Italians on plane home

Sam Davies reports on the crunch match at the bottom of the table, and looks at the other matches sailed today.

The second match on Romeo course this morning was a clash between teams at the other end of the table. Second placed OneWorld brought their “A-team” back out today after yesterday’s slip-up defeat to Le Defi, and the James Spithill/Peter Gilmour combination was back behind the wheel. Three other crew changes included bowman Alan Smith back and different trimmers too! Prada were coming into this match undefeated in this round robin, having found a bit more speed and confidence since the first round.

After an uneventful pre-start, both boats started even but Prada was tight to windward of OneWorld and was forced to tack off after about 30 seconds. OneWorld followed with a loose cover and both boats sailed on port, very evenly matched. A slight left shift gave OneWorld enough advantage to cross ahead of Prada and get the starboard tack advantage and therefore control of the match. OneWorld maintained their control and led by 22 seconds at the windward mark. OneWorld then continued to lead with Prada snapping at their heels and staying in touch, until Prada had a problem at the leeward mark. The Italians had problems hoisting their headsail, which slowed them considerably for over a minute and handed the race to OneWorld, who won the match by 58 seconds.

The first match on Juliet course was between Alinghi and Victory Challenge. Alinghi gained the lead fairly soon after the start and then covered Victory well to lead by 22s at the windward mark. Victory Challenge were persistent and never gave up, tacking 12 times up the second beat to try and find a way through, but Alinghi maintained, and built on, their lead to win by 29 seconds.

The second match on Juliet course was Oracle BMW against GBR Challenge. Oracle’s recent streak of aggressiveness continued into the pre-start of this match and Holmberg pushed GBR to their limits, managing to swap sides after the first dial-up to then do a second dial up, this time in control. The two boats bore away onto a port reach, with Wight Lightning attempting to roll Oracle. In trying to escape the clutches of Oracle, Beadsworth tacked in front of Holmberg and failed to complete the tack in their path. The protest flag from Oracle was answered by a Yellow flag, a penalty against GBR.

Oracle remained in control and held GBR outside the starboard layline (to the committee boat) forcing them to gybe round and start 19 seconds behind.
100 metres behind at the start, and with a penalty, GBR’s future in this race was looking bleak. Attempts to come back by initiating a tacking match up the beat and gybing to cover down the run never threatened Oracle’s lead, and they went on to win by 2 minutes. GBR completed their penalty turn on the finish line.

Continued on page 4...