Letter from America's Cup #5 - Tomorrow is another day by Mark Covell
Published 22:08 on 30 Sep 2024
Photo credit Ian Roman / Americas Cup
I'm writing this having just left the INEOS team base here in Barcelona, where I watched races 6 & 7 of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals from the comfy seats of the Grenadier Arms - a hospitable little pub in the corner of the base for the use of family and friends. It is filled with lots of patriotic icons and Britishness that stir up proud sentiments guaranteed to increase maximum flag waving rate. I'm sure Queen Victoria would have loved it.
The dock out was even more impressive. A few hundred British boating Barmy-Army assembled on the dock ready for the team's theme song to drop, timed exactly for 12:13 Fatboy Slim's classic "Right Here, Right Now" anthemic riff started to ramp up. It was time, time to go, right here right now back into battle. The same routine repeated every day.
At the same time over on the other side of Barcelona's sprawling port, Luna Rossa's sailing Salami-Army were doing the same to Italian singer and songwriter Gala's "Freed from Desire." Air horns were now blasting out from every superyacht like an elephantine vuvuzela orchestra on cup final day. Both teams going through the same routine, wishing and wanting the same outcome. So evenly matched with so much at stake.
After the racing I found myself feeling punch drunk from the emotional roller-coaster I'd just been on. I'm sure my heady intoxication was nothing to do with the several glasses of chilled Nyetimber sparkling wine that had just slipped down while watching the one win and a loss to Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. My head was spinning faster than a cyclor's knees in a pre-start. So many conflicting emotions, yes we can do it, after all we have just notched up 3 big points on the scoreboard. Hang on a minute so has Luna Rossa. Each team are sailing brilliantly, constantly pushing each other to force an error. I said it would be close and annoyingly I was right.
As Scarlett O'Hara once said 'Tomorrow is another day.' Let's just hope that INEOS Britannia is the faster boat: 'gone with the wind' to break the deadlock and win the seven points required for Louis Vuitton Cup victory.