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November 14, 2010 |
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On this page, LVT Dubai Day 1 Statements: BMW Oracle Racing in the Lead on Day 1
James Spithill, winner of the 33rd America's Cup and defender of the 34th America's Cup, topped the standings on the opening day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai. The young Australian skipper steered BMW Oracle Racing to a 2-0 record over the French/German boat All4One while the other four boats in the contest posted 1-1 records. Racing was close and eventful on the short windward-leeward courses tucked into gulf waters between Dubai Creek and the palm-tree shaped man-made islands of The Palm Jumeirah. There were two collisions, one serious, when Dean Barkers Emirates Team New Zealand speared its spinnaker pole through the side of Mascalzone Latino Audi steered by Gavin Brady. No one was hurt but Brady was penalized twice in the incident and race officials asked Brady to withdraw to avoid further damage to the Kiwi boat. Cameron Dunn from Mascalzone said his team was head to wind when the New Zealand boat tried to turn inside them and their spinnaker pole sliced into the brittle carbonfiber topsides of the Italian boat. “It went straight through the carbonfiber,” Dunn said. “It’s not a very thick skin at that point. It’s not designed to take impacts on the side. We’re lucky it wasn’t much worse. It could have been considerably worse. I’m surprised the bow didn’t hit. Luckily it was just the spinnaker pole. No one was hurt. It was pretty exciting for the 18th man in the back, and the television cameraman. “ Ray Davies, tactician on ETNZ said: “It was pretty dramatic. Obviously not what anyone wants. A lot of damage, a broken spinnaker pole and a big hole in a boat. It’s not a good way to start but the guys are working on repairs and it should be OK for tomorrow.” Following a jury hearing into the collision, Mascalzone Latino Audi was docked one point while ETNZ lost half a point. Before racing started, race officials had warned sailors about actions that might render boats incapable of racing. In the other incident, young French helmsman Sebastien Col flicked the bow of his French/German boat All4One into the safety wands on the stern of BMW Oracle Racing. The contact earned him a penalty flag and he lost the race. Dubai skies were clear, hot and sunny skies as racing got under way after a short delay. The sea breeze came in at 6-8 knots and built to 14 to 15 knots as the afternoon wore on. Boats raced twice around a windward-leeward course with a mid course start finish line that also served as a gate for all legs. Flight One, Race One, Mascalzone Latino Audi def Emirates Team New Zealand, 00:27 At the start ETNZ split away on port tack while Mascalzone bore off on starboard with an early lead. Gavin Brady, skippering the Italian boat seized the early advantage and controlled the race, leading at every mark and fending off the New Zealanders as they threatened to overtake at the leeward mark. Flight One, Race Two, Artemis Racing def Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 00:30 It was all over before the start gun as Cameron Appleton on Artemis threatened to push Synergy above the committee boat as they approached on starboard tack. Francesco Bruni elected to squeeze into the narrowing gap between his opponent and the committee to. Seconds later the umpires signaled a red flag penalty requiring an immediate penalty turn. The Swedish boat led comfortably and finished 122 meters ahead. Flight Two, Race One, Emirates Team New Zealand def Mascalzone Latino Audi, ret This race ended with a bang. Dean Barker carried Gavin Brady far above the wrong side of the weather mark before the boats collided after rounding. The Kiwi spinnaker pole speared through the side of the Italian boat leaving Brady with two penalties for the mark rounding scuffle. Minutes later Mascalzone Latino was asked to withdraw to avoid further damage. Barker sailed on to take the point. Flight Two Race Two, Synergy Russian Sailing Team def Artemis Racing, 00:31 Both boats wanted the right at the start but it was Artemis who controlled and split off on port to claim the right hand advantage. Half-way up the first leg, the Russian boat clawed back to take a narrow 11 second lead at the top mark before extending and protecting their lead for the rest of the race. Flight Three, Race One, BMW Oracle Racing def All4One, 00:17 - James Spithill landed a penalty on the French/German boat and led it off the line with a 60-metre advantage after a spirited pre-start exchange. All4One helmsman Sebastien Col had attempted to duck below his opponent and hook him as they approached the line but as his bow pinged the safety wands on the American boats stern, the umpire’s flag went up. Col kept it close but the race belonged to Spithill. Flight Four, Race One, BMW Oracle Racing def All4One, 00:24 - The Americans wanted the right and controlled the start but Sebastien Col started perfectly to leeward and the margin was seldom more than a meter either way as they sailed for three and a half minutes out to the layline. BMW Oracle rounded eight seconds ahead, gradually extended on the following legs and finished 85 meters ahead. Results: 1. BMW ORACLE Racing, 2-0, 2 pts =2. Artemis Racing, 1-1, 1 pt =2. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 1-1, 1 pt 4. Emirates Team New Zealand, 1-1, 0.5 pts * 5. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 1-1, 0 pts * 6. All4One, 0-2, 0 pts * Scoring penalty deducted by 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/WSTA
One could say that the Louis Vuitton Trophy di Dubai started, literally, with a “bang”. For Mascalzone Latino Audi Team the day had in store a magnificent victory over the New Zealanders in the opening race and a forced retirement in the second one after being hit by the kiwis. For the Italian team it was a day with sweet and sour aftertaste but undoubtedly one to remember. The very first race of the event started with a 30-minute delay over the schedule, as race officials waited for the breeze to stabilize, and was dominated by the “Latin Rascals” from the very onset. After a good start, on the left, the crew led by New Zealander Gavin Brady built a comfortable advantage during the first beat and was able to maintain it halfway through the first run when an erroneous gybe onboard Mascalzone Latino gave their opponents the opportunity to take the lead from Vincenzo Onorato’s team. However, it was meant to be a very short-lived lead when a good tactical call from the afterguard of the Italian boat allowed them to sneak in and round the second mark ahead. From there on it was game over, as the “Latin Rascals” sailed flawlessly, in sync with the wind, gaining meter after meter until they crossed the finish line 27 seconds ahead of the Kiwi yacht, helmed by Dean Barker. In the day’s second race, after a very tight start Mascalzone Latino Audi Team and Emirates Team New Zealand, when the two yachts were approaching the weather mark, they collided: the spinnaker pole of the yacht helmed by Dean Barker literally pierced through the right side of NZL-84, helmed by Gavin Brady. Despite the dubious Kiwi maneuver, the umpires flagged Mascalzone Latino Audi Team with two penalties, and one being red had to be immediately offloaded. Both teams sailed on spinnakers to the leeward gate but the Italian boat was suffering from clearly visible damage, not far from the runners. As a result, when they were about to drop their spinnaker, Mascalzone Latino Audi was told by the Race Committee to abandon the race, while Team New Zealand sailed off to finish. Once on shore, the Jury heard the arguments of both teams and penalized them for the damage caused by the incident. