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November 15, 2010 |
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On this page, LVT Dubai Day 2 Statements: Emirates Team New Zealand Win Both Races
Racing against the French-German team All4One, Dean Barker and crew coped better with a light and shifty breeze in the first race and recovered well from being caught on the wrong side of a wind shift in the second. Racing was in the Emirates Team New Zealand yachts -- ETNZ in NZL-92 and All4One in NZL-84. Racing was close all the way. On these short courses, a three boat-length margin is proving to be a big lead. The start-finish line is situated half-way up the course, serving to keep racing close. The first beat and the second run are only .8 of nautical mile long. Races take between 30 and 40 minutes in the conditions experienced so far off Dubai. Skipper Dean Barker: “All4One kept it close in the first race and the lead was never more than a boat length so we were never comfortable, leading tactician Ray Davies to observe ruefully: It looks straight-forward out there but it’s not.” The first race was always close. Dean Barker and crew got a good start to leeward and used their control to force All4One to tack away. Barker said: We took them all the way to the right on the beat and pretty much led all the way to the finish. The margins were: Mark 1, 12 sec; Mark 2, 13 sec; Mark 3, 7 sec; Finish 23 sec. In the race two pre-start, NZL-92 fought hard for the right to capitalize on a big right shift in a rain squall that went down the side of the course. They got what the start they wanted and then the breeze went left.... All4One grabbed the opportunity and led around the first mark by 10 seconds. New Zealand attacked on the run; All4One defended well and looked like they might hold Barker off. Approaching the mark Barker and his crew attacked again and this time roiled over the opposition and led around the mark. The margin was only 8 sec, but the lead was enough for NZL-92 to control the long beat and the margin at the top mark extended to 19 sec, NZL-92 covered down the run and crossed the line 17 sec ahead. -- From ETNZ
The Synergy Russian Sailing Team and Emirates Team New Zealand both featured in come-from-behind victories during close competition today at the Louis Vuitton Dubai. Their efforts put the Kiwis and Russians second and third respectively in the standings after Day Two but it is James Spithill’s American team BMW Oracle Racing that enjoys first place with a perfect 4-0 score. Weather played a role in curtailing racing, forcing the race committee to postpone one match until tomorrow. The start of racing was delayed as the race committee waited for the sea breeze to fill in. One hour before the scheduled start at noon there was barely a breath of wind as the temperature hit 30 C on its way to a forecast high of 32 deg. Racing got under way an hour and a half later in a building northerly breeze. Later in the afternoon a gusty, dusty breeze off the desert heralded an easterly wind shift and briefly postponed competition before racing restarted in 15-knot northeaster. The Synergy team, which narrowly missed winning the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena earlier this year, pulled out all the stops in their race against Mascalzone Latino Audi, the challenger-of-record for the 34th Americas Cup in 2013. Synergy’s helmsman Francesco Bruni went for the jugular in the prestart, only to be penalized for hitting the safety wands on the stern of his opponents boat. Undaunted, he eked out a 120 meter lead by the top of the second windward leg and completed his penalty turn to round in company with Mascalzone. Now the Italians led but only until their spinnaker parted company with its halyard and fell in the sea. Game, set, and match to the Russians. We had quite a mixed pre-start, said Synergy tactician Rod Dawson, with masterful understatement. Then we came off the start line with a small edge and capitalized on that. We extended up the beat and throughout the race. We were sailing really well. There were lead changes too in the contest between Emirates Team New Zealand and the French/German boat All4One. Dean Barker won the start only to surrender the lead half way up the first beat as his opponent Sebastien Col pulled off a risky port tack cross. Closing the leeward mark, the Kiwis rolled their opponents and grabbed an inside overlap plus the lead at the mark, despite an untidy spinnaker drop that threatened to put the brakes on their advance. It was a tricky little race, said ETNZ tactician Ray Davies. It was a very difficult course with quite big wind shifts and the game was changing all the time. It looked straightforward but it wasn’t. Flight One, Race One, Emirates Team New Zealand def All4One, 00:23 At the gun, Dean Barker steered the Kiwi team to a perfect start to leeward of the French/German boat, eventually forcing Sebastien Col away. At the weather mark ETNZ led by 12 seconds but had to work hard to hold off the opponents nipping at their heels. Flight One, Race Two, BMW Oracle Racing def
Artemis Racing, 00:27 Artemis tactician Iain Percy called for a
pin end start, while Oracle was well up the line as they started
together. At the top mark James Spithill had the American
boat 17 seconds ahead but they went through the downwind gate
side by side. Oracle shredded a spinnaker approaching the
leeward gate and Artemis Cameron Appleton closed, only to be
denied an inside overlap protest.
