Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli leads the Louis Vuitton Cup: how the first selection races went

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli is a great protagonist in Barcelona where the first Round Robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup has come to an end and the Italian boat is solidly at the top of the Challenger selection race leaderboard and also in the one that includes Emirates Team New Zealand with whom they are tied on points: nice to see them racing but a bit of a mess. Let's start with them: after the magical night in which they repaired the boat that had fallen off the crane, they appeared on the course as usual determined to win. And of course they did.

There were two races on Sunday with Alinghi Red Bull Racing failing to make it to the race course in time after a minor mast incident and American Magic looking like they could beat them for half the race. Did the Kiwis play cat and mouse? American helmsman Tom Slingsby says: 'The Kiwis on flat water are very fast. They suffer a little from the wave'. It seems that the two strongest and most proven teams, the Kiwis and the Italians, do not always use their speed. 'We are happy with our speed,' says helmsman Checco Bruni, 'maybe we have a small advantage with waves. We don't really have much of a chance to change our times and we can improve in the details and the way we carry the boat.

Checco is referring to the possibility of changing wings above all. Luna Rossa also beat Alinghi Red Bull Racing with a practice closed in a few edges. At the start Luna Rossa chose to enter at high speed and to the left and then use its 'high mode' (tighten the angle with the wind) to push Alinghi to tack and overtake. The Swiss team ended this not-so-happy weekend for Red Bull with zero points and they are in a position that to be honest does not reflect the investment and energy put in. Before the start, they were the victim of a small but annoying incident: the mainsail came out of its housing, breaking it and a flying repair was required before they could start. What they are using, after two breakages in training, is the best mast they have. So the fight for survival is between them and Orient Express: the French have won the head-to-head match, thus winning their only point. Once again the match they have between them on Tuesday for the opening of the second round robin will count for a lot, which could also affect the crews psychologically.  

In second place in the challenger selection count is Ineos Britannia the boat of the Royal Yacht Squadron (the one where the America's Cup was born). It seems that at last Sir Ben Ainslie, who leads the team ashore and at sea, has found a way to make use of his proverbial talent. Yesterday he beat the very French who fought for a long time before giving in. They even took the lead. American Magic is travelling in an alternating current, strong with the Kiwis but with only two wins in the bag against the two weakest teams at the moment, the Swiss and the French. The team that embodies the New York Yacht Club's dreams of bringing the Cup back to America does not seem far from the semifinals even if it might have some thoughts.

Racing after Monday's rest day resumes on Tuesday. After the meeting between the French and the Swiss it will be the turn of Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli, a meeting without a point for the selections but very important for the psychology of the crews.
As far as the selection is concerned, the former could choose his direct opponent for the semifinal phase next Sunday: "I am not sure if it is good to have the right to choose, because it is also a responsibility," said Checco Bruni. "In my career it has often happened to me to win the Round Robins, choose an opponent that I considered weak and then end up defeated. True, but here we are not playing as in match racing with one-designs, but with different boats, where differences in speed in relation to the weather forecast can be decisive.