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November 23, 2010 |
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On this page, LVT Dubai Round Robin 2/Day 10
Statements:
Semi-Finalists Decided at Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai Sailing teams from the USA, New Zealand, Italy and France will contest the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai starting Friday. The final places were set in stone when the Synergy Russian Sailing Team and Sweden’s Artemis Racing were eliminated in competition today in waters off the Dubai International Marine Club. The USA’s BMW Oracle Racing and Emirates Team New Zealand, seeded first and second after ten days of round robin racing, each consolidated their positions with victories in their respective races. The New Zealanders denied Synergy a place in the semi-finals in a sharp contrast with the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena when the Russian team finished second, losing to the Kiwi team only after a closely-fought 3-2 series. “We’re pretty happy with our performance today,” said Ray Davies, tactician for Emirates Team New Zealand. “Against Synergy and against All4One it was pretty light and shifty and it’s so important to get that first shift off the start line.” “We have had a patchy regatta to date but we’ve still qualified second. BMOR have been the stand-out so far but with these events, you gotta win the last race and not the first one. It’s important of course to keep improving and we think we’ve done that.” The second race today saw BMW Oracle Racing, holders of the Americas Cup, win against Italy’s Mascalzone Latino Audi team, the challenger of record for the next Americas Cup in 2013. James Spithill, skipper of the American boat, adroitly finished this race before it started, landing a penalty on Mascalzone’s Gavin Brady in a tense pre-start maneuvering stand-off. The loss could have been fatal for the Italians who were trailing on the leaderboard earlier in the regatta. However two inspired performances on Monday had boosted their points and their chances. The French/German boat All4One eliminated Artemis Racing in their race today to clinch their place in the final four, a result that might have taken the sting out of a loss to Emirates Team New Zealand in the final race of the day. “We could start the last race today quite relaxed,” said Jochen Schumann, All4Ones skipper. “It’s important to get to the next round and we made it! We sailed quite well as a team and we generally lost by quite small margins. The competition is very even. Now we have a new chance in the semi-finals.” Tomorrow is a lay day for the sailing crews and a maintenance day for the shore crews. On Thursday, the teams will compete in a one-day fleet-race series. The semi-finals and finals will be raced on Friday and Saturday. Flight One, Race One, Emirates Team New Zealand def Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 00:47 The Kiwis came from behind to win. Both boats were early, head to wind, before the start as ETNZ split away to the committee while the Russians went for the pin. Francesco Bruni and his Russian team got off the line going to the left and found more pressure to lead by nine seconds at the top mark. Dean Barker and the Kiwis made up ground on the run and trailed by just three seconds at the bottom gate. They split on the beat with Barker claiming the left and making dramatic gains. Benefitting from a shift and more pressure, ETNZ led by 1:12 at the top mark and coasted home to consolidate their second overall place. The Kiwi victory eliminated from the semi-finals the team that finished second at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena. Flight One, Race Two, BMW Oracle Racing def Mascalzone Latino Audi, 00:15 In the pre-start, Americas Cup champion skipper James Spithill delivered a master class in starting to his rival Gavin Brady. Two minutes before the gun and with both boats almost stationary after a dialup BMWOR claimed and got a penalty as Mascalzone turned to get clear. It was a good time to come away, said Ian Moore, navigator for the American boat. They tried to tack with us but they were slow so we were able to point right at them and claim the penalty." The Italian boat extricated itself and went right. It led for most of the first leg until Oracle spurted ahead in new breeze at the top of the first beat and never looked back. We could have been more aggressive in the pre-start but a penalty for hard contact would have costs us points and were already into the semi-finals, said Mascalzone Latino tactician Morgan Larson. Flight Two, Race One, All4One def Artemis Racing, 00:22 The stakes were high with both boats facing the prospect of elimination. All4One used the advantage of the starboard entry to claim the right side of the course in a soft, shifty westerly breeze. They started in tandem on starboard with Sweden’s Artemis Racing to leeward. Sebastien Col immediately tacked the French/German boat to port, ceding the early going to Artemis Cameron Appleton. Three minutes later, Col crossed clear ahead by a boat length and a half to lead for the rest of the race and scupper Artemis' hopes for the semi-finals. Flight Two, Race Two, Emirates Team New Zealand def All4One, 00:45 This final match of the Round Robin would have no impact on the final standings, which was just as well for All4One. The race was decided at the start when Emirates Team New Zealand elected to take the left side. Shortly after the start gun fired, a big left shift rumbled down the course giving the Kiwis a massive lead at the top mark. Game over Provisional Results after Day Four of RR2: 1. BMW Oracle Racing, 13-2, 17 pts
