The race that almost never was

Ed Gorman reports on a nerve wracking action packed third race for GBR Challenge

There are all sorts of ways to win a race in the Louis Vuitton Cup. One of them is to turn up almost exactly five minutes late for the pre-start, skip all the manoeuvreing in the box and just whizz round the committee boat with about two seconds to go and hit the line going like a train - with a penalty.

This is not the orthodox approach and beginners should be aware that there are pitfalls. It is very stressful to perform, and even to watch, and you need a "Get out of Jail" card somewhere in the game. You also need an opponent who is about as surprised as you are about what you are doing and you must accept that you will most likely lose.

So it was for the GBR Challenge boys in their extraordinary third race of the Louis Vuitton Cup on yesterday when they ended up with their first valuable point on the board after defeating a French crew on the bright yellow Le Defi Areva who must have wondered how on earth they contrived to sink to their fourth straight loss.

The day started boringly enough with a long windless postponement on a sunny afternoon on the Hauraki Gulf - reminiscent of those long windless days during the last America's Cup here when postponement was as frequent as racing. But with only about half an hour left before competition was due to be called off, race officers moved proceedings a couple of miles closer to the shore and suddenly we were in a building southerly breeeze and it was action stations.

Going into the race, the feeling was that the GBR Challenge crew needed the win. They had lost their first two races and a defeat at the hands of the French would have been an upset. The Le Defi team was very late getting its money and neither its boat nor its crew work has impressed since it got here. In the grand scheme of things the French are probably number eight in the Louis Vuitton pecking order and the Brits expected to beat them.

Towing slowly to windward as the course was being laid, Peter Harrison's crew tried something which may seem virtually risk-free but which almost undid them, and again one felt the shortfall in experience among these enthusiastic newcomers to the Louis Vuitton Cup. Having failed to anticipate the changing conditions they decided to swap mainsails from Code 2 to Code 3, something the French did not even contemplate.

Unfortunately the lower batten on the new sail kept popping out - it has apparently never done this before - and, as Wight Lightning headed further and further away still under tow, it quickly became obvious the Brits were going to be late. At the five-minute gun Le Defi was in the box, dancing without a partner. On GBR70 they were still wrestling with the new mainsail, with a man at the masthead and an automatic penality for not entering on time was inevitable.

After what seemed like hours, Wight Lightning eventually turned for the line, sailing goosewinged as the clock ticked down. The French were now a penalty to the good and with a perfect opportunity to hold their opponent above the line and kill matters off from the start. However, although they attacked starting helmsman Andy Green once, forcing him to dial up above the line, he was able to wriggle free and headed for the committee boat, where he did a superb handbrake turn. Green was just two seconds behind Le Defi at the off and to leeward of them and Wight Lightning was moving onto the course at full pace for the first time in this series.

"We knew exactly what we had to do," said a happy and relieved Green afterwards. "We knew we would have a penalty and we decided we just had to win the start. Fortunately we did; we were cock on the pin and we forced them away." Ian Walker, the skipper, admitted he was not sure how on earth he was going to explain losing a race in this fashion to the team owner, Peter Harrison, whose playbook does not include "racing without a mainsail." But Walker was impressed with how cool his crew kept under real pressure. "The guys did a great job," he said. "Everyone was very professional, they stayed focussed and calm and we were able to make good decisions."

The next task was to unload the penalty. The Brits did a good job of keeping pace up the beat without the bottom batten and with the leech flogging and then engaged the old enemy at the starboard layline. Luffing the French boat skippered on this occasion by Luc Pillot, they called for a penalty as the rigs almost touched, but it was greened. Then came the decisive moment of the race. Green takes up the story: "After we luffed them we came down on the mark and we did a better wind up - we trimmed on better - and we went inside them and they couldn't tack. But they decided to tack and they fouled us on a port and starboard."

The umpires took a dim view of Pillot's decision-making concluding the French had gained sufficient advantage, having rounded ahead, that they should award a double penalty. It was another extraordinary episode but a win for the GBR Challenge was suddenly on the cards. Pillot looked extremely pissed off at the post-race press conference. When asked about the rounding, he seemed confused about exactly what had happened. "I think we will have to find out about this situation with the umpires and with our rules advisor," he said rather lamely.

From then on Walker hung in with the bright yellow boat without attempting to get past, concluding it was a risk not worth taking. At the death, the French reached the line ahead but could not offload their penalty in time to stop Wight Lightning cruising through for a 13-second win. On board Harrison's 76ft motoryacht, Viking, the assembled company went nuts.