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Auckland, February 11, 2009
Russell Coutts and Peter Holmberg, two Cup veterans going at each other, hoping to stay alive to another race. Both boats headed to the back of the start box, BMW Oracle coming in behind and to leeward of Luna Rossa and chasing her around the box. A couple of circles later, positions switched, that’s how they crossed the line: BMW Oracle leeward and half a boat length ahead. The margin remained about the same at the top of the beat, Luna Rossa right on the transom of BMW Oracle, both boats staying above the layline. Holmberg tucked in to leeward, gaining the overlap and luffing BMW Oracle just past the mark, a penalty on the Americans. However, Rule 17 dictates that the boat gaining overlap from astern cannot go above their proper course. The result was offsetting penalties: Luna Rossa for going above proper course and BMW Oracle for not keeping clear. Downwind, again Luna Rossa remained tucked in behind BMW Oracle, holding Coutts out above the layline. Coutts decided he could wait no longer and gybed, Luna Rossa stayed put going for the penalty, not for position. Payoff to Luna Rossa: penalty on BMW Oracle for gybing too close. Heading to the mark on starboard gybe, the lead going back and forth, Oracle squeezed out enough to break the overlap, and both went to the right-hand gate mark. BMW Oracle stretched out on the final beat, deciding to go for enough gain to be able to make her penalty turn and keep the lead. Coming to the finish, it looked impossible -- BMW Oracle held a bare 90 meter lead as Coutts began the turn, much less than the minimum sufficient margin LR had when the Italians took their surprising turn at the line to nip China by one second. Oracle went into their turn and seemed to stall for a moment as they came out of the gybe, but somehow Coutts kept the boat moving and crossed the line ahead. If spinnakers were still the measure of finishing , the result may have been different – but on the other hand if spinnakers still counted, Luna Rossa would not be in this match either.… But don’t touch that dial -- Luna Rossa flew their red flag, apparently protesting that BMW Oracle had achieved position in the penalty, but before long, the flag was gone, the result stands. Also on this page:
Luna
Rossa Press Release
Race 2: Quarter-Final: Team Origin (USA 98) vs. Damiani Italia (USA 87) For a change both boats head into a standard dial-up, on starboard. Damiani eventually peeled off to port with Origin right behind. A couple of circles later, Origin headed to the back of the box with Damiani seeming to stall out. Damiani tacked tight on top of Origin coming back, avoided the penalty, but was forced to tack away at the line with Origin close behind. Somehow, Damiani was able to get away on port and Ben Ainslie was left to continue his gybe on the line, a boat length behind at the start. And, as has been seen throughout this regatta, passing is at a high premium. The upstart Italians continued their stomp through this regatta, beating Team Origin by 29 seconds. Also on this page: Team Origin Press Release
-- Reporting by Diane Swintal for CupInfo/©2009
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Race Reports:
Rounds Robin
1 and 2: |
Around the Viaduct: |
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Luna Rossa Loses One of the Closest
Race in Memory
At the first crossing Oracle is slightly ahead but is forced to tack to give way to Luna Rossa, who crosses on starboard. From this moment the rest of the beat develops in a tacking duel, with both boats responding to each other’s attacks and Oracle still slightly ahead. On the left lay line Luna Rossa, windward of Oracle, pushes the American boat beyond the lay line and tacks to round the mark on the inside, but Oracle is faster in its rounding. The two boats are very close and engage in a luffing match; this results in a penalty to each competitor, and is therefore nil. Soon after, in a close jibe, Oracle makes a mistake and gets a penalty. Approaching the gate Oracle is one length ahead of Luna Rossa and both boats head towards the left mark. At the mark Luna Rossa has to give room to Oracle and begins the second beat on the left side of the course, with a gap of 9s. Oracle tacks in control and both boats go to the left lay line with Oracle stretching her lead on Luna Rossa to 20s at the rounding. In the second run Luna Rossa tries to keep the contact with Oracle, who progressively stretches her lead, managing to reach the finishing line with enough margin to clear the penalty and crosses the finishing line 9s ahead of Luna Rossa, who will therefore be eliminated. Flavio Favini, coach for Luna Rossa Challenge, declared: “It has been a difficult series; we have certainly showed some improvement from the first Round Robin to today’s elimination against Oracle. Obviously we all hoped to do better; we made too many mistakes and we need to improve our teamwork. This crew is mostly new, and has only trained together for one week prior to these series. In some of the most important moments we lacked that ‘eye-catching understanding’ that is key in match racing.” |
