Emirates Team NZ claim coastal race

Kiwis consolidate at the Audi MedCup's Portugal Trophy

Emirates Team New Zealand took firm control of the Portugal Trophy Cascais regatta today when they convincingly won the 40 miles coastal race. While the team won four of the five 2009 regattas this is the first time they have won a coastal race.

After they took the lead around the most westerly turning mark off Cabo Raso, the Kiwi Cup team led by Dean Barker, were never challenged, leading the fleet all the way down to the course's eastern extremity at the historic Belem Tower in Lisbon’s River Tajo.

Winning by one and a half minutes, the current champions increased their overall lead in the TP52 class at the Portugal Trophy to a solid 14 points at the head of the regatta leaderboard as TeamOrigin slipped from second place overall to fourth after they could only make a frustrating ninth place today.

The Kiwi team’s only minor hiccup was blowing out a gennaker at the Cabo Raso turn, but they very quickly regrouped and were able to dominate on the long and very spectacular full speed run downwind in the strong northerly wind which gusted over 25 knots.

Grant Dalton commented: "We sailed all right. We got outside Origin at the top, then we blew a chute out, which wasn't that flash. It had a little nick in it. But I think we are going reasonably quick. Matador was reaching pretty well, but probably it has surprised us. And I'd say the bigger surprise was for Origin how slow they were reaching. It's the first off-shore race, if we can call it offshore, that we won, in the five regattas last year we had never been better than second so that's good, we sailed quite well.”

It was a demanding coastal race in every respect, finishing only 100 metres off the Marina of Cascais breakwater, where the wind carried the imprint of the buildings behind and so there was some place changing and interest until the end.

Matador steered by Guilermo Parada, with Francesco Bruni calling tactics, made their biggest gains on this long run from the Cape and held on to second place all way to the finish line, helping their climb back up the table where they now lie sixth overall.

But the frustration for TeamOrigin will be to investigate why they slipped progressively down the fleet. They sailed a good race from a tactical point of view and lead early in the race, chasing Emirates Team New Zealand around the westernmost turn. But by the time they passed Cascais again they has already slipped three places, passed on both sides.

A ninth place finish does not do justice to their sailing as a crew today. TeamOrigin’s Team Director Mike Sanderson admitted later: “ The first lap we were going really quick and go great and in the first two thirds of the way out to Cape Raso. It was going great and then we just sort of fell off the planet, to be honest, before we got to the mark, and ETNZ went from where they were right behind us to getting way up inside us and we just assumed that we had some current on, or had just been particularly unlucky with the shift or whatever, but athen from that point on it was a very tough race we just seemed to be off the pace.

“We were just off the pace. We were slow jib reaching and we just shouldn't be. We don’t know if we caught something because the problem is that after you finish you go back as you drop the main, so even if we did have something there you would not know it. If we did not have something there then we are certainly not be going to be looking forwards to the coastal races in the future. We just have to work through it. That's why we are here, to build on our team work, on our relationship with our shore crew and designers and we have to work through the issues. Long term you probably need the bad days more than the good . After a good days it is easy. After the bad days we need to be sure that we are being totally honest with ourselves, and getting the best out of each other. The guys did an awesome job once again Ben started well and Percy and Bart (Andrew Simpson) and Juan Vila the guys are sailing really well. I mean, losing places when jib reaching is unheard of, and so we have to get to the bottom of it.”

Third place across the finish line today elevates the Franco-German Audi A1 powered by All4ONE, skippered by Jochen Schuemann, up to second overall, but they are only half a point ahead of Sweden’s Artemis, with TeamOrigin another half point behind them. Emirates Team New Zealand just need a solid day tomorrow, a contrast to their opening here last Wednesday, to secure their fifth Audi MedCup Circuit Regatta in a row.

Francesco Bruni tactician on Matador said: "We've managed to move up very quickly on the downwind, it was very quick. The fleet was very tight and we gybed last on the downwind and then we were third down, and and from then on we've made a good race, a good beat, nice manouvers, up at Cabo Raso, a good gybe, and we've passed TeamOrigin, it seems they had some speed problems downwind, so we held our second position but it went very well.”

Listen to Dean Barker discussing his day here

Results:

GP42s - Puerto Calero pulls further out front

The 20-25 knot conditions today once again proved favorable to the Canary Islands-based team Puerto Calero, which has pulled out to a 6 point lead over the nearest rival, Madrid-Caser Seguros (ESP) with seven races sailed. Their choice of a smaller heavy-weather jib looked wrong for the first race’s 15-20 knot conditions, but certainly came into its own in the second race’s gusty 25 knot blasts coming off the Cascais shoreline.

The first race saw the Iberdrola team showing off their America’s Cup heritage, with flawless tactics and boat handling vaulting them into the lead ahead of AIRISESSENTIAL.

In the second race, John Bassadone's Peninsula Petroleum shook off the dust of a poor first race to win the start at the pin end and take an early lead, but the huge puffs rolling down the course put Puerto Calero into their own with that small jib, allowing them to take a lead they never relinquished. AIRISESSENTIAL also got back into the fray with much-improved crew work downwind and good pace upwind, but a broach suffered just after the last gybe into the finish pushed them back to fourth, behind Madrid-Caser Seguros and Peninsula Petroleum.

Jose Mª Ponce skipper on Puerto Calero said: “We are happy with how we performed today though in the second race our start wasn't that good, we set our small jib today because the conditions were good for it but the start was just bad and with such shifty conditions it's difficult to move up.”