‘3D chess at 100kph’: Why America’s Cup battle is raging on start line

Strategy before start has proved to be vital not just in America’s Cup but throughout preceding challenger series

It is no coincidence Ineos Britannia won both pre-starts on Wednesday and went on to win both races, reigniting their America’s Cup hopes in the process, clawing their way back from 4-0 to 4-2 down in their first-to-seven series against New Zealand.
It has been that way virtually the entire competition, since August’s preliminary regatta; win the start and more often than not you win the race.
“Of course, it’s not as simple as that,” stresses Ian Williams, Ineos’s start coach. “We have seen boats come back from losing the start. We probably ‘won’ the start in Monday’s race [race four], for instance, forcing New Zealand to put in a couple of extra tacks off the left boundary.
“But New Zealand managed to come back and draw level with us on that first leg and go on to win that race.
“But it’s true that when I look at the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, for instance [in which Ineos beat Luna Rossa 7-4], I think there was only one race in which the finish position reversed from what I would consider winning the start. So, yes, it is important.”
Williams is in many ways Ineos’s secret weapon in Barcelona. Or not so secret. The 47-year-old is a seven-time world match racing champion, so he is hardly unknown in sailing circles. But he is not a name with which the wider British public will be familiar.
Make no mistake, though, if Ben Ainslie’s team do come back and win this Cup – and they will attempt to draw level with New Zealand on Friday, with two races scheduled in what are forecast to be breezy, choppy conditions which they should enjoy – the Exeter-born sailor will have played a crucial role.
Ainslie has namechecked Williams after virtually every Ineos win, stressing how vital he has been in terms of their starts. The other sailors in the team have been equally complimentary.
“I think Ian and Dylan [Fletcher, Ainslie’s co-helm] were the two most important signings we made this time around,” cyclor David Carr told Telegraph Sport on Thursday.
It was a quiet day at the Ineos base in Barcelona. Britain and New Zealand both decided against going out on the water. But there was plenty going on behind the scenes, including daily start practice with Williams.
“We have a session every morning in the simulator,” he says of his methods. “Generally we talk about the conditions for the day. Is there anything new that I’ve spotted in my analysis? Are we still on our playbook? Our playbook has to evolve, given the boats and the way we sail them are constantly evolving. After that, we try things out in the simulator.”
The simulator sessions are, says Williams, a vital learning tool for the helms, and Ineos are blessed in this department. With Fletcher having replaced Giles Scott at the 11th hour, Britain’s two helms have a double Olympic champion with loads of experience of sailing AC75s to race against.
“We do 2 v 1,” Williams says. “So, we have Dylan and Ben together, and then Giles on a one-man simulator with a bit more auto-pilot. I don’t think anybody else has got a third helm as strong as Giles. That’s been a huge positive for us in terms of pushing the guys as hard as we have.”
Williams is a fascinating character. Very different to Ainslie. They used to be rivals on the water, although it was Williams who reigned supreme in match racing. Ainslie, whose main focus was the Finn dinghy class, beat Williams to the 2010 world title. Williams won in 2007, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2015.
More than that, though, it is a clash of styles. Whereas the Ineos skipper is aggressive and instinctive, Williams – who just missed out on selection for Sydney 2000, then qualified as a lawyer, only to quit in 2005 to pursue sailing full time – is methodical. 
“I’ve never met anyone as binary as him,” Carr said. “It’s like a spreadsheet. If they do this, you do that, if they do this, you do that. It’s massively helpful to us as cyclors, too, particularly the cyclors who are sailors as well. Because we then have a picture in our heads of what is going on when we’re pedalling away in the cockpit. We can measure our efforts, and more than anything step the power down when we need to. I think before Ben had a picture in his head, but the rest of us didn’t. Now we do.”
Williams might have ended up on an America’s Cup wheel himself had the sport continued with the old International America’s Cup Class. “It moved to catamarans and then foiling boats,” he says. “It was only in Auckland that I think Ben realised I could be useful. I could take some of the knowledge I had from the World Match Racing Tour and convert it into this style of racing.
“I actually think a key part of why I came in was because of the two helmsmen. And trying to bring them together, and sort of agree on some set plays. It’s so important they are on the same page.” It has proved a masterstroke.
Williams has provided clarity and method to one of the most complex areas of match racing. He admits he sees the pre-start as “like a game of chess”. “You can go in with an opening in mind,” he says. “And you might know your first five or six variations after that depending on how your opponent responds. After that it’s more instinctive.”
If it is like chess, it is 3D chess. At 100kph. “True, there is another dimension, which is the conditions,” he says. “Plus our ability to manoeuvre the boats, which is improving constantly, and which in turn brings in different elements. Imagine if in chess they suddenly said the Queen could jump over pieces, or the knight could move diagonally.”
However Williams is preparing Ineos’s sailors, it seems to be working. New Zealand began the Cup match last weekend by winning the first three starts. Williams concedes they had correctly identified a pattern in Ineos’s starts and ruthlessly exploited it. 
“They’d obviously seen us over the last two or three weeks in the challenger series and identified that we favoured tacking and circling from our port entries,” he says. “They tried to line us up on day one and it didn’t really work for them. And then on day two they obviously managed to pick us up, putting a penalty on us. I would still say it was a 50-50 umpire call but it went their way, so you know, good for them. But it could have gone the other way and they wouldn’t have looked so clever. But yes, fair play.”
Williams and Ineos had to go back to the drawing board. The last three starts have been exemplary. Ineos forced New Zealand to fall off their foils in race five, building a 1500-metre lead before the Kiwis managed to get back up. Race six was even better, Ineos escaping from a tight spot to gybe inside the Kiwis and then roll them, hitting the line with way more boat speed. Williams credits Ainslie for that one.
“We have very different styles of match racing,” he says of his old rival. “Ben is able to execute things that I never could. And I think because of that I learnt a different way of match racing, which is a bit more strategic and a bit less aggressive and reactive.
“Yesterday’s start was a great example of a Ben Ainslie start, just picking that moment to gybe. That’s what he used to do to me all the time. But then there are other starts which I would say have more my stamp on them. Hopefully we’ve managed to find the right balance.”
If they can find their way to a couple more wins on Friday, chances are Williams will have played a crucial role.