* A scoring penalty has been assessed by the umpires 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, led by its 31-year-old skipper James Spithill of Australia, advanced to the semifinal round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai as the top-ranked team with 17 points on a 13-2 record. The American team wrapped its account of the round robin series with a 51-second victory over Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, the Challenger of Record for the 34th America’s Cup. By winning the round robin BMW Oracle Racing earned the right to choose its opponent when the next round begins on Friday. “It feels like we’re sailing like a proper race team again,” said Dirk de Ridder of The Netherlands, who trimmed the wingsail for BMW Oracle Racing in its victory in the 33rd America’s Cup. “We were a bit rusty, so to speak.” Spithill has done a masterful job in the pre-starts, the afterguard of John Kostecki, Murray Jones and Ian Moore has made sound calls on the racecourse, and the crew has performed cleanly in all maneuvers. Credit goes to the crew and coaches Philippe Presti and Dean Phipps for breaking down every position and rebuilding it with confidence. “Everyone has stepped up enormously,” de Ridder said. “We’ve put quite a bit of effort into the RC44s and the SM40s in Valencia, and it’s paying off. It feels really good to be back on again.” Today’s race, however, might’ve been won yesterday when Mascalzone Latino scored two victories and moved up the leaderboard into third place, nearly guaranteeing itself a spot the semifinals. The only thing that could’ve prevented the Italians from advancing was penalty points from the umpires, and they sailed knowing that consequence. Although determined to avoid close-quarters situation, Mascalzone was penalized during the pre-start sequence when it got too close to BMW Oracle Racing, on starboard tack, while backing down. “We couldn’t afford hard contact,” said Mascalzone tactician Morgan Larson. “Hard contact for us would’ve meant a loss of points and we wouldn’t have advanced to the semifinals. We’re already in the semifinals, so when we saw they were being aggressive we backed off and handed it to them.” Joining BMW Oracle in the semifinals are Emirates Team New Zealand, Mascalzone Latino Audio Team and All4One, the combined French/German team. Tomorrow is a scheduled lay day at the regatta that runs through Saturday. Thursday’s schedule calls for fleet racing before the semifinals on Friday. Semifinal picks must be made by Thursday night, but there’s no indication from the crew as to their preference. “That’s up to the chiefs,” said de Ridder. Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai Standings 1. BMW Oracle Racing (USA) James Spithill – 17 points (13-2) 2. Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker – 12.5 points (9-6)* 3. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team (ITA) Gavin Brady – 8 points (6-9)* 4. All4One (FRA/GER) Sebastien Col – 8 points (6-9) 5. Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) Francesco Bruni – 6 points (6-9)* 6. Artemis Racing (SWE) Cameron Appleton – 5 points (5-10) (* Points deducted for collision) --From BMW Oracle
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team Moves into Semifinals
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team concluded today the second round robin of Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai, holding third place on the overall leaderboard, thus clinching a spot in the semifinals that kick off on Thursday, November 25th. It was however a result carved in stone yesterday, when Gavin Brady (NZL) reacted to the fact he was at the bottom of the score table with two important and decisive victories. If in the eighth day it was important not to commit any errors, the minimum objective in the ninth and final day of the qualifying series was to avoid getting involved in any incident or carelessness that could result in penalties deducting extremely valuable points from Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. However, Gavin Brady, famous for being a match racing warrior even in the very last race against BMW Oracle Racing, didn’t go down without a fight. In fact, it was already evident during the pre-start that he didn’t hesitate and was ready to fight for the last two points. However, a penalty received after tacking too close in the pre-start, marked the rest of the race. James Spithill (AUS), already ahead by a boatlength coming off the starting line, sailed the first beat controlling the Italians and then went to hold on to his lead until the finish line, despite the constant