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team lost one point while Emirates Team New Zealand half a point. Shore crews will have a busy night but the organization has confirmed that tomorrow, both kiwi yachts will be on the water, as scheduled. Tomorrow, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team will have to face the Russian team Synergy, in the third and fourth flight of the day. Cameron Dunn, following the Jury decision: “We are not happy with the Jury’s decision. Quite clearly we think it’s a poor decision and we are adamant there is no way why Team New Zealand needed to have a collision with us. They made a very bad decision, trying to go behind us, get locked and thrust into us. It is a disgraceful decision for us to lose one point while they lose only half a point. We feel that Team New Zealand created the collision 100% on their own doing. We don’t understand the decision. "We were told on the radio to stop racing. We didn’t retire, it was the race committee that told us to stop and that’s what we did. I think it’s something being discussed at the moment, to try and see what happened. It’s our understanding Team New Zealand didn’t win the race because we were told to stop. It’s up in the air right now." "However, we don’t want to let this thing ruin
our day, because actually it was a very good day. We had a
really good win in the first race and we were having another very
good one in the second one. As far as our sailing goes, we
are very happy. We have a very good feeling on the boat and
we are not going to let this get us down. It’s a long round
robin with a lot of points left on the table."
Quotes of the day: Cameron Dunn, strategist on Mascalzone
Latino, shortly after the end of racing: "Coming into the mark we were head to wind and, basically, Team New Zealand didn’t avoid us. There is no reason in the world a collision should have taken place. Even if we were we wrong as far as the rules are concerned, no way in the world there needs to be a collision in this situation. They made the wrong choice trying to go that way and did a big hole in the back of the boat." Morgan Larson, tactician on di
Mascalzone Latino: "To me it felt they were 3-3.5 lengths out, so we should have been allowed to go inside them at the mark. It would be interesting to see what the umpires say the situation was there. Then we came around and we got stuck head to wind and slow. We were tacking in front of them and they had no reason to hit us. They could have avoided us by going above the mark, running the mark over. They chose to go behind us and I feel it’s a really poor decision. It’s going to take the boat out of play for a little while. We were head to wind with no options and they chose to bear away and run into us. In my opinion, it was a completely wrong decision by them." -- From Mascalzone Latino Audi Team
By scoring two wins against no losses today BMW Oracle Racing holds the early lead at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Dubai. BMW Oracle Racing, led by its America’s Cup-winning skipper James Spithill of Australia, won its two races against All4One, a combined French/German team. Spithill and crew were aided by All4One in the first race when it was penalized for grazing the keep-off wands on the transom of the American yacht. The second race was close for the first lap, BMW Oracle Racing led by 9 seconds at the first two mark roundings, but then opened its lead on the second upwind leg and won by 24 seconds. “It’s good to come off the water with two wins, it was a good day,” said tactician John Kostecki of San Francisco, Calif. “We had a nice breeze, about 12 to 15 knots from a northerly quadrant. In practice we’ve been working hard on certain things and it all came together today,” Kostecki continued. “We started well, had really good boat-handling and seemed to go the right way most of the time. We had all the options because we won the starts.” The races against All4One were classic for the tacking duels. On the first beat of Race 1 the teams combined for nearly 25 tacks on the short course whose first leg measured less than 1 nautical mile. The racecourse has been modified with the start line placed above the leeward mark and serving as a gate both upwind and down. “You lose count of the tacks when you’re on the handles, but it was full-on,” said mastman Shannon Falcone of Antigua. On the upwind legs Falcone is second grinder on the mainsail with Joe Spooner of New Zealand. He could feel the burn. “It’s the meat and potatoes of sailing,” Falcone said. “You know on these short courses that if you can tack someone out to the layline you can have the lead at the mark,” said the Antiguan. “The gate’s keeping racing close downwind as well, which is good for the spectators and us as competitors.” Falcone has rallied some of his mates for a different cause. November is the global prostate cancer awareness month, and Falcone, Jono MacBeth (New Zealand), Gillo Nobili (Italy) And and Simeon Tinepont (Netherlands), as well as some other team members, have grown a mustache in support of the fight against prostate cancer. “It’s something that came up in a training session before coming here,” Falcone said. “I remember growing up a lot of professional sailors rockin’ the mo’ quite strongly. There are still a few guys who run it today, but I won’t mention any names. “The fact that this event was over November and it’s the final class event, we just decided to do it,” Falcone said. “It’s a great way to help raise awareness.” Racing resumes tomorrow with BMW Oracle Racing scheduled to race Artemis Racing of Sweden, an official challenger for the 34th America’s Cup, in two heats. Racing isn’t scheduled to begin before 1100 local. -- From BMW Oracle Racing Links of Interest: Louis Vuitton Trophy:
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