The America's Cup: Luna Rossa 1 sets early pace in official practice racing

Practice races in sailing are full of superstition with many racers doing everything they can not to win them. However, for the Luna Rossa Principal team, they failed to read the superstitious script and put down a marker from the get-go, coming out and smoking the fleet by enormous margins – up to 500 metres at times – to win all three races.

Quite simply it was 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. Luna Rossa 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.

There was little answer from the rest of the fleet of AC40’s although several teams showed flashes of boatspeed to get into podium positions. 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 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 that does 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. A good race in the second flight of the day will give the team encouragement and they will de-brief hard. Emirates Team New Zealand very nearly pulled off the move of the day with a port tack start in race two where they wisely ducked out at the last moment.

The Luna Rossa Women & Youth team, skippered by Margherita Porro and with Max Antoniazzi on co-helm, had a day that got better as the afternoon unfolded, regularly at the front of the fleet and pushing the Principal team hard. By the third race of the day, they were looking polished and composed and will be a coming force for the regatta ahead.

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. A fall off the foils on what looked like a mis-communication was the lowlight but there were plenty of positives to take away from the day.

It’s all to play for tomorrow with three races scheduled starting from 2pm CEST and with the weather looking tricky, it could be one of those days where you can’t win the regatta, but you can certainly lose it. The Bay of Naples could well be at its trickiest.

Text and images courtesy of The America’s Cup. Read the full release here.