Good news comes via WhatsApp in the America’s Cup. “The boat is ready for you,” wrote Max Sirena, skipper of Luna Rossa, to Francesco Bruni, one of the team’s helmsmen, on Thursday morning a few hours before the last day of the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals. The pilot smiled and got up convinced that the comeback of the American Magic (United States), which turned a four-nil into a critical four-three, would end there. And so it did. The Italian team was a whirlwind against the Americans in the afternoon and qualified for the final of the competition that gives access to the Match final where Team New Zealand awaits its rival. Five to three. Now it will have to face Ineos Britannia (United Kingdom) starting on Thursday 26th in the best of 13 races. Whoever achieves seven victories will be the Challenger of the New Zealanders, the defending champions.
Luna Rossa was in a cold sweat on Wednesday. While dominating the seventh race of the semi-finals (the last of the day), a fault in the mainsail car caused the boat to lose its flight. The crew was unable to repair the problem on the water and, 24 hours before the last day of the two final rounds, they retired. “I felt a little insecure throughout the afternoon,” Bruni admitted to EL PAÍS.
Teams have to repair their structural problems within the time allowed by the racing calendar. A few weeks ago, Team New Zealand spent almost 48 hours straight repairing the bow hull of their boat after it fell off the crane that was transporting it. The damage was significant, but the New Zealanders had a margin of opportunity because they were qualified for the final and did not have to compete. For the Italians, the problem was time. With American Magic two wins away from a comeback, they either fixed the car or went home.
The helmsman went to bed on Wednesday with the technical team still working. “The guys gave me good news before I went to bed, but the fault was not fixed yet,” he explains. The workers worked all night and in the early hours of the morning he passed the weighing test that the organisation carries out to ensure that the boats comply with the regulations. When he woke up, he saw the message from Sirena. “It was a great relief,” he explains.
On the waters off Barcelona, the team was a whirlwind. The return of the wind swept away the bad luck, the doubts, the breakdowns and the agony that had gripped Luna Rossa in the previous days. It was enough to hear the shouts of joy and the blows on the hull of the AC75 that the sailors let out when they crossed the finish line to understand what was happening inside the transalpine team. Pride, doubts, fear. Liberation. “Psychologically it was very, very difficult,” Bruni himself admitted just after finishing the race, with the final score of five to three.
The Italians led the race throughout and occupied the areas with the highest wind pressure from the start on a day that was finally windy. Once ahead of American Magic, Bruni and Jimmy Spithill, his teammate at the helm, set about reducing their lead with a spectacular penultimate leg in which they left their rival behind for good.
After the shocks of the last few days, when their AC75 lost its flight (the worst situation for a flying boat, which cannot get up again without wind) and suffered a breakdown, the victory puts Luna Rossa back in its natural place. Finalist in the 2021 America’s Cup (lost 7-3 to Team New Zealand), it came into the competition as one of the big favourites.
The Italian project, supported by Patrizio Bertelli, the multimillionaire owner of Prada, has years of experience in a competition where technology and boat design play a fundamental role in the real chances of victory. “The day I take the America’s Cup to Italy, then I will rest; but until that day comes I will not stop,” the team’s skipper, Max Sirena, confessed months ago to EL PAÍS. The two teams entered in the Barcelona edition that did not participate in the 2021 competition in New Zealand, the Orient Express (France) and the Alinghi Red Bull Racing (Switzerland), were the first to fall in Barcelona, which validates the idea that prior learning in the world’s biggest sailing competition is essential to find the secret to success. “Now we need to rest a little,” smiles Bruni, always with an optimistic message, even if it does not come by WhatsApp.
