Match resumes

The Daily Telegraph's Tim Jeffery looks forward to the America's Cup Acts 8 & 9 starting today in Trapani

Should we call Victory Challenge’s Orn, Orm or Errrm (followed by Oh S—t!)?
Things are looking up in Trapani for the Swedish team with the final ‘away’ fixture of 2005 as the Louis Vuitton Acts 8 & 9 get underway in Sicily today.

Hugo Stenbeck’s team were back on the water having replaced the rig on Orn, SWE 63, following a dry-land dismasting.

“It was a good day and it was good to see Örn back in pace,” said skipper Magnus Holmberg after yesterday’s shake down. The Swedes have switched back to the older SWE 63 after the weak form of Orn, SWE 73, in Malmo a month ago but could have done without the rig break.

Hasty criticism of the Swedes for moving the boat in the Travelift without releasing the backstay from its ground anchor would be wrong. The polished Alinghi team did exactly the same thing at their base in Valencia in March, though fortunately the spar bent like a bow before the lift driver’s attention was caught.

That incident prompted Tim Gurr to lay down the law about adhering to the correct drills for routine procedures such as launch and recovery as well restricting Travelift operations to a select few. Alinghi’s base then was quiet, in the yacht club marina before they had moved around into the Darsena basin and Cup Harbour, a far cry from pressured mayhem that is Trapani: four lifts shared between 12 teams, in noisy surroundings and all under the pressure of time.

It makes Victory’s mishap understandable but, boy, can it knock a campaign right off its schedule. Some believe a spar accident can cost a programme at least three months. It’s less a question of building another, more one of the combined effect of losing matched masts and matched sails to the testing programme.

A hard hat might be a good idea in Trapani anyway. Yesterday there was a lot of scaffolding in place but, it must be said, for a venue that was causing serious worries two months ago, all has come good just in time. Not so long ago questions were being asked about the funding, whether the cruise ships would be in place for temporary accommodation and whether the shoreside facilities would be completed and so forth.
They are and they have. Just.

Yesterday’s training races were in very light 6-9 knots winds. Similar breeze is forecast for today when racing gets underway in the afternoon.

“It feels as if the change back to Örn has given us back speed,” said Holmberg. The Swedes feel 63 and 73, Orn and Orm, did not react the same way to Version 5-ing, hence the reversion to the older boat.

BMW Oracle Racing have an arrival announce. Insurance giant Allianz are now on the mainsail as a major sponsor to this powerhouse team.

CEO and skipper Chris Dickson expects Trapani to spring a surprise or two results-wise as the wind regime is tricky. “You can be sailing right next to another boat and suddenly one boat will be in totally different pressure and lifting away while the other doesn’t get the new breeze at all,” commented Dickson.

He will have Bertrand Pace as his tactician. The settling presence of team owner Larry Ellison will be absent as the Oracle boss can not attend.

Defenders Alinghi continue their quest to bring all their team up to a uniformly high standard, so in Sicily Ed Baird will steer after Jochen Schumann and Peter Holmberg had their turns in previous Acts. Baird will hope Trapani doesn’t play any unkind tricks on him for SUI 74 is so far unbeaten in match races this season.

“For me it's incredible to be allowed to sail an America's Cup boat at all. If you remember, the last time I sailed one we broke it in half which probably has a lot to do with why I'm sailing in the last Act rather than the first one because they wanted to make sure that the boat made it through the year!” joked Baird, recalling his Young America experience in Auckland 2000.

The spotlight will be on the three Italian team of course. +39 are the nearest thing to a home side having trained in Sicily.

“My first sail in an America’s Cup boat was in Sicilian waters,” said +39 skipper Iain Percy. “We spent most of the last winter training here. We were based in Palermo and had fantastic sailing. We did make it to Trapani for a week to see what this venue would be like but we had 35 knots blowing and were sailing around in our 25 footers, zipping around. It feels a long way from that now, but it's a challenging venue that can also provide those champagne sailing days.”
 
Like Malmo, skipper Percy will have Ian Walker as tactician. And for a team whose finances are clouded by the mists of mystery, there is news of a sponsor, the underwear maker Yamamay

Along with Emirates Team New Zealand, Luna Rossa are snapping at the heals of Alinghi and BMW Oracle. Does this means pressure for Francesco de Angelis?
 “The most pressure comes from ourselves as we all want to do well,” said de Angelis, using his most characteristic response.

Alinghi lead BMW Oracle by 6 points in the overall standings for 2005 and Trapani will determine the season’s victor.