Mean Machine unbeatable

After coastal race for the TP 52s at Punta Ala

Peter de Ridder and his part Emirates Team New Zealand crew on Mutua Madrilena sailed to another convincing win in today’s 31 miles coastal race at the Breitling Med Cup in Punta Ala, Italy.

Their fourth consecutive win from five starts now leaves Mutua Madrilena just two points behind Steve and Fred Howe’s Warpath, which is also sailed by Kiwi America's Cup crew with Dean Barker steering.

With the light, but established north westerly sea breeze arriving just as it did on Thursday, the formula for Mutua Madrilena’s victory was the same. Starting smartly off the right hand, boat end of the start line they were first to tack away and once more they were never crossed or passed around the entire course.

De Ridder paid tribute to the excellence of his crew, and to their weather team, who identified the favourable increase in wind pressure on this side of the course as the breeze fans out down the Gulf of Follonica. “We made some big gains with smart sailing by our guys. Our strategist Tom Dodson and Tactician Ray Davies did an excellent job. It was a bit confusing at the start but we sorted it out and knew we wanted to go to the right.”

He contined: “We started at the boat end and were ahead quickly. We were very pro-active in our preparation and had good weather information from our navigator Wouter Verbak and forecasts from Chris Bedford. That meant we knew what we wanted to do. Once you are leading it is much easier and from then we were just trying to sail the windshifts. Judel Vrolijk did a good job designing this boat and it seems to be quick all round.”

De Ridder’s relationship with the New Zealanders goes back to 1997 when the Kiwis sailed with him in the Admiral’s Cup and then he had five Kiwis when they won the ILC 40 World Championship in Poland that same year. “I am an honorary member of Team New Zealand now and put a little money into the pot.”

Tactician Ray Davies gave his view: “Peter does so much sailing that it makes a real difference. He sails his Mumm 30 and Farr 40 and does match racing in Holland and other boats and that just means he is sharp and gets right into the groove. It has taken a year together to get this project where it is now and it is very satisfying. For us it is such a breath of fresh air after (America’s) Cup sailing. You get boxed into the one job and focussing on the same things all the time. Here you are running about the boat and getting really involved in everything and you become much more aware of what is important in making the boat go fast. It is very good for your sailing.”

Mean Machine/Mutua Madrilena was 1 minute and 56 seconds ahead after the first long beat to Cerboli island, rounding ahead of Jose Cusi’s Bribon. John Cook’s new Judel Vrolijk-designed Cristabella passed the first turn in third, two minutes and 49 seconds behind Mean Machine and went on to take second.

The British team, with American Dee Smith as tactician, now lie fourth overall. “People had let Mean Machine go right every time and won. Today the penny dropped. We got a good start and seemed to have plenty of speed. With four out of five Judel & Vrolijk boats in the top five, we chose the right designer. No wonder Rolf Vrolijk is smiling,” commented Smith.

If Mean Machine/Mutua Madrilena were close to perfect today it was another day of simple consistency for Dean Barker and the crew of Warpath. The Botin & Carkeek design rounded the first island in fifth and worked up to fifth at the second turning mark and were third by the Palmaiola. They lost a couple of boat lengths on the final downwind when their snap shackle holding the tack of the spinnakers opened during a spinnaker change, but their third place keeps them ahead of their Emirates Team New Zealand team-mates and sets up a fascinating final day tomorrow.

“It was tricky," said Barker. "We had to battle back after the start but we had some pretty good tactics and our speed was pretty good. I think we found a couple of modes which worked well for us. This whole circuit is good for us to work together as an afterguard. We learn more in the speed area, it teaches us more about sailing smart and keeps us fresh and interested. This is such a very competitive fleet. America’s Cup sailing is so much about waiting to go sailing. Here we do six regattas which will be really good for our sailing skills.”

Overall results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Nat	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	Warpath	Fred and Steve Howe	USA	1	7	4	2	3	17
2	Mutua Madrilena	Peter de Ridder	MON	15	1	1	1	1	19
3	Pinta	Michael Illbruck	GER	5	2	9	4	6	26
4	Anonimo	Riccardo Simoneschi	ITA	6	4	6	8	4	28
5	Cristabella	John Cook	GBR	4	12	7	11	2	36
6	Caixa Galicia	Vicente Tirado	SPA	2	5	12	10	8	37
7	Orlanda	Alessandro Pirera	ITA	3	14	5	3	12	37
8	Platoon	Harm Muller-Spreer	GER	16	3	2	7	9	37
9	Bribon	Jose Cusi	SPA	10	8	13	5	5	41
10	Lexus	George Andreadis/Jaime Yllera	SPA	9	10	3	12	10	44
11	Santa Ana	Stuart Robinson/Juan Antonio Iniesta	GBR	7	6	8	15	16	52
12	Ono	Inaki Castaner	SPA	14	13	19	6	13	65
13	Rush	Thomas Stark	USA	19	16	11	9	11	66
14	Fram	HM King Harald V of Norway	NOR	8	11	16	18	14	67
15	Siemens	Eamon Conneely	IRE	13	9	14	16	15	67
16	Baleria Deporte Galego	Gonzalo Araujo	SPA	17	19	10	17	7	70
17	Tau Ceramica-Andalucia	Javier Banderas/Rafael Diaz	SPA	11	18	15	13	17	74
18	Bigamist VI	Pedro Mendoncia	POR	12	15	18	19	18	82
19	Aifos	Spanish Navy	SPA	18	17	17	14	19	85