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RR1 Head-to-Head Results and Standings: |
Next Rounds: |
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RR1 Head-to-Head Results and Standings:
RR1 Rankings |
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Current leaders after RR1: Emirates Team New Zealand and Team Origin, each with 4 wins. For Round Robin 2 the top three teams from each pool will now race in the Gold Fleet, the bottom two teams from each Pool will race in the Silver Fleet. RR2 starts Thursday.
More Detail: Day 5 Race Report Round
Robin 1 head-to-head results and standings: |
Press Releases: |
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Race starts were delayed due to light wind conditions. Races have started at 2:45. Officials will try to complete today's scheduled races. Second flights in each pool planned for 4:30 NZT.
Races of the Day:
Boats, Entries, Skippers, Results, and more:
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Race 1: ETNZ versus China Team. China over the line early. ETNZ opens a big lead by the first windward mark, and holds it around the track. Finish delta 54 seconds, ETNZ takes their third win of the RR. Race 2: Luna Rossa beats Greek Challenge by a large margin, getting their first point of the Round Robin . Race 3: BMW Oracle versus Pataugas
K-Challenge. Split tack start, BMW Oracle takes the right which
looks favored, and pays. Both boats play the currents. BMWO
takes only about a 13 second lead around the top mark, stretches to 27
seconds at the leeward gate. Both boats take the right hand mark.
BMW continues to extend, wins by 54 seconds. Race 4: Origin versus Shosholoza. More aggression from Team Origin in the pre-start, against a late South African entry. Origin takes the right, still looking like the stronger side of the course, lead falls to Origin. Upwind again Shosholoza gains until a late shift. A push to the layline solidifies a Team Origin lead. Split reaches look again like gains to Shosholoza, but Origin pulls away in the end. Point to Team Origin. Race 5: Luna Rossa wins a wild race from Shosholoza. Close at the start and the top. A good run, with both boats close on the second leg, coming down the right side with Shosholoza just ahead and to windward but the South Africans decided to go to the right mark instead of the further left mark -- just ahead and outside of Luna Rossa. The Italians gybed inside them and Shosholoza broke Rule 15 and 18 by being too close. At the second windward the match devolved into both boats bobbing and weaving making about 4 knots with LR trying to stay away from Shosh, who finally peeled off for the mark. The dodging match continue around the mark, with the teams putting their kites up and then taking them back down. More cat-and-mouse ensued as LR got closer to Shosholoza and the boats ranged far off a normal racing track. A second penalty called on Shosholoza had to be taken immediately, the Italians pulling away while the South Africans completed their turn yet still carried the other penalty. With that Luna Rossa escaped to the finish line and claimed the victory in a memorable and unusual race. |
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High wind is expected in the late afternoon Sunday.
Organizers said they expect to condense the gaps between races, intending
to complete the flights as early as possible before wind limits become a
factor.
Matches of the day: Damiani vs. K-Challenge will be interesting, both teams coming off of beating China in their most recent races. Luna Rossa vs. Shosholoza is again a good benchmark for both teams. "Shosh" lost yesterday to the new Greek Challenge, getting a penalty in the process, and Luna Rossa is 0-2, losing to Origin and Alinghi, and must be getting hungry. Which leads to the real match of the day, Team Origin vs. Alinghi. Upstart Origin has looked quite smart at times, and since last fall has added America's Cup vet Peter Isler to an afterguard stocked with some of the most accomplished small boat sailors in the world currently. They have already beaten Alinghi once, in a fleet race where the Swiss had equipment misfires. How does the British team stack up against the Defender in a match racing duel? Especially a defender with so many Kiwis onboard who learned to sail in these very waters? Any team would love to beat Alinghi one-on-one, but these young pups could do it.
