Curtain closes

First blood for BMW Oracle Racing at end of Act 1 of 32nd America's Cup, reports Anne Hinton

There was only one flight of three races to complete Act One of the Louis Vuitton Cup in Marseille today. Once again winds were southeasterly at 8-12 knots under slightly hazy warm sunshine.

As on each of the previous two days, there was a ‘match of the day’ race; this time BMW Oracle Racing against Alinghi.

BMW Oracle Racing already had the series wrapped up, thanks to Emirates Team New Zealand having beaten Alinghi the previous day. Nonetheless the race between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing was expected to be tight, as it involved two of the top three teams at the event and the outcome, in combination with that of Emirates Team New Zealand’s race against K-Challenge, would determine whether Alinghi finished second or third overall.

The first match of the flight was between Shosholoza and Le Defi. Shosholoza did well early on in the pre-start, but stalled badly at the time when she should have been picking up speed to approach the line to start. “We were in control of the pre-start for most of the time”, said tactician Andy Green, “we just didn’t quite get our acceleration right.”

This put Le Defi ahead out of the start and, as she had shown improved performance on the previous two days when match racing was the name of the game, she proved impossible for the South Africans to pass.

Emirates Team New Zealand clearly had the upper hand in the start against K-Challenge, which had always struggled in the start box during match racing. Dean Barker and his team took the lead upwind and made sure that they held on to it, even though the former NZL 57 (K-Challenge, now FRA 57) made slight gains on the downwind legs.

Grant Dalton had commented the previous day that “we stuffed up yesterday [referring to the defeat by BMW Oracle Racing], but we didn’t stuff up today”. The final day represented another day of ‘not stuffing up’ for the Kiwis. “It was a good way to finish the
regatta”, said Barker.

Alinghi was a few seconds late on her port entry to the pre-start; BMW Oracle Racing’s timing was a little better at the other end of the line. Both boats went head to wind for quite a while, and then circled around the committee boat before heading for opposite ends of the line to start: Alinghi went to the pin end and BMW Oracle Racing to the committee boat end of the line.

The boats came together often in the first part of the beat and BMW Oracle Racing had the initial advantage. However, it was clear that Alinghi preferred to stay left, and indeed the team benefitted from the wind backing further to the east. The result was that it was Alinghi that was in the lead at the top mark, by 20 seconds.

Alinghi headed out to the west after rounding the top mark, and continued in this direction when BMW Oracle Racing did a gybe-set and took a more northerly course. The split paid for Alinghi and the team gained another nine seconds on the downwind leg.

BMW Oracle Racing was able to claw a few seconds back on the final two legs, but Alinghi did a very good job of defending their lead and reached the finish line 15 seconds before their opponents.

This result ensured that Alinghi finished second in the Marseille Act of the Louis Vuitton Cup, with Emirates Team New Zealand in third place. Le Defi’s improved performance in the match racing took them not only above the South Africans but, by virtue of victory against K-Challenge (which did not shine in the match racing) in their match, to fourth place overall. K-Challenge finished level on points with Le Defi, with the South Africans, who achieved wonders in their first competition and with an old boat and gear, taking sixth spot.

“It was fantastic. The team did a beautiful job”, said Larry Ellison, who had been helming BMW Oracle Racing from the time of the start [Gavin Brady being the starting helmsman today]. “It was great to finish the regatta a race early.”

“The whole week was wonderful”, said Ernesto Bertarelli of Alinghi. Talking about his change of role on the boat he said “I’ve been upgraded to a grinder. It’s not long until I’m going to have to pack sails! But I still see that as a promotion. The truth is that I’ve been working a lot for the business and haven’t had time to really sail much, so I’m just slowly walking on board and now with seventeen people we’re going to redistribute the roles, so it’s good that I move around and try other things.”

Asked as to what the new 17th position on the boats, which only had 16 in the sailing crew during the last America’s Cup, actually is, Bertarelli said “I think everyone is trying to find out how to best use it. I’m certainly not going to tell the others how to sail the boat.”

In terms of his future sailing “I’ll try to be in Valencia as much as possible”, Bertarelli said. “I definitely have to start going back to the gym, but I’m looking forward to that”, he added, in reference to the extra physical work that his new job of grinder on Alinghi involves.

Ellison preferred the shorter courses in Marseille, with two mile legs, instead of the usual three, saying that “the shorter course racing is much more racing for the sailors and for the fans”, since the boats can be closer together at the first mark rounding.

As to future sailing, Ellison commented “I think all three top boats are plenty quick enough to win. We’ll go back and do some two-boat sailing in Valencia, and give our best shot at winning Acts 2 and 3, but it’s going to be tough.”

Interestingly the top three teams all scored 4 wins and one loss (and that to each other) in the match racing; with Alinghi beating BMW Oracle Racing, but losing to Emirates Team New Zealand, Emirates Team New Zealand beating Alinghi but losing (carelessly, after being established ahead) to BMW Oracle Racing, and BMW Oracle Racing being victorious over Emirates, but losing to the Swiss.

In the fleet racing it was BMW Oracle Racing that dominated with three wins, while Alinghi had one win and Emirates Team New Zealand had none. The top three teams finished within four points of each other in total scores.

Results

Flt Five

Le Defi beat Shosholoza (3:17)
Emirates Team New Zealand beat K-Challenge (0:37)
Alinghi beat BMW Oracle Racing (0:15)

Overall Results

1. BMW Oracle Racing, (22+24), 46pts
2. Alinghi, (20+24), 44 pts
3. Emirates Team New Zealand, (18+24), 42 pts
4. Le Defi, (5+12), 17 pts
5. K-Challenge, (11+6), 17 pts
6. Shosholoza, (8+0), 8 pts