Race Report: Surprises, Wind, and First Wins and First Losses
Round Robin 2 Day 1

Auckland, February 5, 2009

BMW Oracle held on against Luna Rossa in conditions that got more exciting each leg.
 Photo:©2009 Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW Oracle

It seems to be a case of feast or famine for the past week in Auckland.  Either the breeze is at the top end of what makes the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series organizers comfortable (or even over that line, as was the case last Sunday) or it’s nothing.  Perfect glass conditions, terrific weather if you are match racing kayaks.

Race 1:
The first day of the second round robin brought the latter conditions, but after a two-hour delay, the anticipated rematch between the upstart Team Origin and the Cup defender Alinghi began in seven knots of breeze.  Apparently no one informed the combatants that more fireworks were expected.  After a standard dial up, the teams appeared to choose opposite sides of the course, and maintained those trajectories long after the start.  Origin seemed to get the best of it, taking the left side and earning a 75-meter lead when the teams converged in the middle of the course.

The lead held at the top, but not at the bottom.  Alinghi caught a puff and pulled up behind Origin, who made a last minute decision to go with the left gate mark, forcing Alinghi toward the longer distance to the other mark.  With the two boats gybing to different gates they swapped the side of the course from the first beat, then came together and began a long tacking duel up the course.

Alinghi got the better of the left layline and was right on the stern of Origin when the British team tacked over to port at the mark.  Alinghi appeared to give a thought to getting inside Origin, but right at the mark decided better of it, making for a meandering sail tracks.  Alinghi momentarily stayed high, nearly reaching above the layline, before coming down to follow Origin.  On the final leg, a gybing duel ensued far down the starboard layline until Alinghi was able to get on Origin’s breeze and force them away.  Alinghi sailed back into that slightly better breeze to take the lead, and with it the win, handing Team Origin their first defeat in the regatta.

Ed Baird, Helmsman, Team Alinghi: "We try to keep things close and if we did, there’d be a chance it would work out okay.  We started gybing, they matched us until they had an issue with the spinnaker.  We gained position, getting close enough to affect their wind in the event that we could get a bit of a light spot where we could affect their breeze." 

Mike Sanderson, Team Origin: "Alinghi’s trademark from the last couple of America’s Cup has been to keep things tight.  They were able to apply pressure and gained on the on the second beat as we did on the first.  We slowed down the action at the top mark, but we had a few bad gybes.  Gybing hasn’t been our forte in this regatta.  We tried to gybe the A1 sail the same way we would the A2 and it didn’t work.  We’ve debriefed it to death so hopefully it will be better."

Race 2:
Ten knots of breeze greeted the start of the second race, as Gavin Brady returned to the helm of Greek Challenge.  He worked hard to keep the left side of the line but couldn’t stop Sebastian Col of Pataugas K-Challenge from getting his bow between the Greeks and the committee boat.  The pair tacked up the beat and rounded virtually together, but Pataugas K-Challenge managed to get ahead on the run and won the match.

Race 3:
Emirates Team New Zealand kept the better of Damiani Challenge during the pre-start of the third race, pressing the Italians right up against the starboard side of the committee boat with just over a minute to go.  The Kiwis clearly wanted the left side of the race course and were content to leave Damiani to windward and the right.   A classic tacking duel began up the beat, with a split and return resulting in a big gain halfway up for Damiani, who crossed clear ahead of ETNZ before regaining the left side of the course and the ability to force ETNZ away.  Quite a work out for the grinders onboard all these boats today…

With an 11 second deficit at the top mark, ETNZ sailed higher to try and regain the slightly biased right hand advantage, but were forced to follow Damiani around the shorter left mark.  Damiani kept the lead and as we’ve seen quite a bit this week (with one notable exception, see above) it was game over.

Dean Barker, Skipper, Emirates Team New Zealand:  "We really lost the race at the start.  Our plan was to go right and we had Damiani in trouble at the committee boat, but I was attacking more, trying to win the race at the start.  It put us in a bad position and Damiani didn’t put a foot wrong.  Everyone in the gold fleet is sailing well and now that the teams are getting used to the boats there’s no room for a mistake." 

Vasco Vascotto, Skipper, Damiani Challenge: "We are really proud to be in the gold fleet as such a young team.  We have learned quite a lot and it was important today that the guys did some great maneuvers.  It makes for a good life for me!  To do a good match race against Team New Zealand is good – it is better to look forward with these guys, not to look them in the eye!"

Race 4:
China Team did an excellent job of keeping away from Team Shosholoza, maintaining the favored position, winning the start and steadily keeping their lead up the beat to round the top mark 20 seconds ahead.  But Shosholoza chipped away, catching a puff near the bottom mark to cut the lead to seven seconds.

The battle appeared to be joined at the top, with China slow getting their spinnaker up and filled -- but Shosholoza’s spinnaker burst at the clew on hoist, sails and halyards trialed in the water, and they never recovered, giving an open lane to China Team into the finish.

Race 5:
The feast returned in the afternoon, with the breeze up to 18-20 knots at the start of the BMW Oracle Racing/Luna Rossa race, with the choppiest conditions we’ve seen yet. 

In their first race on the ETNZ boats, BMW Oracle seemed to have all kinds of trouble controlling the boat in the pre-start, stalling out on the start and nearly copping a penalty for not keeping clear of Luna Rossa, but in a stunning recovery BMW Oracle got perfect time and distance to the committee side of the line, powered over Luna Rossa at the gun and taking the now favored right to hold a 36-second lead at the top.  The gap closed slightly at the bottom mark when the American team seemed to have difficulty bringing in their jib, but the delta was back up to 38 seconds at the top.  A large container ship’s wake caused concern for both boats coming down to the finish, where BMW Oracle took a 58 second win.

Interesting note: the pin-end boat won every race today.

-- Reporting by Diane Swintal for CupInfo/©2009 CupInfo

Links of Interest:

Rounds Robin 1 and 2:  Head-to-Head Results and Standings

CupInfo's Main Louis Vuitton Pacific Series page

Visit the Official Louis Vuiton Pacific Series Web Site