Alinghi wins the first match of the LVPS Finals in wet and wild conditions gusting 26knots.
by Daphne Morgan Barnicoat
Alinghi vs. Emirates Team New Zealand
Louis Vuitton Pacific Series Final
Alinghi has port entry
Alinghi races NZL92
Conditions: 20-26knot southerly
Best of five matches
Alinghi had port entry into the box, ETNZ took early control but miss-timed their return to the line. Ed Baird and crew snatched the opportunity, coming back into the committee boat end of the line to windward and with speed. Alinghi clawed back ETNZ’s small advantage, living to windward, and lifting off in a shift to take the lead and stretch it out to a boat length. Sailing the shifts up the beat, Alinghi rounded 12 seconds ahead; still striking distance for ETNZ, but by the gate the Swiss went for the left-hand mark ahead by 18 seconds. Windward mark 2 saw an 8 second extension and by the finish Alinghi was ahead by 22 seconds.
Racing was postponed ashore after the end of race 1 with too much wind forecast and the format was reduced to the best of five rather than seven.
Quote from the race boat – Ed Baird, helmsman, explains what happened in the pre-start today against Emirates Team New Zealand:
EB: “It was a weak pre-start by me. This would be the strongest wind that we have sailed in this regatta and I just didn’t do a good job; I didn’t do a great job of positioning ourselves against the other guys and suddenly we were in trouble. From there we just had to start moving the action, first of all over to the right to be safe and then secondly we just had to keep doing something until there was an opportunity. Ultimately there came an opportunity and we were able to get back into the line and have a clear start. It ended up actually almost being the start we were hoping for in the first place, but it was purely by good fortune and not by our hard work. I’ll give the guys on our team a lot of credit for hanging in there with me through a difficult situation; once we had a chance, they did everything right to get us going.”
Q: A postponement ashore until tomorrow due to the weather – how does this affect the team if at all?
EB: “The guys have to be ready for each race, that’s just the way it is. For now we just have to go away and think about what happened today – we could have done better. We have a continuing tough match tomorrow against a great team and we have to be ready.”
Deltas
Mark 1: 12 seconds
Gate: 20 seconds
Mark 2: 25 seconds
Finish: 22 seconds
Alinghi
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