Alinghi beats BMW ORACLE Racing by one second. Image copyright Gilles Martin-Raget/BMW ORACLE Racing.
by Jane Eagleson
In an incredible day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, BMW ORACLE Racing stormed through the Quarter Final and Semi-Final with back to back wins over Luna Rossa Challenge and Damiani Italia.
Then, in the opening race of the Challenger Final against the Swiss Alinghi team, BMW ORACLE Racing led all the way around the track only to see their advantage evaporate in the closing seconds of the race. Alinghi crossed the line 1 second ahead of BMW ORACLE Racing, with the Swiss crossing at the Committee Boat end of the line and BMW ORACLE Racing at the pin end.
"The Committee Boat end was heavily favoured," said BMW ORACLE Racing tactician Hamish Pepper. "We made a mistake and should have gybed across to take that end of the line. Alinghi did a nice job of keeping it close. Against a team like that, you know that if you make a mistake they will pounce.
"It is obviously disappointing, but we look forward to racing against them again tomorrow. We need to win the next two."
Earlier in the day, BMW ORACLE Racing came up against two Italian teams in the Quarter Final and Semi Final. The first of these, against Luna Rossa Challenge was a heart-stopper, with no less than three penalties, two of them against BMW ORACLE Racing. The first two penalties came during a hectic windward mark rounding. As both teams were penalised, the penalties cancelled each other.
But, then as the yachts headed down the first leeward run, BMW ORACLE Racing had to gybe to escape a dangerous situation with Luna Rossa holding them outside the layline. BMW ORACLE Racing managed to gybe across the bow of the Italian yacht, but the umpires ruled that they had gybed too close and imposed a penalty on the US team.
That set up a desperate situation for BMW ORACLE Racing. In a sudden-death match, they had to try to engineer a situation where they could establish enough of a lead to complete their penalty turn and retain the lead. Up the second windward leg and down the final run, BMW ORACLE Racing managed to stretch out to a four boatlength lead. But most estimates reckon that at least six boatlengths are required to complete a penalty.
Coming into the finish line BMW ORACLE Racing set up to cross the line, drop their spinnaker, tack around above the finish line again and then bear away to recross the finish line. All the while, Luna Rossa were hurtling down towards the line under spinnaker. To the disbelief of the spectators, Russell Coutts and the crew managed to complete the turn and finish 9 seconds ahead of Luna Rossa to advance to the Semi Final. "Russell did a great job and the guys did extremely well with very smooth moves all the way through that turn," said Pepper.
In the Semi-Final, BMW ORACLE Racing gained the early advantage in a fast start on starboard tack, with Damiani Italia to leeward. Up the first windward leg, the yachts engaged in a long drag race on starboard tack out towards the left side of the course.
As they approached the port tack layline, Damiani Italia had done a good job of keeping the action close and launched a couple of aggressive luffs against BMW ORACLE Racing. Russell Coutts and the crew kept well clear and when the yachts tacked onto port to race for the windward mark, the Italian crew were clear astern.
No quarter was given throughout the match, with the Damiani Italia crew constantly attacking from behind, but BMW ORACLE Racing managed to extend its lead on every leg. At the leeward gate, BMW ORACLE Racing elected to round the right hand end, while Damiani Italia split away for the left hand end, trailing by 24 seconds. At the final windward mark, the delta had opened slightly to 29 seconds. After a spirited gybing duel down the final run, BMW ORACLE Racing crossed the finish line 35 seconds ahead and set for a best-of-three encounter against Alinghi in the Challenger Final.
The Challenger Final continues tomorrow to determine which team will meet Emirates Team New Zealand in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series final.
BMW ORACLE Racing
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