Alinghi takes Act 3

Consistency pays for Swiss team on final day of fleet racing in Valencia

Alinghi put in their first rgatta win in the 32nd America's Cup today by securing victory in the fleet racing of Act 3.

Following the cancellation of yesterday's racing due to excessive winds, the race course today was moved south of the Port of Valencia due to an air show over the northern course. After a delay racing began in a light, offshore wind, which proved to be very patchy and inconsistent before dying completely and rebuilding in a different direction. However for the second race a southeasterly seabreeze of 10-14 knots had filled in.

In the first race the bulk of the fleet headed for the pin, the French at the committee boat. Generally BMW Oracle Racing team figured out the tough conditions better than anyone else, winning the race in convincing fashion by a very comfortable 3:42 margin over K-Challenge, securing their best result so far in the fleet racing. Alinghi finished third, while Emirates Team New Zealand the early leader of the series ended up fifth, allowing the Swiss to open a three point margin over their Kiwi rivals overall.

This race seem to prove difficult for everyone but the Americans, as enormous patches of very light wind meant boats sometimes spent long periods virtually becalmed. On the final run all the boats dropped their kites replacing them with headsails. Team Shosholoza sailed a good race and couldn’t be faulted on its tactics, rounded the second windward mark in fifth position but stalled before the finishing line, eventually crossing an exasperating 40 minutes behind the race winners.

At 1600 the sea breeze finally kicked for the second and final race. This Emirates Team New Zealand effectively won on the first run, when she gybed away from the fleet to the right-hand side of the course. The Kiwis had rounded the mark behind Alinghi, but when the teams converged again just before the leeward gate, Grant Dalton’s team had an eight-second lead. This slim margin was never threatened in the stable conditions, with helmsman Dean Barker covering his opponents up the second beat, and down the final run to the finish.

However with Alinghi finishing second in this race was enough to secure them overall victory in the Act, an impressive display of their old Auckland form considering that they have put in little training, nor carried out much technical development since winning the America's Cup and were held up having to SUI64 after she was blown over in Auckland.

The French team on K-Challenge were punching above their weight today with second and fourth place finishes. They nearly reeled in Luna Rossa on the leaderboard, finishing just two points shy at the end of racing. Le Defi ended the event in sixth place after a tough day, but were able to stay ahead of the promising South African Team Shosholoza.

"It has been an awesome experience for us," commented Shosholoza skipper Geoff Meek. "We were always in contention, we had exciting close racing and it was enormously exciting for our entire team. We have improved radically since we arrived in Europe two months ago, we have gelled as a team and we'll be back even stronger
next year."

Iain Percy at the helm of +39 recovered with two sixth place finishes today, but this wasn't enough to finish ahead of the South Africans.

Team Alinghi was crowned the winner of Act 3 in front of an enormous crowd lining the waterfront at the Darsena Interior. Fireworks exploded overhead as the team was presented with their trophy and congratulated by the other race crews, along with a flotilla of spectator boats.

With their win in Act 2 and second place in Act 3 Emirates Team New Zealand is the season champion winner.

Act 3 - final results:

Pos	Boat	Helmsman	Nat	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	Team Alinghi	Peter Holmberg	Swiss	4	1	3	1	3	2	40
2	Emirates Team New Zealand	Dean Barker	NZ	1	2	1	6	5	1	38
3	BMW ORACLE Racing	Gavin Brady	USA	5	6	2	3	1	3	34
4	Luna Rossa	James Spithill	ITA	3	4	7	2	4	4	30
5	K-Challenge	Thierry Peponnet	FRA	8	3	4	4	2	5	28
6	LE DEFI	Philippe Presti	FRA	2	7	8	5	7	8	17
7	Team Shosholoza	Geoff Meek	SA	7	5	5	7	8	7	15
8	39	Iain Percy	ITA	6	8	6	DNF	6	6	13

2004 ACC Championship

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Nat	Act 1	Act 2	Act 3	Tot
1	Emirates Team New Zealand	Dean Barker	NZ	3	1	2	6
2	BMW ORACLE Racing	Gavin Brady	USA	1	3	3	7
3	Team Alinghi	Peter Holmberg	Swiss	2	4	1	7
4	Luna Rossa	James Spithill	ITA	7	2	4	13
5	LE DEFI	Philippe Presti	FRA	4	5	6	15
6	K-Challenge	Thierry Peponnet	FRA	5	6	5	16
7	Team Shosholoza	Geoff Meek	SA	6	8	7	21
8	39	Iain Percy	ITA	7	7	8	22