Valencia, 19 May, 2006 - It was a
very tricky day out on the waters off Valencia with light, shifty
conditions, along with a left-over swell from earlier wind making life hard
for the sailors. The contrast in results over the two races sailed was
certainly indicative of a difficult day, with top three finishers in one
race finding themselves well down the table in the other.
The Swedes on Victory
Challenge stormed out to a massive lead in the first race, perhaps inspired
by the presence of track and field legend Baron Sebastian Coe, who sailed
as 18th man on the black boat of the Swedes.
In the second contest of
the day, it was the Defender, Alinghi, who dashed off the start line with
the winning strategy, building a nice lead on the first leg and extending
the rest of the way for a smart looking win. Combined with a sixth place
finish in the first race, that was enough to give the Swiss pole position
on the first day leaderboard of Louis Vuitton Act 11.
RACE ONE
When racing started after
a short postponement, it was Luna Rossa with its bow forward on the
starting line, helmsman James Spithill making an excellent start. The
Germans were shut out of the start line initially and were late starting.
Taking the right-hand
side up the first leg Victory Challenge, with Baron Sebastian Coe aboard as
18th man, came into a good shift and with clear wind was able to
extend in front of the fleet. The Italians aboard Mascalzone
Latino-Capitalia weren't far behind them and came out of the first part of
the race in a very strong position behind the Swedes.
Emirates Team New Zealand
did well up the middle of the race course, along with Shosholoza, while BMW
ORACLE Racing and Alinghi just managed to hang on to the leaders.
At the first mark, the
Swedes were well ahead. Mid-fleet, Luna Rossa found it had tacked too
early, and had to try and 'shoot' the mark, by altering course to sneak
around the buoy. As the Italian boat nearly stopped in the manoeuvre, four
boats rolled over them, and to add insult to injury, the Umpires judged ITA
86 had tacked in the process and interfered with one of its opponents, and
assessed them a penalty turn, driving the Italians further back in the
fleet.
The Kiwis moved up a few
places on the first run, while +39, who had rounded in third place held on
to their position by staying on the left hand side of the course.
The Swedes and Mascalzone
Latino-Capitalia Team extended away the rest of the race to take the first
two places, and then, at the finish line, Iain Percy's +39 Challenge stole
a position from the Kiwis by sailing high and fast behind Emirates Team New
Zealand before diving down for the finish line, and using their momentum to
squeeze across three seconds ahead.
Shosholoza eased in ahead
of the Defender, Alinghi, while Thierry Peponnet's Areva Challenge sailed a
great second lap of the course, making up four places to finish in seventh
place. The home side Desafío Español squeezed ahead of the American winners
of Act 10, BMW ORACLE Racing, while Luna Rossa, United Internet Team
Germany and China Team rounded out the fleet.
RACE TWO
It was a dramatic start
to the second race when two boats were judged over the line. Emirates Team
New Zealand and Team Shosholoza dived back to restart, and were forced out
to the right-hand side of the course to look for clear air. Desafío Español
was lucky not to break the line early as the Spanish charged towards the
pin end of the line with nowhere left to go. With China Team driving up
from underneath, Karol Jablonski was forced to turn the wheel at the last
moment, but they got away with it, crossing the start just as the gun
fired.
Out of the middle of the
line, a couple of the big players, Alinghi and Luna Rossa made good starts
with good speed. But for the second race in a row, BMW ORACLE Racing made a
terrible start as Chris Dickson struggled to find clear air in the first
few minutes.
After their poor start, a
right-hand windshift brought the Kiwis back into the game very quickly as
they charged out to the right. +39 Challenge and BMW ORACLE also went out
to the right, but when the breeze shifted back to the left, the advantage
went back towards Luna Rossa, China Team and Alinghi. SUI-75 looked in good
form, and Ed Baird steered Alinghi to a small but useful lead up the top of
the first beat, with Luna Rossa not far behind. Desafío Español 2007 had to
squeeze up to make it cleanly around the first mark, the Spanish just
managing to do so and rounding third in front of the French team Areva
Challenge.
One of the biggest
surprises was to see China Team rounding in 5th place, a well
deserved position after making a risky but well executed start. Just behind
them were the Kiwis, also showing good form after that early start. But
where was the winner of Louis Vuitton Act 10, BMW ORACLE Racing? The
Americans rounded second last, with just +39 Challenge behind.
Chris Dickson was first
to gybe on the downwind leg, a classic attacking move when you're at the
back of the fleet. It proved to be a good strategy, as when the fleet
converged on a congested leeward gate USA-87 was right back in the hunt.
Alinghi meanwhile continued to extend, but the clear winner of race one -
Victory Challenge - was struggling this time. Consistency in such a
competitive fleet is proving hard to find.
Down the final run, the
leading few had such a gap that positions were unthreatened, but in the
middle of the pack it was a scramble for the line as boats gybed on each
other, looking to steal precious air from their rivals' sails. Alinghi
crossed the line well ahead of Luna Rossa, while BMW ORACLE had climbed to
6th place, just ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand. Two of the
high-performing teams of the first contest - Mascalzone Latino-Capitalia
and +39 on this occasion brought up the rear.
Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 11 -
Provisional Results and Leaderboard
(finishing position / points scored)