Another cheap point for Luna Rossa

Further shadow boxing in the Louis Vuitton Cup

The Louis Vuitton Cup shadow boxing continues with Luna Rossa on this occasion lining up against her invisible opponent, Artemis Racing, who - you guessed it - is still screwing their new boat together over at their base in Alameda, allowing the Italian team to get a second easy point on the board. More surprising is that in a face saving move ACEA has chosen to stop the live YouTube broadcasts of these one boat bouts, which is a shame as despite the flack the organisers are getting for the absurdity of running a three boat round robin series schedule with two boats, a lot of us observers are still enjoying seeing the extraordinary AC72s sailing along up on their foils (as well as commentators Andy Green and Tucker Thompson struggling to find things to say.) Still not bored of that and may never be.... 

The racing today took place in the lightest winds seen so far in this Louis Vuitton Cup. The southwesterly wind peaked at only 13 knots but was more typically 8 to 10 knots. Despite this the Italian crew completed the five-leg, 9.21-mile course in 43 minutes, 6 seconds at an average speed of 17.66 knots. Her top speed of 26.37 knots was on the first downwind leg, despite the wind being sub-10 knots.

On the day’s race in light winds: “Today was one of the few days with really light conditions, which is unexpected here in San Francisco. We have to get used to it because we could race in this condition in the future, but we want to maximize our time on the water.”

On the performance of the AC72: “Racing in 4 to 5 knots of windspeed isn’t exciting, but at least with the AC72 you move. With the old boats today we might’ve been swept out under the Golden Gate Bridge in the ebb tide. There were some points where we performed very well.”

On Thursday Emirates Team New Zealand lines up with her invisible opponent. The next two boat match race will take place on Sunday when Luna Rossa lines up with Emirates Team New Zealand for the final match of Round Robin 3 and, if the pace isn't getting too frantic for you, again on Tuesday, 23 July for the first match of RR4.

Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena said: “We will try to sail as much as possible, hopefully tomorrow is windy day. We want to be in better conditions for the race Sunday against the Kiwis.”

More photos from Luna Rossa/Studio Borlenghi/Borlenghi-Buttò