Ben Ainslie pleased the local fans, winning the storm-shortened first event in the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series. Winds over 30 knots and rough conditions kept the one-design AC45F foiling cats off the race course on the scheduled second day of racing, Sunday 26 July 2015. That meant Ainslie’s bullet in Race 1 and second place in Race 2 gave him the win for the event. It also generated lots of smiles on the stage as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge presented medals and the trophy at the prize-giving, which was moved indoors due to the weather. Before the storm rolled in, Portsmouth showed on Saturday how to hold a festival around a regatta, with crowds enjoying an airshow and foiling Moths before the racing and concerts afterwards.

Emirates Team New Zealand showed that they remain a force to be reckoned with, taking second place with a third and a bullet, to finish second at the event. Peter Burling mixed it up with Jimmy Spithill at the last mark in Race 1, gybing onto port and into the mark room he was entitled to as the inside boat, with Spithill roaring in on starboard. Oracle Team USA were able to maintain more speed around the mark and went past ETNZ to finish second in that race and claim the last spot on the event podium.

Frank Cammas and Groupama Team France showed no hesitation to have a go at OTUSA, throwing a hard luff at Spithill at the start of Race 2, handing OTUSA a penalty. Their third place in Race 2 got the French into fourth overall for the event – a promising beginning for the campaign and a nice way of thanking Groupama for their recent sponsorship.

The newest challenger, SoftBank Team Japan, brought a highly experienced lineup with Dean Barker, Jero Lomas and Derek Saward, all ex-ETNZ, joined by former Luna Rossa helm Chris Draper trimming the wing. The only newcomer to the AC45 was bowman “Fuku” Sofuku. They finished fifth for the event, ahead of the team with the least experience in an AC45F, Artemis Racing. Most of Artemis’s hours on the water since 2013 have been spent in their AC45 “Turbo” test boat.

Could the top and bottom of the leaderboard at the LVACWS in Portsmouth have illustrated different development strategies more than sailing team performance? Land Rover BAR won the event; Artemis Racing place a disappointing last. We have only two races to look at, but it’s interesting to make a few observations. Artemis have been focused on their AC45-based “Turbo” test boat – wider than the one design AC45F and equipped with wheel steering, cockpits, grinding pedestals and far more advanced wing and foil control systems. And with no Code Zero. A faulty halyard lock left the Artemis crew wrestling with the big sail at the end of the second downwind leg in Race 2. Land Rover BAR have been training in their more conservative “T1” test boat – with dimensions and ergonomics almost identical to the AC45F. Like Artemis, Oracle Team USA built a test boat with little resemblance to the AC45F and they finished in the middle of the pack. None of the other three teams even has a test boat, but the crews from Emirates Team New Zealand, Groupama Team France and Softbank Team Japan all came with plenty of AC45 racing experience. All of them finished ahead of Artemis and ETNZ finished ahead of third-place OTUSA.

Does this mean anything for the racing for the Auld Mug in 2017? It might. Focusing on design concepts for the fifty foot “America’s Cup Class” yacht that will match race in 2017 might pay off more handsomely than winning the LVACWS one-design fleet races in 2015 and 2016. However, standings at the end of the LVACWS will give bonus points going in to the round robin phase in 2017, and will be used to break ties at the end of the round robin, possibly determining which challengers are eliminated before the semi-finals. If the round robin ends with two teams tied for first, the one with the better LVACWS score will get the bonus point available to carry into the America’s Cup Match itself.

Oh, one more observation: videos of training incidents in the AC45F have shown Ben Ainslie somersault through the air and get thrown against the forward crossbeam after burying the bows at speed. An OTUSA nose dive smashed bowman Louis Sinclair against the daggerboard and left him staggering before dropping onto the trampoline netting. In another incident, OTUSA’s Kyle Langford gets shaken up by taking a nasty knock to the head crashing into the center spine. With no cockpits, sitting on the hull of an AC45F at foiling speed looks like a potentially dangerous place to be.