Even stephens

As Team Dennis Conner even the balance in Louis Vuitton quarter finals

Alinghi SUI-64 beat Luna Rossa ITA-74
Delta 0:08. Alinghi leads 2:0

If this were a downwind race, the result would have been very different with Prada’s Luna Rossa gaining over one minute combined on the downwind legs. But Russell Coutts and Alinghi were very quick and dominant upwind, and led the race from start to finish.

Coutts started well and converted a small favourable windshift into a 17-second lead at the top mark. Italian skipper Francesco de Angelis cut that lead in half on the first run, but Coutts sailed a smart second beat, picking the shifts and extending to what seemed to be a safe 37-second lead.

But again, Prada’s silver bullet was blazing downwind, and cut 24 seconds off the advantage. The final beat was similar with Alinghi stretching away again. Luna Rossa didn’t appear to make in-roads until the very end of the final run when it split off for the opposite end of the finish line.

Good pressure and a slight shift allowed Luna Rossa to close right up, but the Italians ran out of room, finishing a couple of boatlengths behind.

It was observed the Alinghi was showing great upwind ability, but was not so hot downwind. "Obviously that’s what we saw, but we’re obviously trying as hard as we do upwind on the downwind as well. In these tricky conditions it’s much easier for the attacking boat to sail their own race and at the same time the defender has to achieve two objectives – defending and still sailing the breeze. It’s quite difficult, obviously it’s even more difficult downwind when the trailing boat actually carries the wind down. So, I think we don’t believe we are slow, but we didn’t gain, we lost all the downwinds, that’s true.

Conversely Prada tactician Torben Grael commented on Prada deficit in upwind pace compared to the Swiss: "The racing has been very close, although today was a bit more difficult for us on the upwind legs. We weren’t managing to get as close as we wanted on the top mark a couple of times. But we were still making good moves on the downwind leg. It feels good to be close but it doesn’t feel so good to be down 2-0. We’re looking forward to getting a little better."

He added: "I think the boat is definitely improving, and I like to think we still have more to improve on there. It’s not enough probably - at least the results don’t show it. I think the boat’s going well downwind, I think we probably have a little edge on them downwind. But it’s not all that it looks like when you’re gaining almost 30 seconds in each leg. It’s just that a part of it might be the boat, but I think it’s also the situation. The same goes for upwind. Some of the legs they gained a lot on us upwind and I don’t think that’s all boat speed. They have a little edge on us upwind but it’s not that much.