Russians on fire

As Karol Jablonski and his new team claim TeamOrigin's scalp at the Louis Vuitton Trophy

Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski and tactician Rod Dawson were wearing huge smiles dockside and expressing their pleasure over a job well done when Philippe Mourniac from All4One approached.

“Great job, guys. It was awesome to watch on TV,” said Mourniac, the Franco-German team’s navigator.

Synergy had recently completed a wire-to-wire win over TeamOrigin, restructuring the order at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur as perestroika revamped Russian politics in the 1980s.

Synergy today won two races and now occupies fourth place on the leaderboard with a 5-4 record, 1 point behind third-placed Azzurra. Synergy has two matches remaining in Round 2 and a victory in at least one would ensure advancement to the semi-finals.

“That would be an accomplishment. But we still have to win it,” said Jablonski, the 47-year-old skipper from Poland. “Today we had a good day and we’re happy with our performance in this event. Before the start, who would’ve counted on us going forward?”

The semi-finalists took shape today with Emirates Team New Zealand wrapping up the round robins. Kiwi skipper Dean Barker came out victorious over BMW Oracle Racing and TFS – PagesJaunes and leads the event with a 9-1 record.

England’s TeamOrigin holds second at 7-3. Italy’s Azzurra didn’t race today but remains in third place at 6-3. Synergy is fourth followed by Artemis at 4-5. BMW Oracle Racing is sixth (3-6), All4One seventh (3-7) and TFS – PagesJaunes eighth (1-9).

“The big deal for us is getting into the top four, and I think we’re comfortable,” said Ben Ainslie, TeamOrigin skipper. “It’s about getting better and trying to get results in the semi-final sail-offs. All the teams are battling a bit with the conditions and boats and trying to get used to it all. Like everyone else, we’re trying to get better.”

If a few breaks had fallen differently in Round 1, Synergy might be placed even higher. The team lost a heartbreaker to Emirates Team New Zealand just five lengths from the finish line. It lost another match that it led when the mainsheet broke. Despite the setbacks, the learning curve has remained vertical.

“The important thing for our team is the atmosphere,” Jablonski said. “We went through a difficult time at the beginning. If something goes wrong there are a lot of possibilities for the team to explode or not be happy, but we are holding together. We have good attitudes.”

That attitude was evident when Synergy took down TeamOrigin. The wind in the afternoon had moved to the east, similar to Saturday afternoon, with the right hand side being favourable. Half way up the first beat Synergy, who had won the right in the pre-start, crossed ahead of the British team and allowed TeamOrigin to swap sides and take up the all powerful right hand side for the approach to the first weather mark. But the better speed and fewer manoeuvres of the Russian team meant that they lead around the first mark by 28 seconds. The light winds and one sided nature of the course made it almost impossible for the British team to get back in touch with the leader, and the team’s losing margin to the fast rising Russian team was 1 minute 36 seconds.

“Both sides wanted the right, but we didn’t want it with a bad start,” Ainslie said. “I thought we were in position to make their start tough, but they did a good job squeezing around the committee boat.

“It’s good to see those guys doing so well,” Ainslie continued. “They’ve got some great sailors. It’s good to see that when they get the boat handling side figured out they’ve got some smart sailors who know what a wind shift is and can figure it out.”

Three flights remain to complete the second round robin over the next two days. And although the semi-finalists are taking shape, the day still belonged to Synergy, even if they have to scream at each other.

“We don’t have a communications system on board, so we have to talk loud to make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Jablonski said. “The communication with the guy up the rig is difficult because he has to scream. But it doesn’t matter. It’s in Russian half the time so no one else can understand!”

Before their defeat to the Russians, Ainslie and his posse had beaten BMW Oracle Racing.

A solid pre-start saw the British boat lead off the start line in medium Northerly winds and a residual swell with the Americans to leeward and alongside and a boat length separation between them. Ainslie and co managed to sail for a few minutes with this situation before the powerful leeward position of the American team forced the British boat to tack away to the right.

Tactician Iain Percy possessed the right hand side of the course, always a powerful option when approaching the top mark, but the pair were only a third of the way up the course. The light and patchy dropping wind along with the residual swell made the conditions complex and at the following cross the advantage moved to the other boat. The American team led around the next lap, but allowed the British team to sail alone all the way to the right of the course on the second weather leg. When the pair converged again near the top of the leg the advantage had moved back to TeamOrigin and in the incredibly difficult conditions the British team managed to sail defensively to win by just 8 seconds.

TeamOrigin strategist Andrew Simpson summarised the race as follows: "It was a really close race. Things only went our way on the second beat. We had a really good wind heading at the leeward gate and continued out to the right hand side of the course. We were surprised the Americans did not cover us. But to be fair, it is much harder than it looks to read the wind as it is shifting so much. It would not have been an easy decision for them to make. A good race for us to win and an exciting close race."

TeamOrigin’s Rob Greenhalgh, the wind strategist up the mast all day: "That was a really tricky day for all - shifty and really difficult. Every day here in Nice is completely different so every race for us is all good training, especially when looking ahead to the semi-finals. Every day of sailing counts."

TeamOrigin has mathematically qualified for the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta Semi Finals knock-out stage which start on Thursday. With just one more race for the team to race in this second Round Robin, on Monday against the Franco-German ALL4ONE team, the British team will be looking forward to two days of well earned rest on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur Current Standings
Competing teams – (Country) - Skipper - Record (Win-Loss)

Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) - Dean Barker, 9-1
TeamOrigin (GBR) - Ben Ainslie, 7-3
Azzurra (ITA) - Francesco Bruni, 6-3
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) - Karol Jablonski, 5-4
Artemis (SWE) - Paul Cayard, 4-5
BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) - Gavin Brady, 3-6
ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) - Jochen Schueman, 3-7
Team French Spirit (FRA) - Bertrand Pacé, 1-9

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Côte d’Azur
Pairing Schedule for Monday 16th November

Flight 6
Match 1BMW ORACLE Racing (75) vs Azzurra (93)
Match 2 TeamOrigin (99) vs ALL4ONE (90)

Flight 7
Match 1BMW ORACLE Racing (75) vs Artemis (93)
Match 2 Synergy (99) vs Emirates Team New Zealand (90)

Flight 8
Match 1 Azzurra (75) vs Synergy (93)
Match 2 Artemis (99) vs Team French Spirit – Pages Jaunes (90)