Flight Two, Race One, Emirates Team New Zealand def All4One, 00:17 ETNZ enjoyed an early lead before Col pulled off a close port tack cross half way up the leg. All4One controlled the right and rounded the top mark 10 seconds in front. Closing the leeward mark the Kiwis rolled their opponents and went on to win. Flight Two, Race Two, BMW Oracle Racing def Artemis Racing, 00:37 Skipper James Spithill wanted the left and grabbed it after taking Cameron Appleton and Artemis out into the spectator fleet in a lively and noisy circling duel. Spithill led back and tacked onto port right at the pin end of the line. When Appleton eventually came back on starboard, the American boat was already 60 meters clear ahead and pulling away. Flight Three, Race One, Synergy Russian Sailing Team def Mascalzone Latino Audi, 01:19 Aggressive tactics before the start cost Synergy a penalty as Francesco Bruni attempted to hook Gavin Brady’s Mascalzone. Brady started at the committee and went right but Bruni got up on his hip and held the Italian boat above the starboard layline to lead at the next two marks. Synergy had a 120-meter edge as the breeze softened on the second beat. A penalty turn put the Russian boat back into contention but Mascalzone rounded the weather mark just three seconds in front. The Italian boats voyage to victory ended when the spinnaker came off the halyard and went in the water. Provisional Results: 1. BMW Oracle Racing, 4-0, 4 pts 2. Emirates Team New Zealand, 3-1, 2.5 pts * 3. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 2-1, 2 pts 4. Artemis Racing, 1-3, 1 pt =5. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 1-2, 0 pts * =5. All4One, 0-4, 0 pts * Scoring penalty deducted by Umpires Note: Racing will start tomorrow, Tuesday at 1:00 pm local time. The Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai is under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, the principal sponsor of the event. -- From Louis Vuitton Trophy
BMW Oracle Racing scored another two victories today at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai and remains atop the leaderboard with four wins from four races. The team, winner of the 33rd America’s Cup last February, defeated Sweden’s Artemis Racing by 27 and 37 seconds on Day 2, and has the only unblemished record among the six teams at the event. Similar to yesterday, skipper James Spithill (Sydney, Australia) did a masterful job in the pre-start, controlling his opponent to win the favored end. On the racecourse, tactician John Kostecki (San Francisco, Calif.) made sound decisions on where to go and was supported by solid crew work. “It was another great day for the team. It’s very pleasing to go 4-0,” said navigator Ian Moore of Cowes, England. “We’re sailing well and Jimmy’s starting well, which makes everyone’s life a bit easier. So far, so good.” The crew is clicking so well in these early days of the two-week, match racing regatta that not even a blown gennaker could derail the Cup champs. Approaching the leeward gate in the first race, the gennaker blew out after a gybe to starboard. “We got a little unlucky with the takedown line catching on the jockey pole in the last gybe to the mark and the gennaker ripped,” said grinder Simeon Tienpont of the Netherlands. “It can happen, but we solved it well. There might’ve been a little bit of panic onboard, but sometimes you need that.” While Tienpont and the crew recovered from the blown sail, Moore was kept busy all day with his navigation computer. The short, tight racecourses – the first leg is measuring .8 nautical miles and the start-finish line serves as a mid-course gate – place a premium on accurate laylines, the optimum course to the next mark. “From a navigator’s point of view there’s plenty going on,” said Moore. “With the mid-course gate there’s a whole new set of laylines to worry about upwind and downwind. You need a slightly different mindset because there’s a chance of a penalty situation at the gate, but it’s good. It’s a change, it’s different, it’s interesting.” In between races a large windshift came through with heavy cloud cover that appeared to be bringing rain to the racecourse, but it was a different phenomenon. “There was a huge buildup of cumulus cloud over land that looked like a rain cloud,” said Moore. “But here you don’t get rain, so it pushed out to the course in the form of sand. We got 18 knots and a big right shift. As soon as it started to fade it shifted back to the left. For an hour we had very, very shifty conditions, but I think John called it very well and we made the most of it.” Racing is scheduled to resume tomorrow with no start planned before noon, and BMW Oracle Racing is scheduled to race Synergy Russian Sailing Team.
