Alinghi fall

As Holmberg is trounced by de Angelis at the Heat-La Sfida match racing in Trieste

Francesco de Angelis and his Luna Rossa crew beat Team Alinghi in a light wind but surprise-filled race today at the Heat-La Sfida match racing in Trieste. The Swiss team skippered by Peter Holmberg suffered this year’s first defeat at the hands of the Neapolitan helmsman.

The provisional scoreboard is evenly now balanced out with Alinghi, Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, +39 and Luna Rossa 2 in the lead, followed by Luna Rossa 1 trailing by one point. Shosholoza was mathematically eliminated today.

Tomorrow’s last qualifying flight between Alinghi and Luna Rossa 1 is the decisive match that will assign the first place, thereby solving the tie at the top and establishing the semifinallists. Racing is scheduled to begin at 11am.

In the match between Shosholoza and +39 Challenge Iain Percy, +39’s helmsman, kept his adversary in check from the start, maintaining a 30 second lead at every mark rounding and keeping it until the end of the race. During the regatta Shosholoza was penalised twice.

When Shosholoza lined up against Mascalzone Latino Capitalia Team, the South Africans were awarded a penalty at the pre-start. Gram-Hansen, at the helm of Mascalzone Latino, is quick to pull out in the lead, reading the course at it’s best and beating the South Africans.

When the two Italian teams raced, Francesco de Angelis won the start with a good margin on +39. Luna Rossa 2 maintains the lead in the first part race until the second downwind mark, when +39 makes up ground, forcing a penalty on her adversaries. This enables the team from Lake Garda to overtake de Angelis and win the race.

Finally the Luna Rossa 2 vs. Alinghi match provied to be a hard fought race with an aggressive Francesco de Angelis, who does not want to lose and succeeded in beating the America’s Cup Defenders, undefeated to date. Luna Rossa 2 storms the start line and leads throughout the first part of the race. In the third and last beat Alinghi narrows up the margin, but in the last run forces a cross and is awarded a penalty. Luna Rossa 2 bring home a well deserved victory.

Qualifying Flights Provisional Scoreboard (matches won/matches raced)

Alinghi (Holmberg) 3/4
Mascalzone Latino (Jes Gram-Hansen) 3/5
Luna Rossa 2 (De Angelis) 3/5
+ 39 Challenge (Percy) 3/5
Luna Rossa 1 (Spithill) 2/4
Shosholoza (Law) 0/5

The Heat-La Sfida match racing is organised by the consortium TuttaTrieste and supported by the Yacht Club Adriaco, the Lega Navale italiana, the San Giusto Yacht Club, the Società Triestina della Vela and by the Società Triestina Sport del Mare. It has been made possible thanks to the contributions of the main sponsor Generali and the official partners Acegas Aps and Banca Popolare Friuladria.