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Team
Origin End Regatta On A High Note Despite Narrow Loss In Quarter Finals Team Origin ended their impressive run today in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series after a narrow loss in the Quarter Finals to the Italian team, Damiani Italia. After controlling the start they managed to position themselves with a strong hook under the Italian boat in the last minute and a half and a penalty to Damiani seemed imminent but was not granted. They went in for the kill a second time but, having been burnt before due to a contact decision, they played safe perhaps too safe as far as the umpires were concerned - and for a second time no penalty was awarded. Their position in relation to the committee boat at that stage allowed Damiani the room to accelerate off the start line slightly faster than Team Origin and the Italians went on to lead for the rest of the race despite pressure from Ben Ainslie’s team the whole way round the course. Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal, shared his views on the event and future plans for the team This has been a great first event for Team Origin. The team showed incredible promise which bodes well for the future. The format of the regatta has been great and we have been made to feel very welcome here in Auckland. Now we are looking forward to getting the team back on the water as soon as possible in our preparation for the 33rd Americas Cup. Ben Ainslie, Skipper and Helmsman, rounded up the event We have come a long way in this event and the team has huge potential for the future. We are naturally gutted about the result today but its time to move on. The future of the Cup is obviously dependant on the court case but that said, we have a sailing programme ready for the rest of 2009, with mini maxis, super maxi and match racing activity and hopefully some Acts and we look forward to moving on to the next level. The plan for the day was for BMW Oracle Racing to meet Luna Rossa in the first Quarter Final and Team Origin vs. Damiani Italia in the other Quarter final. The winners of those matches would then race to decide who would take on Alinghi in the Challenger Final. 1345 the first warning signal was fired and BMW Oracle managed to lead off the start line by a mere 8m. Up the first beat the race was really neck and neck with the lead changing between the two teams on a number of occasions. BMWO led around the first windward mark and a luffing incident occurred where both teams were given penalties and then a 2nd penalty awarded to BMWO! BMWO lead for the rest of the race but headed towards the finish line with their penalty turn still to be done and Luna Rossa only 100m behind them! In true style and showing the extensive skill and race experience of this team, they managed an impressively quick turn to take the race win and move forward into the Semi-final round. Meanwhile back to the Team Origin Quarter final. After the start, Team Origin charged forward in an attempt to catch the Italians and close the margin and throughout the rest of the race the two teams remained close. The Italian team have shown themselves throughout this event to be a very quick and clean team sailing their own race and making few mistakes and they again demonstrated this skill, keeping their cool and not crumbling under the pressure of the British team breathing down their necks. Team Origin were attacking from behind, sailing fast and trying to engage the Italians into tacking to draw them back and close the gap, they remained enticingly close but just far enough ahead to keep out of trouble. The one track race course and steady wind did not lend itself to passing opportunities or significant shifts and so the race went forward to the last downwind leg. Ben and the team sailed a faultless race as did the Italians but it was not to be. Damiani Italia crossed the line 29 seconds ahead and move on to race BMW Oracle next in the Semis. Mike Sanderson, Team Director, commented Short term it is sad to be leaving this competition but long term I can see a really bright future for Team Origin. This group of people that we put together have shown how well they can work and sail together, we should be very proud of the way we have performed and conducted ourselves throughout this event. Iain Percy, Tactician, added We are really disappointed to be knocked out of the event but should be proud of our performance generally throughout the series. We have shown our ability to be a top team in this game being able to take on and beat the most experienced Cup teams. The nature of the regatta with its sudden death format didn’t allow for any mistakes and we found ourselves on the wrong side of that today but no point in dwelling on that, better to reflect on the potential of this group of sailors.
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