BT and Oman tied

As TeamOrigin takes a tumble at the iShares Cup event in Hyères

"That was pretty epic!" was Chris Draper's first reaction as he got back to the dock after three fast and furious races on the opening day of the iShares Cup event in Hyères. The helmsman of Oman Sail is on equal points with BT, both topping the leaderboard with 28 points apiece.

Nick Moloney, skipper of BT, was equally excited: ""I'm so pumped! We talked about it before the start and we just said; okay let's be conservative and stay out of trouble. Then the switch just flicked and it was full adrenalin, full tempo, lots of screaming on board motivating each other, 'Come on, come on!'"

Wind was fresh (20-25+ knots) and the sun was shining in a typically south of France style bringing a very different scene to the mountains and calm waters of Lugano. The talk on the dock was one of reefing and storm jib options as the crews made their sail plan decisions for the day. The wind picked up around the time when the Extreme 40s were due to leave the dock so the race committee took the decision to hold them ashore for a time.

After a morning onshore waiting for the Mistral wind to abate, the fleet went out for three short and sharp windward-leeward races in over 20 knots.

BT, skippered by Nick Moloney, and Oman Sail match raced for the lead for most of race 1, with BT keeping in front to take the first win, and followed up with another win in the second race. "In the second race at the top mark we led with TeamOrigin behind," recounted Moloney after racing, "They passed us on that run, then we got them back at the next beat, then on the last run we went round the top mark and I was shouting 'No way they're passing us this times boys, come on, come on!' And we were just going hell for leather and we won that one as well."

Flying downwind on the first leg of race TeamOrigin dove between Oman and Alinghi on the approach to the gate mark, but buried one bow and quickly capsized. Skipper Rob Greenhalgh said, "Basically we would have piled straight into the back of Oman Sail, so were forced to go around their transom just to avoid a crash - we rounded up, stuck the nose in and over we went."

With the Mistral sending gusts of over 30 knots through the Bay of Hyères the race committee opted to send the fleet ashore, with no more races held today. At least six races are scheduled tomorrow.

Results:

	Day 1
Team	R1	R2	R3	Tot
BT	1st/11	1st/11	6th/6	28 pts
Oman Sail	2nd/10	2nd/10	3rd/9	28 pts
Volvo Ocean Race	4th	6th	1st	25 pts
Alinghi	6th/6	7th/5	2nd/10	21 pts
Team Aqua	3rd/9	8th/4	4th/8	21 pts
iShares	10th/2	4th/8	7th/5	15 pts
Holmatro	5th/7	dnf/0	5th/7	14 pts
JP Morgan AM	8th/4	5th/7	9th/3	14 pts
TEAMORIGIN	9th	2nd/10	dnf/0	13 pts
Tommy Hilfiger	7th	9th	dns/0	8 pts
TWINS	11th	10th	8th	7 pts