Americans successfully defend

But it takes two attempts for the winners to secure the International Catamaran Challenge Trophy

Yesterday in Rimini John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree won their third International Catamaran Challenge Trophy in a row, once again defeating Italian duo Daniele Saragoni and Teo Di Battista 4-3 in what observers described as being probably the most exciting match race final ever sailed. In actual fact the US team had to win the Trophy twice.

The Organising Authority had decided, partly in order to satisfy the large crowd of journalists, photographers and cameramen, to start the second day of the final with a fleet race for the defeated teams from the Elimination Series. It was won quite easily by Mark Murray and Alex Efre-Perez, who confirmed the experts' expectations as being the third best team in Rimini. Then finally at 2.30pm the starting procedure for the sixth and potentially decisive race of the ICCT began.

The wind had been blowing at 10-11 knots from 115° and the sea was fairly flat. The conditions seemed finally suitable for both teams. The Americans had on previous days suffered from the superior lightwind boat speed of Saragoni and Di Battista. Lovell and Ogletree managed to win the start, but the Italians decided to follow the Americans and put their superior boat speed to good use, as, so far, tactically the US crew had seemed unbeatable.

At the weather mark the Americans led by 11 seconds and the same margin separated the two boats at the end of the first lap. By the time the two catamarans rounded the leeward mark there was a large number of boats on the race course. Many spectators and press boats, a few BluSail 24 Sports practising for their ISAF Grade 2 Match Race, to start in Rimini after the ICCT, a helicopter from SkySports which was sometimes flying as low as 3m from the water, and many others. All this noise apparently disturbed the competitors who both rounded a wrong yellow weather buoy instead of the usual big orange mark. Neither crew seemed to have heard or seen any signals for a change of course. The race went on without any interference from the Umpire with Lovell and Ogletree leading by a small but safe margin until the finish, leaving the tally at USA 3-Italy 3, exactly as in Newport in 2003.

The second race of the day was started at 3.15pm in about the same weather conditions. In the pre-start Lovell and Ogletree were as usual very aggressive and got straight on the tail of the Italian boat and managed to force a penalty against Saragoni and Di Battista. Lovell and Ogletree were then able to catch the Italians on port tack which resulted in the Italians heading for the side of the Committee boat. Saragoni and Di Battista tacked abruptly and stopped head to wind where they remained parked for a long time. They finally managed to cross the starting line after 47 seconds. The race was effectively over from then on.

Neither of the crews realised that they had not sailed the proper course until they came ashore one hour later. At this time the Italians filed a protest to have the sixth race rerun. New evidence provided by the Race Commitee and race assistants showed that the committee boat had not in fact displayed any course change. This meant that the Chief Umpire had to take a really painfully decision and send the competitors out to re-sail the race.

Luckily the wind was still blowing at 11-12 knots when at 6.45 the racecourse was set. It was the best wind seen since the start of the International Challenge Catamaran Trophy on 26 May.

The American Defenders opted for a very aggressive approach in the pre-start manouvering and they were able to give the Challengers not one but two penalties, the second worthy of a black flag. While sailing on starboard tack towards the pin end during which the Italians collided with the American's catamaran after which the US team immediately showed the red flag which meant that if the Italian team had won they would have got only half a point and it would have been necessary to sail an eighth race.
Lovell and Ogletree were able to start with three boat lengths to spare and at the first upwind mark they led by about 30 seconds. The Italians, still having better boat speed, managed to recover a few seconds each leg, even with the fairly strict covering of the Americans. After the third and final upwind leg they had only a 12 second margin with only one penalty left for Saragoni and Di Battista to complete (they had done their first 270° on the third upwind leg).

After rounding the weather mark Lovell and Ogletree tried to hoist their spinnaker but, for the first time, it became entangled at the end of their snuffer. They gybed in order to sort out the problem, but time was running out as the Italians were closing the gap. Finally the spinnaker filled and the US team went safely for the finish line. By the time the Italians had completed their second 270° their losing margin had increased to more than 20 seconds.

In the end the best team had prevailed (for the second time) even though Saragoni and Di Battista proved to be very worthy competition. The defeated Italian team was the first to congratulate Lovell and Ogletree and offered them two beers, while still on the water, to celebrate.

During the Awards Ceremony a lot of Champagne was sprayed and as tradition requires the ICCT winner had a bath fully dressed in the waters of the Marina di Rimini. Johnny Lovell and Charlie Ogletree have now equaled the Australian Simon McKeon as one of the most successful crews in the history of the ICCT with three wins apiece. Only Duncan McLane with five wins and Reg White with four have more.

More photos on page two...