Race Report and Results: America's Cup World Series Plymouth
Qualifying and Semi-Final 1- Day 7 - Match Race Championship
September 16, 2011
Match Racing Championship:
Match Racing Qualifying and Semi-Final 1
Team Korea charged their way up the
Qualifying brackets Friday, knocking off China, Oracle (Spithill), and
Energy for a trip to the Semifinals. Photo:©2011 ACEA/Gilles
Martin-Raget
Friday's Pairings, September 16:
| Qualifying Round | ||
| Match | ||
| Aleph (L) | Q1 | GreenComm (W) |
| Korea (W) | Q2 | China (L) |
| Oracle4 (W) | Q3 | GreenComm (L) |
| Korea (W) | Q4 | Oracle4 (Spithill) |
| Energy | Q5 | Korea (W) |
|
Semi-Final
#1 |
||
|
ETNZ |
SF1 | Oracle (Coutts) |
| Lose | R1 | Win |
| Win | R2 | Lose |
| Win | R3 | Lose |
First start 2:10pm Plymouth/9:10am
ET.
20-minute races. Qualifying is one race per match.
Semi-final is Best of Three.
Race Results:
Qualifying: Korea advances to the Semifinals against Artemis,
Saturday.
Weather:
Wind: 16 knots, WSW 245-250, Building, 20 knots expected (On Course).
15 knots WSW becoming 19 knots, gusts to 22 (WindFinder).
Outlook - Match of the Day:
The Semi-final showdown between Dean Barker on ETNZ and Russell Coutts
on Oracle5 is the marquee pairing. Two sailors with long
America's Cup histories, and Coutts was Barker's mentor back at TNZ in
2000. Coutts gave Barker a chance take charge on the B-boat,
prepping Coutts to defend the Cup, and Barker gave him nearly all he
could handle back then. Symbolically, in the actual America's
Cup Match Coutts had Barker helm the boat across the finish line of
the deciding Race Five, sealing the deal on the legendary "Blackwash"
over Challenger Luna Rossa.
A decade later, both skippers are working on the transition to the fast and technical AC45 catamarans, but they've got a lot of match racing skills in their arsenal, and this will be a great measure of how far each sailor and their programs have advanced.