Team Performance Comparisons: Louis Vuitton Cup RR 1 and 2

Also: See LVC Round Robin 1 Only Statistics

*The analysis above is based only on the "completed" legs of Rounds Robin 1 and 2, with completed defined as a race leg where both boats sailed the entire leg to the next mark. Excluded are: races where one team Did Not Start (DNS); and the legs from Did Not Finish (DNF) or one competitor Disqualifed (DSQ) races where both boats did not complete the leg.

A couple RR1 observations, team by team:

Orient Express Racing (FRA):
France is improving, but still their performance favors upwind over downwind. Crew have also admitted that match racing skills are a concern in some situations. Standing out is their lower percentage of converting early leads to wins.

INEOS Team Britannia (GBR):
INEOS has been executing well. Their upwind versus downwind compeitive profile is close to balanced, similar to leaders ITa and NZL. Surprisingly their percentage of leading at any mark is third lowest at 42% after 6 races sailed.

Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli (ITA):
LRPP had the strongest performance in RR1 and continuing into the second RR; the statisitcs show their dominance in nearly all facets. Only New Zealand comes close.

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL):
The NZL statisitcs need a bit a nuance. The defender is widely regarded as not showing all their cards this early in the game, and the new yacht is beleived to be using an older set of sails. Even still, their numbers are solid, leading at a high percetnate of roundings, gaining nearly efvenly upwind and downwind, and protecting early leads well.

Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI):
Alinghi is showing better results in the RR2 races, just in time to give them a lifeline. After starting well, they have held onto early leads and won. Strong match racing execution helped them stay in front of USA in their RR2 race.

NYYC American Magic (USA):
American Magic shows a lot of speed upwind, but that doesn't show up in the numbers, and they actually have made more gains on downwind legs than upwind legs. Not starting well is a huge hole to be in with these short races and tight courses, and there are races they probably could have won if starting ahead.

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Limitations:
Not all teams faced the same combination of opponents or sailing conditions.

In any case this is a small sample size, and individual decisions about sail selection or tactics are built into the results, not just design and boat tuning. Of course, it takes the entire package to win.

So this is not a comprehensive or even-handed sample, but it does summarize some of the performance in the RR stage to date, revealing patterns in how the teams are sailing, and suggests competitive aspects to keep in mind during RR2.

Additionally, the comparision in only completed legs (which simplifies some of the calculations) does not include some legs where a team's performance might affect the statistics. USA particularly sailed well against FRA, while the race was stopped before FRA finished leg 5, so two legs USA sailed well are not counted here.