Hit track for Robertson

iShares Cup's only female skipper dominates proceedings on a light second day of racing on Lake Lugano

Despite a day of light, inconsistent breeze, day 2 of the iShares Cup in Lugano belonged to Shirley Robertson and her crew on JPMorgan Asset Management. The double Olympic Gold medallist who is also the only female racing in the circuit, took three wins in a row on the second day of racing, and has now won five out of the seven races so far. Robertson has built a comfortable advantage over the other eight boats including America's Cup teams Alinghi and TeamOrigin.

Robertson's experience clearly showed on a day when she beat the best of the America's Cup and some top Olympic catamaran sailors, but she credited Chris Main for getting to grips with the conditions of the day, saying: "My tactician has nerves of steel!"

She also welcomed Alinghi back to the startline after their capsize in Race 1 yesterday: "I think all the competitors really felt for Alinghi, it could have been any of us. It's good to see them back out today and great to be racing against them."

Having fitted the spare rig that accompanies the iShares Cup around between events, the America's Cup defenders have been fighting hard to get back to winning form, but after a series of fourth and fifth places today they will have to do something special on the final day of racing tomorrow to get on the podium this weekend. "We have found ourselves in a little bit in trouble off the starting line each time for a variety of reasons, but we have been able to catch up as the race went on, but at some point you run out of time," commented skipper Ed Baird. "At some point we need to get off the line better!
The boys had a short night last night and we got the rig back in this morning. We went for a look before racing, but we haven't had much wind to check it out. It definitely sets up differently to our previous mast and it makes our mainsail a different shape, so we're trying to fix that. We really just need some time at the dock where we have all the tools and have a bit of time to make it right."

In third at the end of the second day racing is the Chris Draper-helmed Oman Sail, who have been having a fantastic regatta as newcomers to the Extreme 40 class. The first race of the day was as close as it can be with a photo finish. Oman Sail showed the way off the start line, closely followed by Alinghi, BT and JPMorgan Asset Management all racked up alongside each other. Alinghi came off worst, and at the first mark it was Oman Sail who led the fleet round. But on the second lap Oman Sail had to duck behind half the fleet, dropping them to fifth, whilst iShares made big gains to take the lead.

After holding second place throughout the race Robertson made her move on the final leg, to win Race 4 of the regatta. Oman recovered to take second, followed by Team Aqua and Alinghi while the fleet was too close to call for fifth place - iShares, BT and TeamOrigin all crossing the line simultaneously to score equal points.

The tricky conditions of light winds and sudden lulls were proving challenging for many boats, Volvo Ocean Race got caught out in some windless patches to fall to last place. Arend van Bergeijk said, "There was a pattern in that race - there was wind wherever we weren't! It seems quite random."

In the next iShares got a great start to lead the fleet up the first leg, whilst Alinghi were forced back into eighth place on the first leg. Downwind Shirley opted to head left towards the town, where she found more breeze to overtake iShares and go on to win race 5. Oman picked up another good result with a third, while Alinghi fought hard to climb back up to fourth place at the finish.

TeamOrigin, who went into the day as joint leaders overall, had a shocking race to finish last of the nine boats. But they came back strongly to finish second in the next race and win the last one of the day sailing with Sir Keith Mills on board - they now sit 14 points behind JPMorgan and tomorrow will see them battle for the podium.

Results

Pos	Boat	Skipper	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Tot
1	JPMorgan	Shirley Robertson	10	6	10	10	10	10	9	65
2	Origin	Rob Greenhalgh	9	8	9	5	DNF	9	10	50
3	Oman Sail	Chris Draper	7	10	8	9	8	2	DNF	44
4	BT	Nick Moloney	8	7	7	5	5	8	DNF	40
5	Team Aqua	Alister Richardson	5	DNF	6	8	4	5	7	35
6	iShares	Hugh Styles	4	4	DNF	5	9	3	8	33
7	VOR	Herbert Dercksen	6	9	5	2	3	7	DNF	32
8	Alinghi	Ed Baird	DNF	DNS	DNS	7	7	6	6	26
9	Holmatro	Andreas Hagara	OCS	5	4	4	6	4	DNF	22
10	Tommy Hilfiger	Randy Smyth	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	DNC	0