The America's Cup: Tension palpable on eve of Louis Vuitton Cup

And rightly so, for the five Challenger teams everything is on the line now, with every race and every point counting – plus the brutal reality that at the end of the upcoming eight-day double Round Robin series, one Challenger will be eliminated.

Sir Ben Ainslie, CEO of the Challenger of Record, INEOS Britannia, really put it in context and knows that three-and-a-half years of work now comes down to on-water performance, accuracy and execution: “It’s starting to get serious in a hurry. We’re now racing for keeps. We’ve been through the Preliminary Regatta, which was a great opportunity for all the teams to size up against each other, certainly a huge amount of learnings for all the teams, but now each point counts and you’ve got to make it work.”

Tom Slingsby, helmsman for NYYC American Magic, who steered ‘Patriot’ to a morale-boosting final race win against Emirates Team New Zealand, reflected on the Louis Vuitton Preliminary Regatta, but also recognised the jeopardy that all the Challengers now face, saying: “It was really interesting for us to see all the teams, the strengths and weaknesses, and it’s quite interesting to see how you stack up. As for us at American Magic, I think we showed our potential in a couple of races and then in others we fell a bit below that. We’ve got to be realistic; we can’t let that happen when the points count.”

Whilst NYYC American Magic had a significant breakdown when a hydraulic cylinder failed on their rudder rake system, it was Jimmy Spithill, the helmsman of the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli campaign, who made the point that reliability could be a factor for all the teams. “Look, it counts now. There’s no more practice. I think the whole fleet has had a reliability issue at some point, whether through the Preliminary Regatta or through some of the media practice days, so it’s on everyone’s minds. But you have to understand that these boats are literally on the edge. We push these things very, very, hard and they are incredible machines, so it comes part and parcel with the very edge of technology and pushing things hard.”

With Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli seen by some as the leading Challenger at this point by dint of their results and overall performance in the Preliminary Regatta, Spithill was keen to acknowledge just how difficult the racing is set to be from here on, saying: “I think what the Preliminary Regatta showed was that everyone had their moments, everyone went out and won races, but at the same time, there were mistakes through all the teams, and it showed. If you made too many mistakes you will be punished for them, you will lose that race – and everyone has experienced that.”

Arnaud Psarofaghis, helmsman and skipper of the Swiss team Alinghi Red Bull Racing, meanwhile suggested that the Swiss had adopted a slightly different and methodical approach for the Louis Vuitton Cup, saying: “I think we just need to make the cut, and the goal for us is to win as many races as we need to go to the next stage. Mainly just through every race we want to make sure that we take one step forward, to progress and avoid the mistakes we made last week where we had a good game plan but a few mistakes put us on the back foot. This week we are just going to go out there the way we know to sail the boat and just really push hard, and if we manage to make a good start, we can win any race.”

Text and images courtesy of The America’s Cup. Read the full release at americascup.com.