America’s Cup 2017 @Bermuda, Louis Vuitton Semi Finals: TNZ Capsized forced by Ainslie’s perfect Start

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Photo Gilles Martin-Raget Live – A capsized forced clearly by Ainslie at the Start, both stopped with BAR holding NZ, Ainslie called for a huge from zero speed bareaway and the British team got it right, followed by Burling, New Zealand AC50 got too high on the foils and the forced bareaway ended with a frontal pitch, all crews OK gladly.

Bruling did not decided to bareaway from a stopped position, one of the most critical maneuvers in catsailing, thus is a forced ‘error’ (hard to avoid in that wind range). Watch the capsize footage by ACEA above , capsize goes immediately after or in the process of finishing the bareaway.
Again, glad no one was hurt.

Feel for Burling, Glenn and the entire Team New Zealand crew, but they will return stronger.
His press conference after the capsize embedded below too.

We wrote the other day Ainslie was going to put on a fight, an ‘error’ for Burling quite forced by Ainslie putting pressure on the start on a +21knots day.
Perfect timing, perfect start and even better bareaway by Ben Ainlie and the British Team.

Tough day on the water for the four teams, tension was felt from here. For those of us sailing cats , we could relate in a way on the tough conditions, needless to remark it’s another game altogether , these guys are flying 50knots on the AC50s..

JPN vs SWE
On the other races  Barker, Draper & team Japan went for it, speeding as always but in total control.
Artemis had some issues controlling the boat on starboard tack, being remarked and I saw too the Nathan was trimming the grip which controls mainfoil rake, but seemed not to respond.
First race was a win for Team JPN.

In second race Artemis followed through literally straight out of the boundaries as they couldn´t bareaway. From that one it was Barker in control.
The jury applied two accumulative penalties for Artemis on the boundary and not slowing down, but instead of 4 boat lenghts the time down lasted for ages, it was like 20? boat legnhts  on the time they needed to liberate themselves of the infraction.
Percy went Nuts, and with a reason in my view.

TNZ vs BAR Race 1
Ainslie ahead from the start, with more control than NZ, but the Kiwis came back and won a great race, seeing the races today was a special experience as you could felt the atmosphere and climate in each team, knowing how hard is to sail cats in the breeze , not even to start thinking on driving those monsters, made many of us to watch in high expectation and feeling the nerves of the sailors at Bermuda.

It was a win for NZ, a key one for sure, as the second race ended quickly on their start capsize.
BAR looked good in those conditions, plenty of control and small speed deficit maybe vs NZ.

In the end Hats off for Barker , Draper & Team JPN crew, and the rest of the teams and sailors surviving the conditions outhere today. It was a tough day on the water.

Results and Overall standing for the LV Semi Finals.
JPN 1 vs SWE 0
TNZ 1 vs BAR 0
JPN 1 vs SWE 0
BAR 1 vs TNZ – Capsized on the start

Semis overall
Softbank Japan 3 vs Artemis 1
Emirates New Zealand 3 vs  LandRover BAR 1

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