Origin claw their way back

Tense race against Luna Rossa for the Brits as Alinghi is a no-show against Emirates Team NZ

Results:

Gold fleet

	TEAMORIGIN	BMWO	Luna Rossa	Alinghi	Damiani	Total points
TEAMORIGIN	-	L/-0.5	W/1	L/0		0.5
BMW Oracle Racing	W/0	-	W/1		W/1	2
Luna Rossa	L/0	L/0	-			0
Alinghi	W/1	L/0		-	W/1	2
Damiani Italia		L/0		L/0	-	0

Silver fleet

	K Challenge	Shosholosa	Greek Challenge	China Team	Total points
K Challenge	-	W/1	W/1	L/0	2
Shosholosa	L/0	-	L/0	L/0	0
Greek Challenge	L/0	W/1	-	L/0	1
China Team	W/1	W/1	W/1	-	3

In what was surely the most exciting race of the series so far, day three of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series' second round robin, saw TeamOrigin put their first points on the board this round, claiming victory over Luna Rossa by four seconds following some world class moves by skipper Ben Ainslie and his new team.

Conditions looked ominous from the outset with a light wind threatened to upset the early race schedules of the day. After an initial delay, the first two races were completed with BMW Oracle Racing taking victory from Damiani Italia by 27 seconds and, in the silver fleet. Of more surprise was the Gavin Brady-driven Greek Challenge beating the old hands at Shosholosa by 1 minute 26 seconds.

The Brady versus Paolo Cian pre-start was an intense one, but in the end the two boats hit the start line evenly with the Greeks closer to the pin, both powering left on starboard. However the Greek Challenge proved to have a small speed advantage over Shosholoza, and they were ahead at the first cross, Brady forcing Cian to do two additional tacks, slowing the South African boat even more. The Greek Challenge rounded the top mark with a comfortable 35-second advantage.

Despite being the novice crew in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, Greek Challenge sailed with confidence down the first run, ably managing to gybe under tricky conditions, and increased their lead to 38 seconds by the leeward gate. From there on, it was plain sailing for the Greek crew, their Kiwi teammates and South African navigator.

Brady commented after: “Everything came together very well today, from start to finish. We had a good start, our tacks and gybes were excellent but more importantly there was good communication on the boat. We were calm, relaxed and quiet, undoubtedly the quietest day so far. Boat handling is undoubtedly getting better by the day. After yesterday’s unfortunate chain of mishaps we rallied and won the race.

"All Greek sailors that took part in this regatta are now in a position to impress anyone on a Cup boat, no matter what team they might end up with. They could very well crew any big boat and I urge them to do it this summer in the Med.”

A much anticipated showdown was supposed to have taken place today between Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand, the first time two team would have lined up since the America's Cup in Valencia. However, the kill-joy Swiss defenders failed to show up for alleged 'tactical reasons', conceding the point to the Kiwi hosts.

Anyway. Highlight of the day was certainly TeamOrigin v Luna Rossa - Ainslie, Percy, Simpson and the boys versus Peter Holmberg, Robert Scheidt, Star sailor Andy Houghton, etc. The race was started twice - on the first occasion Luna Rossa led off the line but TeamOrigin quickly picked up speed and headed out to the left side. Ainslie and the team moved into ‘fast forward’ mode and were able to take the lead. The Brits were leading Luna Rossa into the first windward by a healthy 365m when the wind died to less that 5 knots causing both teams to fail to reach to top mark in the allotted 20 minute time limit causing the race to be abandoned.

The following race between K Challenge and China Team was also started but subsequently abandoned.

The wind eventually cranked in at 18-20 knots and racing action resumed at 4.30pm. A pretty even start saw Luna Rossa head for the right and TeamOrigin the left side of the beat. TeamOrigin had a 20m lead off the start line and appeared to be headed to the favoured side. Both tacked across and Luna Rossa appeared to nose ahead, but it was neck and neck, bow to bow stuff. There then appeared to be a significant shift, possibly the effect of North Head on the race track, from which Luna Rossa gained an advantage to lead round the windward mark by the narrowest of margins, 3 seconds.

Both boats had to gybe set given the wind shift and TeamOrigin were faster on the hoist and were able to soak down inside. The wind shift meant that there were fewer opportunities to gybe as it was almost a fetch to the leeward gate. Ainslie was rready to pounce, casting dirty air over Luna Rossa on her transom the whole way down.

Both boats dropped spinnakers unusually early, Luna Rossa headed for the left hand gate and TeamOrigin for the right, aiming to gain the wind shift advantage that Luna Rossa had gained on the first beat. Once around the two teams headed for opposite sides of the track gaining almost 300m separation.

Holmberg and his Luna Rossa team kept a close cover on TeamOrigin. Having lost some distance after the initial separation, the Brits came back fighting and closed right up on Luna Rossa in the second approach to the windward mark. Luna Rossa managed to hold TeamOrigin past the windward mark and then tack back to it with Ainslie hot on their heels, the two teams locked together. At the mark there was nothing in it.

Both teams headed downwind and TeamOrigin gybed across to gain the inside track and were able to roll past Luna Rossa, stretched out their lead to 54m. Luna Rossa gybed back and closed the gap again and made a final charge for the line in a last ditch attempt to regain the lead. TeamOrigin gybed back, held the lead, to take the win by a mere 4 seconds!

Greek Challenge's win was not the only upset of the day in the Silver fleet with China Team claiming another scalp, this time against Pataugas K-Challenge as they blew up their spinnaker on the last downwind leg. However this did not matter as the French team had already secured their place in the Sail-Offs.

The French team's mastman Olivier Herledant said: “It was a long day waiting for the wind, and we had a good start on the first race, sailing on the right side of the course and getting more wind, which allowed us to lead the race. But the race was canceled because of the shifty wind. On the second race our start was only average, and we didn´t manage to take the lead on the first upwind leg. The first spinnaker hoist was good, we come back very close to them on the downwind leg, but nothing special happens on the second upwind leg. At the third mark they are still within our reach, and we can get them, but when we hoist the spinnaker, it blows up, not because of a big mistake, but because of several small ones, mainly due to the fact that we didn´t train in these wind conditions. By the time we hoisted an other spinnaker, the race was lost. We are disappointed, as we could have got them on this last leg."