Alinghi is not performing as hoped in the 2024 America's Cup campaign off Barcelona. The Swiss sailors are not keeping up with the world's best in their field.
In the 5-2 defeat in the semi-finals against Britannia in the Challenger Series, the challengers' cup, it was not only the clear verdict that disappointed, but also the way in which the result came about. Overall, the Swiss sailors made too many mistakes.
The high-tech yacht fell off the foils more than once, the star British skipper and four-time Olympic champion Sir Ben Ainslie gave the Romands a tactical lesson or two, and the maneuvers were often not executed perfectly.
Defending champions New Zealand have put a stop to mercenarism for the 2024 America's Cup. The boat crew for the Swiss syndicate consisted of 14 Swiss nationals. This put Alinghi Red Bull Racing at a disadvantage. Switzerland does not (yet) have a pool of sufficiently experienced people in the key positions on the boat, especially the two helmsmen who steer the boat.
The races before Barcelona show that all teams make mistakes. At speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, everything happens very quickly. But the Alinghi crew made more mistakes than other teams.
Was it also down to the yacht?
The extent to which the boat builders were partly to blame for Alinghi's early out cannot be clearly determined. This would have required an exchange of boats between the semi-finalists. Good work was certainly done in Ecublens, where Alinghi's boatyard is located. This is shown by the victory against the French, who bought the New Zealanders' AC75 foiler from 2021. Alinghi's engineers started from scratch and built a boat that outperformed the top version of the previous America's Cup. Not everyone would have managed that.
On the other hand, they didn't make the big leap, if that is even possible with the current regulations. But some of the competitors probably managed to get one or two percent more out of their boat, the sails or the foils.
Will the next campaign follow?
The America's Cup 2024 is likely to have cost Ernesto Bertarelli and the sponsors over 100 million francs. The partners therefore intend to learn the lessons from this investment and be the first contender for the America's Cup in the next campaign. Whether this will happen depends on more than just the Swiss and Austrians. The winner of the America's Cup off Barcelona will largely determine the rules for the 38th edition.
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