`They've been the fastest challenger downwind,” said OneWorld skipper Peter Gilmour. In 22 races throughout the Louis Vuitton Cup series, Prada gained time on 39 of 60 downwind legs. It would happen again.

The two boats took off down the run on port jibe with full-size symmetric spinnakers flying in the 16- to 18-knot winds. After more than seven minutes of sailing, Prada jibed to starboard. OneWorld continued for another minute before jibing, to avoid Prada’s disturbed air.

Despite its positioning, OneWorld had no defence. Prada simply sailed right over the top and into the lead. The Italian yacht gained 13 seconds on the 3-mile run.

OneWorld would retake the lead on the next beat, but Prada gained 2 seconds on the ensuing run. Then 23 seconds on the run to the finish. Although OneWorld won the race, Prada had a downwind speed advantage that had to be addressed. It even affected OneWorld’s thinking in the second race.

“These guys are very clever with the wind,” said OneWorld tactician Charlie McKee after the second race, which OneWorld lost on the third and final beat. “We got our lead basically by playing the wind well and we definitely made a mistake on the last beat and didn’t shift into closer covering mode as we got later in the race. But, given our young history with them and them having passed us twice on the downwinds yesterday, we weren’t that keen to have them ramming right on our stern as well.”

After that second race, OneWorld made a mode change. They won’t comment specifically on what was done, but to increase downwind speed teams can fit a smaller rudder, smaller ballast-bulb wings or smaller trim tab, which help reduces drag downwind. Or, they might’ve re-ballasted to increase sail area.

“We were happy with our mode change, we think it was a good decision,” said navigator Kevin Hall. “But I think we also learned from some of the other pairs on ways to approach close racing downwind and it felt like we picked up our game quite a bit there tactically and that made a difference as well.”

In the end, OneWorld solved Prada’s downwind advantage and surpassed it. When racing resumed after three days of postponements due to too much wind, OneWorld was on fire. They won Races 4 and 5 back-to-back to take a 3-1 series lead against Prada.

(Overall OneWorld’s two victories were wins three and four, but OneWorld was penalised one point by the America’s Cup Arbitration Panel for violations of the Protocol, meaning it had to win five races to advance.)

In those races over the shorter Bravo course, a 12.5-mile windward/leeward consisting of two laps, OneWorld gained time on seven of the eight legs raced. Although they lost 12 seconds on one of the runs, they gained 65 seconds on the other three. They won the two races by a combined 3 minutes, 30 seconds.

“We realized we could round quite comfortably two lengths in front of them, but they could gain 10 to 12 seconds on us, which is about three lengths,” said Gilmour. “We had to find a way to manage our style downwind relative to theirs. We looked at different races to try and understand their strengths and weaknesses.”

Downwind aside, OneWorld seemed to enjoy an advantage over Prada. Afterguard members for both teams say the teams were fairly even upwind, but the American yacht only lost time on one upwind leg before the last, lopsided race (a 17-minute victory for Prada). And that was when they lost the lead to Prada by failing to cover on the last beat of Race 2.

On the start line, OneWorld’s James Spithill was his usual stellar self. He didn’t win every start, four of five, but he also didn’t want to. On most occasions he was more concerned with starting to the right of Prada than actually leading off the line.

“Sure, you want to try and win every start, but you’ve got to remember the long term goal,” said Spithill. “If you can have confidence in your weather team and the guys behind you, you can think a bit more long term. A lot of credit goes to the weather team. They did a fantastic job. The afterguard did a great job in calling what they want off the line, and it’s paid off.”

There’s a simple adage in America’s Cup racing: The fastest boat wins. At the beginning of the series OneWorld wasn’t faster downwind versus Prada, but they found a way to overcome their disadvantage.

OneWorld meets Oracle BMW Racing in the Semi Final Repechage Round beginning Friday.

Source: Sean McNeill