Baird goes 3-1 up

In round two of Alinghi's Defender series in Dubai

Racing got away in a steady 10-11 knot breeze on day 2, with Ed Baird at the helm of SUI91 and Peter Holmberg on SUI64. The boats started on opposite tacks, with Baird tacking over to follow Holmberg out to the right. When Holmberg came back Baird and SUI91 had found more pressure and crossed ahead. SUI91 led around the top mark and although the boats came together on the first downwind leg with more pressure from behind, by the next topmark Baird had almost doubled the lead and went on to win by 49 seconds.

Race 4 was just one lap. Holmberg started to the left of Baird and when the boats came together a few minutes after the start Holmberg showed a small advantage but couldn’t cross and tacked. SUI91 tacked away. SUI64 rounded the topmark a boat length ahead and on the downwind leg both boats were even with SUI64 finding a bit more pressure on the left handside to finish 41 seconds ahead.

Peter Holmberg, helmsman (SUI64): “Our group’s sailing really well, the afterguard made a lot of good decisions, the middle of the boat is putting in a lot of horse-power and the bow is doing a good job, so when we do have a victory, I think it is important to credit the whole team.“

Ed Baird, helmsman (SUI91), at this point during Round 1, was holding 1 win to Holmberg’s 3. For Round 2, he is holding the 3 wins to Holmberg’s 1: "It's nice to know that we can have a three race streak as well. The boats are awfully close and the teams are both great. We know that no-one will win straight, we just have to do our best in each race and I think the guys have done that. They sailed a really nice race in the last one that we lost today. We just kept putting pressure on the other team, we kept close, we were pushing, we were right there at every opportunity and it didn't work, but that's match racing."

Crew lists:

Position	SUI64	SUI91
Helmsman	Peter Holmberg	Ed Baird
Tactician	Brad Butterworth	Peter Evans
Afterguard	Jochen Schuemann	Grant Simmer
Navigator	Mike Drummond	Juan Vila
Runner/grinder	Craig Sattherthwaite	Ernesto Bertarelli
Runner/pit	Dean Phipps	Rodney Ardern
Traveller	Murray Jones	Jordi Calafat
Mainsail Trimmer	Yann Gouniot	Warwick Fleury
Grinder	Will McCarthy	Peter van Niekerk
Trimmer	Nils Frei	Claudio Celon
Trimmer	Simon Daubney	Lorenzo Mazza
Grinder	Brian Sharp	Nicolas Texier
Grinder	Mark McTeigue	Enrico De Maria
Pitman	Josh Belsky	Yves Detrey
Mastman	Mark Newbrook	Francesco Rapetti
Mid-Bow	Curtis Blewett	Matt Mitchell
Bow	Bernard Labro	Pieter van Nieuwenhuyzen