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Cup Spy – Day 17: Louis Vuitton Cup – Finals Day 3 – Who dares, wins

Commentary – Fortune favours the Brave

Critics of the AC75 and its suitability as a match racer for the America’s Cup should be eating their words after Sunday’s Blinder in Barcelona.

INEOS Britannia was handed a win for the resail of abandoned Race 3, after Luna Rossa was disqualified for a rule infringement after support crew were on board assisting with a mainsail replacement, after several battens were broken.

The two crews locked horns in the pre-start of Race 4, with the Luna Rossa helm combination of Jimmy Spithill and Francesco Bruni clearly getting the edge over their counterparts Ben Ainslie and Dylan Fletcher. It was the first of several incidents where the very experienced Italian helming combination got indignant protests from the Brits as they pushed the boats and the rules to the absolute limit.

Some of us have seen this movie before – San Francisco in the 2013 America’s Cup—in which Jimmy Spithill used very aggressive tactics in the start box in the final week of the regatta, leaving the Kiwis bereft and bewildered.

The conditions in that decade-old regatta were similar to today in Barcelona – a fresh breeze which kept triggering the upper wind limit – and it rewarded fast, hard, and aggressive driving. It’s not a place for the faint-hearted.

The British crew called several “protests.” All were “green flagged” by the booth umpires for the simple reason that the Italian boat kept clear, if indeed it was the give-way boat.

In the backend of yet another green-flagged incident, INEOS skipper Ben Ainslie called, “This is a joke, umpires.”

On the Italian boat, all discussion was very calm, level, and about what had to happen next.

After the race, in the Mixed Zone, Spithill was asked about his reaction to the Brits’ on-the-water protestations: “I won’t be losing too much sleep over it.”

Unlike his rules coach, Ben Ainslie seemed to be more philosophical about the push and shove. “It’s pretty full on when you’re doing 47 knots and are within 10 to 20 metres of the other yacht trying to judge whether you should be gybing or not. I guess that’s why we go racing: because we want to be pushed to the limit, and we were certainly pushing it to the limit today.”

Addressing specific questions on the always excellent Inside Tack about interacting with the Umpiring team, Ian Williams, the Brits’ rules coach said he’s already spoken with the Chief Umpire about the umpiring decisions.

“I’ve spoken to him to get his first reaction. But they [the umpiring team] are also having a debrief about whether they are happy with the decisions or not or whether …
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