Rounds Robin Day-by-Day Results:

Photo:©2009 Ian Roman/TeamOrigin

Monday Report:
The breeze returned to the Côte d’Azur today, leaving just one race left in the second round robin at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice but the positions at the top of the standings are set.

Emirates Team New Zealand secured victory in the round robin and will choose their semi final opponent, following their race tomorrow against the Russian Synergy team. Synergy continued their run through the late stages of the round robins, defeating Italy’s Azzurra in a hard fought battle in steady breezes nearing 15 knots.

Knowing that a win would secure their spot in the top four, Synergy held Azzurra close, never getting more than two boat lengths away from their rivals. With both boats holding a close cover, Synergy just barely ahead, the match looked to go right down to the finish until a jibe to port to roll Synergy resulted in a completely blown-out asymmetric spinnaker for the Italians.

“I think Synergy was strong on us but by pushing to edge we thought their spinnaker might blow.  It was a 50-50 chance,” said Francesco Bruni, Azzurra’s skipper. “That was one of best races I’ve ever sailed in Cup boats. I really enjoyed it.  Every leg was close and each crew did a fantastic job.” Other matches included BMW Oracle Racing defeating Artemis, TeamOrigin beating All4One, Azzurra beating BMW Oracle nd Artemis defeating TFS PagesJaunes.

Once the round robin finishes tomorrow, ETNZ will pick their opponent from the other top four boats, including TeamOrigin (8-3), Azzurra (7-4) or Synergy (6-4). The second half of the leaderboard has Artemis (5-6) in fifth, BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) in sixth, All4One (3-8) in seventh and TFS PagesJaunes (1-10) in eighth..

These four teams will race a knockout round to determine places 5th though 8th concurrent with the semi finals.

Sunday Report:
Russia’s Synergy continued their surge through the field Sunday, defeating TeamOrigin and Artemis to take over fourth place, while Emirates Team New Zealand clinched the rounds robin victory.

The Kiwis (9-1) beat TFS-Pages Jaunes (1-9) and BMW Oracle Racing (3-6) securing top seed, while TeamOrigin (7-3) held onto second place, splitting races between BMW Oracle Racing and Synergy (5-4).  The Americans dropped to sixth place with two losses today.

Synergy and helmsman Karol Jablonski won the first cross against TeamOrigin and held the lead around the course.  Ben Ainslie, helmsman for TeamOrigin, was impressed.

“It’s good to see those guys doing so well,” Ainslie said. “They’ve got some great sailors. It’s good to see that when they get the boat handling side figured out they’ve got some smart sailors who know what a wind shift is and can figure it out.”

The amended second round robin continues Monday.
 

Saturday Report:
It was a day of upsets with Italian upstarts Azzurra losing the first two matches of the shortened Round Robin 2, falling first to Team French Spirit Pages Jaunes, earning the French their first victory in the regatta, and then beaten by Franco-German All4One. Earlier in the day, BMW Oracle Racing completed their first round with a disappointing loss to Russia’s Synergy, sending the Americans to the bottom half of the standings going into the second round.

Emirates Team New Zealand, though, headed back toward the top of the heap, defeating All4One, and TeamOrigin took down Team French Spirit Pages Jaunes, with Origin’s Ben Ainslie dominating the prestart and leading wire to wire.

Iain Percy, tactician, TeamOrigin: "A very difficult race, even if we did get a long way in front! There were 45-degree wind shifts and big holes of wind all over the place. We kept our wits about us and made sure we didn't take any risks.”

Breeze permitting, the remainder of the second round robin will be sailed tomorrow. Highlights include an uphill battle for BMW Oracle, facing ETNZ and TeamOrigin.
 

Friday Report:
In a classic match racing battle, TeamOrigin defeated previously unbeaten Emirates Team New Zealand today at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta. The Kiwis lead from the start, taking the initially-favored left side of the course, but as breeze filled in from the right, the Brits dialed down ETNZ at the top mark. TeamOrigin got the best of the ensuing luffing battle, and rounded the mark with a 22-second lead they never relinquished.

Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal, had a front row seat onboard as 18th man, and afterwards praised his Helmsman Ben Ainslie. “It was really close. Ben brilliantly shut them out. The luff, the slow speed sailing, the escape, that was classic Ben Ainslie. The team were faultless, textbook good. It has to be textbook good against the New Zealanders. They are the reference.”

Next came a fight for the overall regatta lead, with TeamOrigin going up against Italy’s Azzurra, both teams holding 5-1 records. The Italians copped a red flag penalty on the first beat for failing to keep clear, but gained the lead back when the British team failed to cover on the run. After BMW Oracle Racing defeated Artemis of Sweden their afternoon race against the Russian Synergy team was abandoned due to conditions and will have to be sailed before the quarter finals draw.

The match has significant implications for the standings. If BMW Oracle wins, they place fourth and Synergy finishes sixth behind Sweden’s Artemis. If Synergy wins, however, all three teams would be have 3-4 records and the tiebreaker would place Artemis fourth, Synergy fifth and BMW Oracle sixth.

The standings are important because due to the time lost to the light sailing conditions, the second half of the regatta has been changed. A half round robin will be conducted with the top four teams racing the bottom four teams. Each team has four matches scheduled before the semifinals begin next Thursday.
 

Photo:©2009 Chris Cameron/ETNZ

Thursday Report:
One of the unbeaten teams fell by the wayside at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice today, as Britain's TeamOrigin lost to one of the newer teams, albeit one with some serious America’s Cup experience onboard.  Sweden’s Artemis with Terry Hutchinson at the helm and Paul Cayard as strategist got the best of TeamOrigin at the start and the relatively short 1.3 mile course gave the Brits no chance to recover.

“We got ourselves a little late having misjudged the layline and gave them a powerful position,” TeamOrigin tactician Iain Percy explained. For people watching, some of those moves seemed to be wrong but the reality is that when you are starting with them bow forward by half a length at the favored end, wide right, the race is kind of over.  Although sometimes it looks like you are making more mistakes, in fact you are trying to give yourself a chance to get out.”

In the day’s other big match ups, Emirates Team New Zealand remained undefeated, taking down BMW Oracle Racing, and Italy’s Azzurra vaulted TeamOrigin into second place with a win over All4One.  The remaining card including races between BMWO and Artemis, and ETNZ and TeamOrigin was postponed until Friday, as fickle wind conditions remain in the forecast.

See Full Results at LV Trophy site
 

Photo:©2009 Ian Roman/TeamOrigin

Wednesday Report:
Light winds greeted teams this morning at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice, with a two hour delay as organizers waited for the fickle breezes to fill in.

One of the day’s highlights was the first point for the Russian Synergy team, beating hosts All4One after the French/German team got tangled up with the race committee boat on the start.

Otherwise, it was a day that saw the unbeatens stay unbeaten, with Emirates Team New Zealand defeating Artemis of Sweden and TeamOrigin taking down BMW Oracle Racing.  ETNZ, Origin, and Azzurra remain the top three teams in the standings.

The day’s last flight, between ETNZ and BMW Oracle was cancelled, to be sailed tomorrow.
 

Tuesday Results/Wednesday Outlook:
More typical conditions prevailed in Nice on Tuesday, helping the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur to catch up on the schedule.  With eight matches complete on the day, Emirates Team New Zealand remains undefeated and at the top of the leader board with a 4-0 record.

England’s TeamOrigin stands one point behind at 3-0. ETNZ had all they could handle with the fledgling Azzura team today. “Dean did a great job in the pre-start and had Azzura on the ropes,” said team boss Grant Dalton. “Then they were over early and almost handed it to us. But Azzurra kept it tight.  It surprised me that we didn’t sail away more than we did. We didn’t underestimate Azzurra even though they’re a new team and they certainly didn’t let us down."

The Italians are the early surprise of the regatta, posting a 2-1 record so far with Francesco Bruni at the wheel, building on his strong showing in Auckland’s Louis Vuitton Pacific Series last February.