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Australian sailing legend Jimmy Spithill has announced his retirement. 

Spithill, who served as co-helmsman for Luna Rossa, dropped the bombshell following Luna Rossa’s 7-4 Louis Vuitton Cup loss to Ineos Britannia in Barcelona. 

“I really think I’m at the end of the line now,” he said. “I think this will be it for me. It’s probably time the gloves are hung up.” 

Spithill was part of the Cup’s greatest comeback – when Oracle retrieved a 8-1 deficit to beat Team New Zealand in 2013. 

Meanwhile, as Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli made their way back to base this morning, port helmsman Francesco Bruni couldn’t help but consider what could have been. 

The British crew came into the day needing just one match point in the best-of-13 series to book their ticket into the Cup match. 

Back when the regatta all began with the round-robins in August, Luna Rossa was coming in as one of the favourites to be the team to come out of the challenger series based on the speed and performance they had shown in testing, training and in the preliminary regatta at the race venue earlier in the August. 

But as the curtain came down on their campaign this morning, Bruni lamented what might have been a missed opportunity. 

“It’s very, very hard. Trust me,” Bruni said of being eliminated from the regatta. 

“I think we had all the cards to be in the America’s Cup final and to have a chance in the America’s Cup final, but we didn’t deliver a good finals so Ineos deserve the win and hat’s off to them.” 

Luna Rossa’s campaign in the challenger series was a mixed one. They had moments of brilliance and impressed in their semifinal against American Magic, but lost two races in the final by disqualification due to technical issues, while the conditions – windier and bumpier than most were expecting to get at this time of the year in Barcelona – looked to have gotten the better of them a couple of times. 

Through the first eight races of the final against Ineos Britannia, the Italians found themselves chasing the scoreboard everyday bar the first; a 1-0 lead was the only time they led the series. 

When the tie was levelled at 4-4, Ineos Britannia starboard helmsman Sir Ben Ainslie said something would have to give sooner or later, and the Brits went on to win the next three races. 

This morning’s final race was a classy display of match racing from the Brits, who made a great start, found the lead early and defended it to the end; warding off a couple of charges from the Italians in the later legs of the race. 

“It’s obviously a very tough moment, for me personally, but for the whole team,” Bruni said. 

“I think we did an amazing job as a team and we just didn’t deliver it in these finals. 

“I’m very proud of how we’ve done and I just want to thank everybody on this team. They’ve done a fantastic job really.” 

Ineos Britannia’s series win means it will be the second defence in a row that Team New Zealand will meet the team with whom they put together the protocol, with the British replacing the Italians as Challenger of Record after the 2021 edition in Auckland. 

The teams will have a week to make any final preparations now, with the Cup match set to begin on October 13 (NZ time). 

There will still be some action in Barcelona over the next few days, with the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup beginning tomorrow morning. 

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.