Ben Ainslie’s Britannia take commanding lead in semi-finals of Louis Vuitton Cup

Ineos Team go two-up and are hoping to overwhelm Alinghi in order to buy upgrade time ahead of declaring components for the final

Mercedes comprehensively took the bragging rights on the first day of their ‘F1-on-water’ clash with rivals Red Bull in Barcelona, Sir Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia team racing into a commanding 2-0 lead over Alinghi Red Bull Racing in the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
The challenger series to decide who will face defenders New Zealand in next month’s America’s Cup is rapidly reaching the pointy end. After just one day of these first-to-five semis it looks almost certain that Britain will be battling it out with Italians Luna Rossa in the final.
Patrizio Bertelli’s team also raced into a 2-0 lead on Saturday, albeit their two victories over American Magic were much closer than Britain’s wins over Swiss challenger Alinghi.
Ineos Britannia have improved markedly since last month’s preliminary regatta when they won just two of their five races. Ainslie’s team emerged as the top challenger from the round-robin stage of the series, finishing with a 7-2 record after winning a sail-off with Luna Rossa to decide top spot.
That win earned Britain the right to choose their semi-final opponent, and they plumped for Alinghi, in theory the ‘weakest’ of the remaining challengers following the elimination of the French.
Britain certainly made them look like that in Saturday’s races, which were held in light, puffy winds of 7-11 knots.
In their first race, Ineos had to come from behind after being late to the line. Co-helm Dylan Fletcher later admitted they were still having problems with their ‘tactical app’, the one-design software given to all challengers by defenders New Zealand, which gives them their time and distance to the line. Ineos have struggled with the app through the series, incurring a couple of boundary penalties and an OCS (over the line early) in the round robins.
Yet despite being in their dirty air, Britain almost managed to pass Switzerland on the first upwind leg of the race, rounding it just 11 seconds behind their rivals. Britannia then turned on its afterburners downwind, Ineos drawing level with Alinghi in no time and forcing them to gybe away.
Britain then rammed home their advantage. From 28 seconds up at the bottom gate, the gap ballooned out to over well over a minute, not helped by Alinghi falling off their foils on the second downwind leg. Britain won by a kilometre and a half by the finish.
The second race was, if anything, even more one-sided, Alinghi dropping off their foils in the pre-start, incurring a boundary penalty which meant they then had to drop 75m behind the British boat off the start line. It was no contest from then on, the biggest threat to Ineos coming from the shifty winds, which might have forced them off their foils had they hit any light patches or made any mistakes. They didn’t. Ineos’s boat-handling has improved as much as their boat speed.
It is still early days in these semis. The four challengers will have two more races each on Sunday, and two more again on Monday. But the one-sided nature of the contest thus far between Ineos and Alinghi does raise questions about the relative merits of picking the ‘weakest’ challenger, thus giving themselves the best chance of making the challenger final, versus picking a tougher test in order to learn more, even if that came with inherent risks.
Fletcher pointed out another potential advantage, though, to selecting Alinghi. Namely, the chance to have more time in the shed to make modifications to their boat before they have to declare their components for the final.
Such are the perverse rules for the America’s Cup, Ineos had to declare their components for this semi-final on Monday, the day they finished the round robins, and before they could actually make or test any upgrades. 
New Zealand, by contrast, are able to make extensive changes to their boat as they do not race again until the Cup match next month. If Ineos can sweep this semi 5-0, it might mean they have a few days to actually test out some upgrades before declaring.
“If we can finish it on Monday [at the earliest possible opportunity], it makes a difference,” Fletcher admitted. “A bit more time in the shed. And probably, more importantly, it gives us more time before declaration, so we can try a few things out before we have to declare for the final.
“Ultimately, though, that feels quite far away right now. We need to keep our heads down and keep focused on what’s in front of us. We’ve seen Alinghi very strong in some conditions.”
“I don’t think today will mean anything in terms of tomorrow. We just need to focus on how we can get faster.”