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3 races complete, 1 race abandoned for the day. Cloudy and drizzling when the day began in 15 knots of breeze, the marquee match up of the day was Alinghi versus Team Origin. Fans listening to the radio broadcast heard Emirates Team New Zealand’s Grant Dalton give his take on the two skippers’ starting strategies: "Ben Ainslie is pretty aggressive, whereas Ed Baird usually follows the same pattern, more time on distance." Read Day 3 Race Report Match by Match: Race 2: Alinghi and Team Origin used the spectator fleet for picks in the pre-start, trying to shed the trailer. Hooked by Team Origin, Alinghi was over the line at the start thanks to a British well-timed luff. The Brits continued to lead at the top mark, though Alinghi took back some delta sailing deeper on the second leg. Team Origin led the rest of the way around the course, matching Alinghi up and down. Origin wins in an upset.
Race 3: BMW Oracle versus China Team. USA led up the weather leg with over a 100 meter lead, with China carrying a penalty. Downhill China Team took some advantage out of the lead, 150m reduced to 87m at the leeward gate. The second windward featured a tacking duel, China trailing, initiating. USA covered in oscillating puffs nearing North Head, gains to CHN cut the lead to 16 seconds at the third mark. On the final downhill a closing China Team blew their spinnaker, killing their chances. Point to BMW Oracle Racing. Race 4: Damaged headsail
foil on one of the TNZ yachts spurred organizers to try to complete
today's schedule by switching the crews to the BMW Oracle pair.
Ultimately, race officials called the last race off with winds moving into
the mid-20 knots and gusting. The wind was just too high to risk
knocking out a large portion of the regatta if damage occurred. A
fifth race tomorrow is likely to make up the schedule. |
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First race starts at 11:00 am local time
Day 2 Outlook: Opening day saw fireworks, with some unexpected leaders, and a hard contact that left damage. Today sees the first clash of the titans. Matches of the Day: Host ETNZ and BMW Oracle go at it, an interesting top card filled with backstory: Russell Coutts versus Dean Barker, who once played the roles of master and prodigy, Barker skippering the B-boat prodding and pressing Coutts until he was ready to dominate the Challenger in TNZ's 2000 America's Cup defense. Then Coutts departed; then he won the Cup away from TNZ; then, well, he hasn't raced in Cup Class competition since. This is the first meeting between Coutts and his old team, and old teammates, post-2003. Taking place in home waters, and in equalized boats, this match race will really put the pressure on the sailors to show how they stack up The other big meeting
today is Luna Rossa and Alinghi. Luna Rossa after the apparent
departure of long-time skipper Francesco de Angelis and also without
helmsman James Spithill, tactician Torben Grael, and an entire cast of
LR veterans, is looking to find their footing. And more so after
losing yesterday to upstart Team Origin. They meet the usual
Alinghi express bearing down on them. Alinghi is stocked with
Kiwi's who are also intimately familiar with the intricacies of racing
in Auckland's Waitemata Harbor, so several factors increase the degree
of difficulty for the Italians. But Luna Rossa holds a few aces
themselves, including America's Cup veteran skipper Peter Holmberg, who
sailed for Alinghi through 2007 sparring with Ed Baird. Baird ultimately
got the nod to helm the Defender in the 2007 Defense. Holmberg was
seen as the more aggressive of the two, Baird the smoother, and surely
they know each other's strengths and weaknesses as well as any two
skippers in this regatta. Will Holmberg be bringing it to his old
team now that he's got the chance? |
Boats, Entries, Skippers, Regatta format:
Race 1: Close race for three legs, ETNZ wins by 27 seconds. See BMW Oracle Race Ticker Race 2: Shosholoza vs. Greek Challenge. First win for Greek Challenge, delta 1:04. Pre-start penalty for Shosholoza. Race 3: Damiani Italia Challenge defeats China Team, finish delta 1:18. First win for Damiani. Race 4: Alinghi beats Luna Rossa, finish delta of 52 seconds. Current regatta leaders are ETNZ and Alinghi with 2 wins each.