pressure put on him by Mascalzone. What really counts for the “Latin Rascals” is the fact they were capable of reversing the dire prospects hanging over Vincenzo Onorato’s, facing the possibility of an early exit from the event. Mascalzone Latino didn’t start their races in the United Arab Emirates, last occasion to watch the ACC’s taking part in world-class races, in the best of ways. After a very tensed opening Sunday, when the most controversial incident of the event took place in the race against Emirates Team New Zealand and cost one penalty point, a second day marked by gear failure and a third day that started with two losses, the mediocre performance of the Italian crew and a final score in Round Robin 1 with just three victories in ten races and just two points clear of the bottom, the worst-case scenario was seeming very probable. In Round Robin 2, on the other hand, things went much better. In the races where losing was not an option, if they didn’t want to pack their bags and go back home, the adaptation period of the crew was finally over. The decisive matches against the opponents vying for third and fourth place were won with comfortable margins. The only losses were against the old-time favorites: the New Zealanders and the practically invincible Americans of BMW Oracle. After a day off on Wednesday, the racing schedule will resume on Thursday with a series of fleet races, introduced for the first time in the class of yachts during the Louis Vuitton Acts, held from 2004 to 2007. The semifinals will take place on Friday, November 26th. The pairings list is still not known and it is the overall leader of the qualifying series, BMW Oracle Racing, that will choose its opponent. The other pair will consist of the two remaining teams. It’s very probable BMW Oracle will either choose Mascalzone Latino Audi Team or All4One. Quotes of the day Cameron Dunn (NZL), Mascalzone Latino
Audi Team wind spotter told: "During this Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai, Mascalzone Latino improved day by day. Dunn told: “We didn’t start the regatta very well and we had to improve. We knew that coming into it and that’s the whole idea of those events; to get better. We wanted to do our best sailing in the weekend. Friday we will definitely try to ramp it up another notch, for sure.” Cameron spoke about the payback from La Maddalena where they were in the semifinals but then they were out: “I think we’ve done some things better here than we did in La Maddalena. We probably haven’t sailed tactically as well but we are definitely getting better here. We had a very good day yesterday and that has given us a lot of confidence. It was a come-from-behind must-win race for us and to do that has given us really good confidence. We deserve to be in the semifinals and whoever we end up racing they will have a tough fight.” Cameron Dunn concluded saying: “In round robin 2 we have been improving, we won three out of five races. It was always getting close and yesterday we were all seeing things a little better, with more clarity, Gavin started well yesterday, he just missed the final part of the second start and if it weren’t for that we would have been dominating. I’m sure we will all put a very good performance together.” Morgan Larson (USA), Mascalzone Latino
Audi Team tactician, still on board, told: Final overall leaderboard after Round Robin 1 & 2:
--From Mascalzone Latino Audi Team
Well, it came down to the crunch today. We needed three pieces of the puzzle to go our way, one of which was completely within our control. In the first race today, Emirates Team New Zealand came from behind to overtake Synergy (RUS), that was the first piece of the puzzle. The second piece was our race against ALL4ONE. It was a must win. We had to win to have any chance of continuing through to the semi-finals. The third piece was to have been Emirates Team New Zealand's win over ALL4ONE in the last race of the day. The breeze was light and shifty and we were up against the French/German team in the first race of the second flight. We wanted the left side of the course and to be tight to leeward at the start. We got both. Perfect. But we made the wrong call regarding the course. I think ALL4ONE must have wanted the right side. They chose it and were off. From there they comfortably crossed us at the first meet and despite our best efforts we just couldn't get to them. We sailed a really good race considering our bad call at the start. We tried to go out there to have a fun day and enjoy it. And we thought we would enjoy it by winning! But when it comes down to it, we've had a tough series and a tough week. That said, the guys have really stuck with it. It has been frustrating on a bunch of levels because we felt like we were nearly there and are just catching ourselves out on a few things around the course. Overall, it is extremely disappointing but in many ways satisfying. Satisfying because the guys gave it everything and we never gave up once. But it's disappointing to finish at the bottom of the table, that is for sure. Cameron Links of Interest: Louis Vuitton Trophy:
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