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Auckland, February 10, 2009
The Cracker on the Waitemata! After a battle at the start, after the gun penalty on Luna Rossa for tacking too close. Soon after the start, the wind goes right and both boats head way out left towards the layline. Luna Rossa has a 36m lead but has the penalty to clear. On the downhill leg they virtually sail it in gybe. Luna Rossa are slowly pulling further and further ahead, but the big question is whether it will be enough. China team try to cover Luna Rossa down the middle of the channel. Luna Rossa in front stretches out to around 59m, but still has a penalty. Luna Rossa gybes for the right hand mark, has a messy rounding but manages to recover and get back up to speed, and then China team manage to do the exact same -- a good opportunity to close the gap is lost. Both boats head out right. By the top mark, Luna Rossa have again extended, now around 125 m ahead. Luna Rossa lead down the run and extend. They will need about 6 boat lengths to complete their penalty turn -- about 150 m. Approaching the line their lead is 162 m, it’s very tight. Luna Rossa drops their kite with China team thundering down with nice puff. Luna Rossa starts her turn to port, the spray flying up off her sides as they slam her round, trying to maintain their speed and complete the turn. She has to keep clear as she turns. China team is looming now, kite flying, time is running out for Luna Rossa. Luna Rossa finally completes her turn and heads down to the line. It's too close to call. It's a photo finish...... no one knows immediately who has won. A phone call from the PRO finally confirms Luna Rossa won by centimeters, one of the closest races ever (according to Bruno Troublé, the delta was 20cm), and sets up a quarter final between Luna Rossa and BMW Oracle. Peter Holmberg,
Luna Rossa: We wanted the right at the start and we paid the penalty for it. There was a miscommunication onboard. We just needed to grow the lead as much as possible, big enough to come from behind. Ian Williams, China
Team: The guys have done a fantastic job from day one, really slick, really good guys on the boat doing sail handling. It’s more the new guys like me that had to get up to speed. The only disadvantage may have been to have the Oracle boats the whole way. The New Zealand boats are a little finer, easier to stall -- they need more rudder and more trim tab angles. I came out of the bottom mark pretty slow and I might have been okay in one of the Oracle boats. We wanted to improve each race and I think we achieved that. We’re the only team here that didn’t have any training, which put us on the back foot. We had to get up to speed quickly. But I hope this is a springboard for the team, to help them find sponsors. We assembled a great team -- and how far we’ve gotten in a short amount of time is amazing. Also on this page: Luna Rossa Press Release
Race 2: K-Challenge (port tack/pin end) vs. Team Origin (starboard/committee boat) The second of the knockout sail-off matches. On entry to the box, a right hand shift allows K-Challenge to dives deep Team Origin sailing shall and allowing K-Challenge to go over their bow. Both dial down and gybe down hill then start circling and killing time. Back to the line Team Origin to the left and K-Challenge to the right. Wind is going a little soft. With 1:30 to go both boats are lining up with K-Challenge pushing. Team Origin win the start crossing the line first and K-Challenge have to tack away. Team Origin have the right and are preserving their starboard advantage. It's toe-to-toe and tack-for-tack stuff. Origin eke out their lead to 29 m. Close at the mark, penalty against K-Challenge for failing to keep clear. Origin round ahead, K-Challenge making a mess of their hoist, but on the heels of Team Origin. K-Challenge closes they come together on their first gybes. Team Origin crosses behind on a hotter angle, looking like they want better breeze on the right even if they have to sacrifice the lead right now. Team Origin gybe, come back and cross in front around 18 m ahead. Both are going way right to keep out of the tide. As they come back to the right hand gate mark, it's still toe to toe. Origin gets rights around the mark and heads off again to their favoured right side, stretching the lead with starboard tack advantage. On the downhill slide to the finish, the wind shifts again and both boats can virtually lay the finish, cutting down on K-Challenge’s options. Team Origin finishes over
100 m in front after what was a hard fought battle at many points, and now
looks forward to a re-match in the Quarter-Finals with Damiani Italia, who
they lost to Monday.
