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Louis Vuitton Cup Final: INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa ready for action
The Louis Vuitton Cup Final has all the makings of an epic contest and it looks as though the early weather could be epic too. But who will win the right to sail the America's Cup?
Tomorrow, Thursday 26 May INEOS Britannia and Luna Rossa Prada Prielli will face off in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final to see which of these two teams will earn the right to take on Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th America’s Cup.
The head-to-head is a repeat of the 2021 Prada Cup, when INEOS was beaten by Luna Rossa, who in turn went on to lose to the Kiwis in the Cup. That Prada Cup final was something of a whitewash with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli beating the Brits 7-1 in the series.
But this Final feels different in that the teams appear much more closely matched. That is something few would have said a month ago with INEOS underperforming in the Preliminary regatta and Luna Rossa looking by far the strongest challenger. But INEOS has looked significantly improved since the Preliminary regatta and Luna Rossa had a tougher time in the Semi-Final than some suspected.
The Louis Vuitton Final is a best of 13 series (first to seven wins) with two races scheduled per day from Thursday 26 September, with reserve days on Friday 27 September, Monday 30 September, and Thursday 3 October.
As such it is possible that the racing could be concluded by Tuesday provided all eight races can be sailed between now and then, but that would require total domination from one of these teams, which seems unlikely. Racing will then continue throughout the following week until one team gets to seven race wins.
In theory if both teams win six races each – and there are no days lost in the schedule, Saturday 5 October will see a winner awarded.
Britannia has looked impressive in the breezier conditions. Photo: Ricardo Pinto / America’s Cup
Louis Vuitton Cup Final weather
So far the weather in Barcelona has been difficult to read with a number of days being too light for racing to go ahead, despite forecasts for decent wind. This instability is expected in the forecast at this time of year as the thermal enhancement of the wind is significantly reduced by the relatively warm sea and cooler land as the autumn draws in.
The expectation is that the closer we get to October the thermal breeze will become less of a feature. Surprisingly, though, the average wind strength increases as INOES’ Tom Cheney explained for us in his piece on America’s Cup weather:
‘The thermal influence of the Garbí diminishes as the temperature drops. Generally this leads to lighter south-west winds. However, the Garbinada is a stronger south-west wind, driven by westerly component gradient wind. This synoptic wind parallels the coast to become south-west or south-south-west. These windier days may bring up the average wind strength.’
And for the Louis Vuitton Cup Final the opening days of the regatta look to...
Director and Sales Coach at Young Henrys
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