Americans, Swiss snatch lifeline in Louis Vuitton Cup
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American and Swiss teams both won a race to keep clinging on in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals.
BARCELONA (AFP) – The American and Swiss teams both won a race to keep clinging on in the Louis Vuitton Cup semi-finals on Monday amid tricky sailing conditions.
With the British and Italian teams holding 4-0 leads on the Swiss and Americans respectively in the first-to-five semis, the struggling outfits both scored one point each before racing was stopped due to a lack of wind.
The eventual Louis Vuitton Cup winner will face double defending champions Emirates Team New Zealand in the 37th America's Cup final in October.
The first battle between Switzerland's Alinghi Red Bull Racing and Ineos Britannia was delayed after failing the wind-limit.
The British carved out a lead of over a minute but fell off the foils on the first tack of the second leg and the Swiss capitalised.
The Swiss later fell off the foils themselves but just beat the race time-limit of 45 minutes to score a point as they crawled home.
"It was a quite interesting race, the guys did a good job fighting all the way, and then we got lucky on one puff and it was really nice," said Alinghi helmsman Arnaud Psarofaghis.
"Of course we want to cross the finishing line at 45 knots but it's ok if not, if it's a win, we'll take it."
The second race between New York Yacht Club American Magic and Italy's Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli also suffered a delay to allow wind to build.
A close battle was decided when the Italians fell off the foils when they made a bold move to try and force the Americans into suffering a penalty.
"It was clearly the wrong call, I didn't look well at the software (computer)... I'm very sorry," admitted Luna Rossa helmsman Francesco Bruni.
American Magic were delighted to stop the rot after four consecutive defeats.
"It feels really good, it's been tough -- they've been just knocking us off for four races straight," said Magic's helmsman Tom Slingsby.
"We know we can do it and it's good to prove it. The boat's feeling good."
Racing is due to continue on Wednesday.