Mike Sanderson,
Team Origin: We also had a problem with our jockey pole -- that’s part of dealing with the different systems on the Oracle boats versus the Team New Zealand boats. The pole gave way, shooting back down the boat. That’s why our spinnaker trim was a little soft for a while. And we had to go with the event spinnaker because we pulled the retrieval patch out of the regular spinnaker. We sent it back with the tender and it could have been back for the next race. We’re just happy to live to fight another day. And we’re glad they called it this afternoon –- it would have been bad, to race for two weeks and have such a funky race in such shifty conditions. We saw anywhere from four to 13 knots today, from 320 to 035 degrees. On the decision to switch boats for the next race: We thought 87 had a little edge on us. The two boats are different –- you can feel which one you’re in. And the rigs are pretty interesting! Also on this page: Team Origin Press Release
-- By John Crisp, with Reporting by Diane Swintal for CupInfo/©2009
CupInfo |
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Links of Interest: Race Reports:
Rounds Robin
1 and 2: |
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Luna Rossa Wins One the Closest Race
in Memory Start: Luna Rossa enters the box from the pin end and escapes the control of China Team, slightly late in its entry. The starting line is clearly favorable on the Committee Boat and both teams fight for this end of the line. Luna Rossa manages to start at the Committee Boat, windward of China Team, with a perfect timing, but gets a penalty in her attempt to escape China Teams control. Luna Rossa sails to the lay line on starboard tack., controlling her opponent in a windward position, and tacks at the left lay line to round the windward mark one length ahead of China Team. Also in the first downwind leg one side is significantly favored, and both boats jibe just before reaching the gate. Both choose the left mark and start the upwind leg on starboard tack, with Luna Rossa leading b 19s and windward of China Team. Notwithstanding a change of course, the left is still favored and the boats sail on starboard tack up to the left lay line, with Luna Rossa ahead and windward of China Team. At the windward mark Luna Rossa has increased her advantage to 29s. Once again both boats are forced to sail the run on port tack. with Luna Rossa trying to stretch her lead as much as possible on China Team in order to clear the penalty. Luna Rossa reaches the
Committee Boat without jibing and. with an excellent maneuver, clears the
penalty and wins the race by 1s. thus qualifying for the Quarter Finals
against BMW Oracle Racing. |
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British, Italian Teams Earn Quarter
Final Berths
Pre-race favorite teams battled ferociously in the Rangitoto Channel today to secure their places in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series quarter finals to be sailed tomorrow. Italy’s Luna Rossa skippered by Peter Holmberg pulled out a heart-stopping one-second win over the China Team while Britain’s Team Origin was under the gun until skipper Ben Ainslie scored a penalty against Frances Pataugas K-Challenge in a spinnaker luffing confrontation that took them far above their proper course. With just four days of competition remaining, Team Origin will race tomorrow against Damiani Italy Challenge in one quarter final match. The other quarter final will be Americas BMW Oracle Racing against Luna Rossa. Weather permitting, the semi finalists will race tomorrow to determine who will race the top seed Swiss boat Alinghi in the Challenger Final. The winning challenger will meet Emirates Team New Zealand in a seven-race match on Friday and Saturday. Peter Holmberg’s victory came as Luna Rossa completed a penalty turn on the finish line. British match race champion Ian Williams steering China Team had laid the penalty on the Italians 30 seconds before the start as they fought for the right hand position on the line. With the penalty hanging over him Holmberg enjoyed a small lead at the start and ever so gradually eked it out to a 150 meter lead at the finish. He jammed his boat around in a tight turn bringing it almost to a halt as it spun around. Williams carried fresh breeze down to the line and crossed at speed but not before Holmberg crawled across to take the gun, I’ve done a lot of penalty turns in my career, Holmberg said afterwards, but it’s tough making 24 tons go 360 degrees and keep it moving! A penalty featured in the other match too as Team Origin fought a drama-filled skirmish with the charged-up French K-Challenge to stay in the regatta. Ainslie did an outstanding job to start on port tack right next to the committee, forcing K-Challenge helmsman Sebastian Col to tack away. The British boat protected the right up the beat, but the French instigated a tacking duel that evened up the game. With the top mark in sight, Team Origin dialed down and tacked just in front of K-Challenge, holding them out by nine seconds at the top mark. However the British spinnaker set was slow and K-Challenge rolled them. In the ensuing drama, Ainslie luffed the French boat up twice. The French were penalized for failing to keep clear and lost time recovering their spinnaker, which sagged off to leeward after the halyard let go. Ainslie led the rest of the way, secure in the knowledge that the French still had to complete their penalty turn. The breeze died after the