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First race starts at 11:00 am local time Friday Day 1 Round Robin 1 Pairings Opening day of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series carries a lot of anticipation, though the match-ups today are mostly the oldest strongest teams against start-ups with no America's Cup or LVC team experience. The only pair here that have met before in the Cup are K-Challenge and China Team. In the 2007 LVC, K-Challenge carrying sponsor Areva's name beat China Team in RR2, while China had a DNS against Areva in RR1. With the boat factor equalized, today's match will be food for thought on what component of performance the sailors themselves bring to the table. Team Origin, though, has a leg up on the Italian and Greek emergents, having fleet raced both Alinghi and Luna Rossa in Valencia last October, and beating them the first time out. Now this is match racing, with both offense and defense being equally vital. Origin would love the chance to show what their crew can do when the boats are evenly matched. Quality wins here would be a big boost for this ambitious team. As for the big boys, while ETNZ and Alinghi have a lot of pride on the line and the benefit plenty of continuity, Luna Rossa has the extra complication of a lot of new faces in key positions, especially at the back of the boat. It will be curious to see if the new Rossa can hang with the old Rossa. In any case, it's quite an unexpected treat to get this kind of action in such a great venue on such relatively short notice. Yacht racing fans everywhere owe a big thank you to everyone who organized this regatta. Enjoy! Visit the Official LVPS Web Site
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Boats, Entries, Skippers, Regatta format:
Race 1: Pataugas K-Challenge vs. China Team. Wind building. Clean start for China with an immediate lead, showing the hand of top match racer Ian Williams; downspeed start for K-Challenge. French go left, Chinese right. Chinese protect the windier right, round the top mark about 20 seconds ahead. K-Challenge gains downwind, both round the same favored gate mark, China Team fighting for room, protests flags fly and China is penalized. French gain and take control of the match, chalking up their first win of the regatta with a 1:02 delta. Race 2: Team Origin vs. Luna Rossa, in the pre-start, a timed run-up in separate positions. Team Origin slightly ahead, but Peter Holmberg gets what looks like a safe windward position for LR. It's a drag race off the line, but Luna Rossa soon has to tack. A few tacks thrown back and forth, Origin defends their preferred side for a while, but LR finally tacks on top of the British. More tussling and few lengths lead to Origin around the top mark. Wind still edging up, the Italians pickup the chase. Team Origin has about a 50m lead on the second windward, but varying, the wind gusting to 19 kts in places helping complicate the tactics. A big shift boosts the British, putting the Italians in too deep of a hole, and by 1:11 Origin starts the LVPS with a victory. Race 3: ETNZ defeats Damiani Italia Challenge. Italia too early to the line, Dean Barker on ETNZ gets position on starboard tack at the favored end. Local knowledge pays as ETNZ plays the shifts into a three-length lead at the cross, and carries it around the first mark. ETNZ extends a bit downwind. Upwind Italia goes left, gets lifted, closes in, but ETNZ comes in on starboard and tacks in front, forcing the Italians away and protecting the lead. A another big shift after the second windward leaves one tack heavily favored downwind and little chance for the trailing boat to split. Though the final delta is only 19 seconds, the host team, narrowly in control most of the race, takes a Day 1 win. Race 4: Alinghi
defeats Greek Challenge. Dust-up with contact in the pre-start.
Left looks favored, Alinghi gets the left hand side, but cedes it and
Greek Challenge actually comes out with about a 35m lead just after the
start. Wind keeps clocking left, gains to Greece, but with aid of a
luff Alinghi claws back, gets around the windward mark and opens a
serious lead. Both take the favored left gate at the bottom, with
Greece still in a deep hole. A split by the trailing boat brings a
loose distant cover, but no real gains to be had. A hard contact
penalty from the start actually costs Greek Challenge a point, while
Alinghi picks up their first win by a delta of 2:02.
See also "Collision Dents Hopes" at NZ Herald for more about the damage |
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