ACWS Plymouth Day 2
Fleet Racing

Every which way but up. Click image to enlarge and see gallery.
Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles Martin-Raget

Race 1:
Great conditions.  Clean start for all boats.  Lots of wind, slight chop, boats very wet onboard with many boats stuffing hulls.  Very fast action today.  Spithill out to early lead, and then Artemis takes over.  Aleph capsizes, with apparent damage to their wing.  ETNZ into second, pushing Spithill aside.  Artemis, leading, tacks in front, ETNZ and Spithill roll up on them, and suddenly all three are briefly neck and neck, but gear fails on Artemis and they drop back and then withdraw.  At the top of Leg 5, ETNZ stalls in their tack and Oracle (Spithill) passes, and is into the lead downwind.  Korea plows the bows under as they head downwind and capsizes, too. Spithill holds his lead onto Leg 8, ETNZ in second.

Spithill wins aboard Oracle 4, Emirates finishes second, Coutts 3rd, Energy 4th, China 5th, Korea 6th.  GreenComm rounds up and capsizes on the final leg.  Artemis, and Aleph, but Korea was righted and completed the course with a dented but serviceable wingsail.

Our support crew did a great job in moving so quickly," said Chris Draper, Skipper for Korea. "The thing is the wing is in danger of filling up with water and the longer the boat's on its side the more likely the damage is going to increase. So there's a double incentive to get the boat upright as quickly as you can -- to preserve the boat and finish the race."�

Artemis suffered damage to their wing while bearing away to take a penalty after a glancing contact with ETNZ.  GreenComm confirmed that their wing was damaged from the capsize.  Repairs are underway and the other boats are undoubtedly getting thorough inspections after taking a beating today whether they stayed upright or not.  The AC500 speed trial staged following the fleet race saw several near capsizes, and a couple teams sailed it conservatively so as not to wreck their $1.5 million dollar boats in advance of the main portion of the regatta later in the week.  As the AC45s returned to shore, they were quickly hauled out so the wings could be taken down rather than stay on their moorings and risk the threat of gale force winds expected this afternoon and overnight.

Despite Spithill's win today on Oracle4, Emirates will take first place in the standings for this preliminary round.  Qualifying for the Match Race Championships starts Wednesday.

See Plymouth Results and Standings
 

 

Ready for take-off, Energy avoided a capsize in the time trial Sunday. Click image to enlarge. Photo:©2011 ACEA/Ricardo Pinto

(Sept 11) Sunday Race Program:
One 40-minute format Fleet Race.  Scheduled start 1:10pm Plymouth/8:10AM ET US.  A Speed Trial will follow the fleet race.

Conditions: Windfinder says SW 20 knots, gusting to 24 at midday (and 41 knots overnight). The UK Met Service says SW 16 knots, gusting to 30 at midday (and 36 knots overnight).  Low tide will be at 12:05 BST in Plymouth, about an hour before the scheduled start, making for racing on a flood current.  Tidal range in Plymouth is about 4 meters.

Sunday Outlook:
Concerns about approaching storms led to the AC45 yachts being hauled out overnight rather than left on their moorings, as is typical for the wingsail cats.  Sunday should see solid wind in the midday, building in strength, and edging into gale force late afternoon and early evening.  Dawn in Plymouth shows the fleet getting back on the water for an earlier start than planned in the hopes of completing racing while conditions are exciting, but bringing the boats and crews back still intact before conditions become too dangerous.

The big question in today's race is whether anyone can upset the dominance of the Big Three.  ETNZ, Artemis, and Oracle kept win, place, and show all to themselves in Saturday's races.  The longer races have generally been the more interesting so far, with a greater play of tactics and counter-tactics developing between the trailing boats and the leaders.  Still, racing multihulls in heavy weather is often about survival as much as anything else.