It was another tense day on the waters off Dubai for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team that lost the only race against Synergy when a defective halyard clip suddenly opened, causing the spinnaker to come down. The Italian team’s third race in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai got off with an intense duel in the prestart that cost the Russians a penalty flag after they hit the sticks at the stern of the Mascalzone Latino Audi Team yacht. The two yachts crossed the starting line neck and neck and although the Italians, led by Gavin Brady (NZL), managed to stay close, the Russians were able to make small gains that eventually became four boatlengths at the leeward gate. In the second beat, the “Latin Rascals” were able to catch up, closely following their opponents that still had to offload their penalty. While approaching the second weather mark, Synergy decided to carry out their penalty circle, most probably an extremely risky move since the distance from the Italian boat was too short to guarantee they would be able to hold on to their leadership. It didn’t take long to prove it was an unwise decision, as Gavin Brady (NZL) with great precision and timing, succeeded in getting through to leeward of them and beat them around the mark. It was a spectacular move by Vincenzo Onorato’s boat and the race was wide open once again. It truly was a feat that allowed the “Latin Rascals” to gain an advantage of a mere 3 seconds that then increased as the race went on. Then disaster stroke onboard the Italian boat: The spinnaker went in the water and the race turned upside down. It was gear failure while the crew was not to blame but the race was inevitably compromised. When the spinnaker was hoisted again and Mascalzone came back into the game it was too late. The Italians crossed the finish line 1 minute 14 behind the Russians. Unlucky Rascals but also substandard gear provided by the organizers. Today, onboard NZL-84, the yacht assigned to Onorato’s team, the first breakage was the gearbox of the winch, forcing the team’s grinders to Herculean efforts while seriously compromising the strategic options given the inability to tack or gybe effectively. The first failure was followed by the accidental opening of the halyard clip that according to Mascalzone Latino was defective and compromised the race. Tomorrow, weather allowing, Mascalzone Latino onboard USA-87 will face in the first and second flight the German-French team ALL4One. The third flight will actually be the match that couldn’t be sailed today and Mascalzone will once again race against Synergy. In that match as well, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team is assigned a New Zealand yacht, NZL-84. The first race is scheduled at 1pm local time, 10am CET. Quotes of the day: Paul “Flipper” Westlake, genoa trimmer on Mascalzone Latino Audi Team: “There is certainly a lot of action when Mascalzone Latino sail, two days in a row now. We are making it a little bit hard for ourselves but we feel we are sailing well. Sailing can be like this; it’s a little bit of momentum. We feel we are doing all the basics right and it’s just a matter of a few things coming together for us. We had a problem with the winch today, right off the start line and that makes it very tough to be aggressive upwind and downwind and then the halyard came undone. It had never happened to us before and nobody knows why. It was a tough day.” “Because of our problem with the winch we couldn’t tack and gybe effectively. As a result, Synergy managed to extend their lead in the second beat and at the top mark they judged they had just enough distance to offload the penalty there. They did it but we did a great job and we got through to leeward of them and beat them around the top mark. Still, with our handicap, the broken winch, we only had one option afterwards, to do a gybe set”. “The strength of our team can be seen on days like this when something breaks onboard. We do have breakdown procedures; we don’t actually practice them but they are such an experienced crew and they quickly went into the breakdown procedure but as you can imagine, you can’t push these boats to 100%.” Referring to the gear failure Flipper had to say: “The gearbox of the winch shattered in the final tack to the start. As for the halyard, we absolutely don’t know. We went into a gybe and through its course the spinnaker filled and just came down. For some reason the clip was open, it came undone but it hadn’t been undone for the three minutes before that.” Paul Westlake concludes by stating: “We measure ourselves by the points we have on the board and we obviously don’t look so good right now. Still, there is absolutely no problem onboard, we are very, very confident. In the last two races we were behind for different reasons and by the time we reached the second top mark we managed to overtake them. We feel really good as a crew and it’s very motivating to come from behind and be ahead at a critical point of the day. We feel confident that a couple of things will go our way and the points will come. It’s only the second day and it’s a long round robin. ” --From Mascalzone Latino Audi Links of Interest: Louis Vuitton Trophy:
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