might look like for our team and for the America’s Cup. I think it is far too early to make any assumptions. Clearly we need to see whether the Kiwis defend, or whether we are suddenly looking at a cup from an Italian perspective.”

Ineos Team UK has released a brief video documenting its campaign.

Main image courtesy of Studio Borlenghi.