completion of two races this morning. A long and fruitless wait for wind
in warm, damp and humid conditions ended at 1600 hours. |
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Team Origin Advance to Quarter Finals with a Decisive Win over Pataugas K-Challenge Tuesday 10th Feb 2009 Today racing turned serious as the Challenger Sail-off round starts a sudden death/knock out format comes into play where we will go from 8 teams in the competition to the final 3 (with ETNZ and Alinghi already 2 of them). The program schedule was to hold 5 races today but the fickle wind only allowed two races to be completed: the two sail offs between China Team and Luna Rossa and then Team Origin vs. Pataugas K Challenge. The winners of these two races move to the Quarter Finals to take on Damiani Italia and BMW Oracle respectively. And after that to the semi-final to decide who will meet Alinghi in the Challenger Final. Wind was light and variable with shifty and testing conditions for these sudden death races. The first race kicked off with Luna Rossa awarded a pre-start penalty but winning the start. China Team needed to keep their nose clean and stay close enough to their competitor. Luna Rossa led around the first mark but the distance was only 80m, really they needed at least 120m distance clear ahead to get their penalty in and stay ahead so they had plenty on Meanwhile 10 minutes later the warning signal for race two was fired. Team Origin won the start from K Challenge starting right by the committee boat and with the choice of where they wanted to go. It was neck and neck however up the first beat, Team Origin marginally ahead but really close and the right side perhaps not paying off as much as Team Origin would have hoped. This race was in BMW Oracle boats and this was Team Origins first time racing in these boats whereas K Challenge had had plenty of experience in racing them in the earlier rounds. Team Origin led around the first mark by only 8 seconds but appeared to have a problem with the spinnaker hoist and K Challenge managed to hoist faster and started to roll over them, Team Origin then got their kite sorted and luffed K Challenge 3 times with the French spinnaker halyard dropping, jib still up, flags flying and eventually K Challenge were awarded a penalty by the umpires for not keeping clear. The drama was not over yet as the Team Origin spinnaker halyard seemed to be a few feet off the top, they gybed across and headed up to take the stern of K Challenge and headed for the right hand side. K Challenge took the lead again momentarily (but with a penalty) and Team Origin headed for the right and eventually moved into the lead. Team Origin lead around bottom gate but still only 18m in it so by no means game over. They headed up the beat carefully covering the French and managed to get back into a controlling position. Ben and the boys lead around top mark and headed downwind to the finish line managing to extend to nearly 100m and crossed the line in a winning position to move into the quarter finals to meet Damiani Italia. Meanwhile the other race had turned into a thrilling match. Luna Rossa had extended down the last run with a 150m lead, potentially enough of a lead to allow them to do their penalty turn and still finish ahead of the China Team. They dropped their kite literally on the line and did their turn with Ian Williams and China Team powered up behind and passing between the committee boat and Luna Rossa who by that stage were tacked but stalled. It really was a photo finish and everyone held their breath until the race committee announced the winner was Luna Rossa by a mere 1m and 1 second! Game over for China Team who after only a couple of weeks have managed to race competitively against the best of the teams here and look like they will be a force to contend with in the future. After a long delay with
the wind and rain squalls preventing the race committee to move on to
further races, all action was cancelled for the day at 4.15pm and the
teams headed back to base. |
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