By Alexander Smith
BARCELONA (Reuters) -Britain piled the pressure on Italy in their fight to be challenger for the America’s Cup on Wednesday, clinching two tight races in “knife edge” sea conditions to go within one point of winning the first-to-seven Louis Vuitton Cup series.
Against the backdrop of huge Italian and British flags flying over their bases in Barcelona, both AC75 ‘foiling’ boats were bounced around in choppy seas, hitting speeds of more than 50 knots at times in a stiff Mediterranean breeze.
“It’s great, good effort from the team … It’s bloody hard to sail these boats in these waves,” British co-helm Ben Ainslie said on the America’s Cup live broadcast after the second win, which took Britain to a 6-4 lead.
The winners of this series get to challenge defenders New Zealand for the coveted America’s Cup later this month.
“Still a long way to go … still got to get to seven,” said the 47-year-old Briton with a smile.
Ainslie’s crew survived one scare when their boat touched down into the water before recovering its flight, giving the Italians a chance to get back into the race, but then managing to defend their lead, speeding downwind on the course.
“We’ll come out the next day swinging,” said Italy’s co-helm Jimmy Spithill, who acknowledged a strong sail by the British, adding: “We just couldn’t get enough to get an overtake”.
In the first race, Britain built on an early lead after a scrap with Italy in the “pre-start”, which is critical to getting a clean start and potentially crucial advantage, and then capitalised on one bad tack by the Italians.
During the second, the teams were neck-and-neck off the start, with Britain building an early advantage and controlling the race with calm communication between Ainslie and co-helm Dylan Fletcher as they watched out for rogue waves.
(Reporting by Alexander Smith; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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