Time to develop for Ineos as ETNZ brings out new foils for America’s Cup

Ineos Team UK has progressed to the final of the Prada Cup (13-22 Feb), which it’ll have to win to have a chance at the America’s Cup.

The British team now has three weeks to continue developing Britannia. The other two challengers will take to the water on Friday for the Prada Cup semi-final.

Ineos secured the race win it needed against Luna Rossa and completed its ‘ghost race’ against American Magic, to secure the fastest route into the final.

One race at a time

After winning a nail biting contest against Luna Rossa, Ben Ainslie (skipper) says: “We had a few issues with control off the boat but once we got into the race it was a fantastic battle against great competitors.

“Coming down to the finish was nail biting.

“But it’s one race at a time. We’ve got to keep improving, getting faster, sailing better, if we’re going to get through to the end.”

Ainslie and the crew of Britannia have made an amazing comeback after the perilous state they appeared to be in prior to Christmas.

Time to develop

The team has ample time now to make leaps forward but Ainslie is not going to share any information about what will happen in terms of new developments.

“We are definitely going to be doing some training,” he told Sky Sports . “We had a bit of a list of upgrades which we can make to the boat, and it really depended on how the weekend went.

“Now, we have got a little bit more time, so we can maybe make some slightly bigger upgrades than perhaps we would have done before. Obviously, we cannot really talk about that.

“Needless to say, we are trying to get faster like all of these other teams out here; as we all know that is the secret to trying to win the America’s Cup. It’s that constant improvement and trying to get faster and faster every day.”

New foils for the defender

Meanwhile, Emirates Team New Zealand has brought out sleek new foils.

According to the New Zealand Herald, pictures taken over the weekend of Te Rehutai being lifted from the water revealed a brand-new set of foils that are noticeably narrower than what they have been using over the past months.

“The foils Team NZ have used so far have been pretty out there already and this latest set looks like a refinement or extension of what they have already been using – an evolution, rather than a revolution, but very different to what the other teams are using,” says Auckland University of Technology’s sailing professor Mark Orams.

“While the foils would undoubtedly make Team NZ even faster, it comes with some risk,” he told the New Zealand Herald.

“Inherently, they are lower drag and therefore faster, [but] the key question is how does ETNZ manage to control their yacht with lower stability and less lift?

“They’ll definitely be fast but low lift and challenging from a stability point of view.”

The defender will need plenty of practice to manage these foils through the turns, while light wind take-off “might be challenging too”, Orams says.

The rebuild’s looking good

Terry Hutchinson American Magic’s skipper has been speaking out about the substantial damage which Patriot incurred after a spectacular capsize earlier this month (watch the footage) and its journey back to the water.

A replacement panel has been fabricated by Emirates Team New Zealand who, says American Magic, has been instrumental in providing labour for repair.

“I think the thing that we are reminded of is really what the defender has done for us, and what they’ve helped us achieve,” says Hutchinson.

“Certainly without them, [a repair process of this speed] wouldn’t have happened. We have nothing but high thanks for Team New Zealand for what they did.”

Another major challenge has been fixing the electronics and systems within the boat, but the team says that now all it needs to do is get the boat back to race shape.

“Patriot’s coming back to life,” Hutchinson says. “They’re turning the boat on, and really the heartbeat of the boat is going again, which is really exciting.

“We look forward to getting back out on the course with Luna Rossa on Friday.”

Watch American Magic restorations:

And what about Luna Rossa?

Max Sirena Luna Rossa’s skipper is busy analysing his team’s performance.

“We need to analyze our performance in all aspects that were not perfect and understand where we can do better,” he says. “On the downwinds, for example, Ineos seemed to be very fast. Now we are preparing for the semi final against American Magic and I expect it to be very close and competitive.”