Yacht NZL with Team Shosholoza on board returns to dock to have a damaged foil replaced. The delay caused by the damage and building winds resulted in a postponement of Shosholoza’s race against the Italian Luna Rossa challenger on the third day of racing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series in Auckland New Zealand today. Image copyright Guiliano Luzzatto.
by Di Meek
Time lost in repairing one of the four yachts being used by all ten international teams competing in the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series and building winds forced a postponement of the match between South Africa’s Team Shosholoza and Italy’s Luna Rossa in Auckland, New Zealand, today (Sunday)..
“We realised as soon as we tried to hoist the jib that there was a problem as it just came off the foil. A rigging team tried to fix it out on the race course but when they couldn’t do anything we had to bring the boat back to shore to get it sorted out,” said Paolo Cian, Shosholoza skipper and helmsman who was scheduled to race on yacht NZ 92 today.
Back at base the Emirates Team New Zealand shore crew swung into action and within just 40 minutes had removed the foil which was damaged in two places, replaced it with a spare one, and sent the yacht back out to the race course.
But by that stage the breeze had built to over 20 knots with gusts in the high 20’s. Racing was delayed by principal race officer Peter Reggio in the hopes that conditions would settle but finally cancelled because of the strong winds.
“These boats are just too fragile to race in such strong winds and there is no point in putting them at risk especially when we still have two more weeks of racing ahead of us,” said Cian.
In an effort to save costs all the competing teams are racing on two pairs of 80 foot modified Cup class yachts loaned to the event by Emirates Team New Zealand and BMW Oracle. A draw is held each night to decide which yacht will be raced by which team with the proviso that the New Zealand yachts are always raced against each other and the same with the BMW Oracle yachts.
Teams are identifiable by branding on the mainsail and gennaker. The national flag of each respective team is also flown from the stern when onboard..
Today’s postponement means that in three days of racing in the event so far Shosholoza has only raced in one match against the newly formed Greek Challenge on Saturday. The South Africans had a bye on the opening day of the event on Friday (30 January).
Even so two matches in the first flight of racing and one in the second were thrilling enough to attract over 300 spectator yachts on the water. Ashore a huge Sunday crowd of over 2000 streamed to the dormant volcanic peak of North Head on the North Shore peninsula for a bird’s eye view of the action.
The upset of the day was Britain’s new America’s Cup Challenger Team Origin’s 36 second win over America’s Cup defender’s the Swiss Team Alinghi. Origin, with three-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie on the helm, luffed the Swiss seconds from the start and in so doing pushed them over the line. By the time Alinghi had returned to re-start Origin had was shooting up the first beat. The Swiss did well in closing the gap but were unable to overhaul them.
In the other match races today the Damiani Italia Challenge defeated Pataugas K-Challenge with a delta of 45 seconds and BMW Oracle Racing had a convincing 128 second win over China Team
Shosholoza faces Britain’s Team Origin in the second flight of match races on day 4 of the event tomorrow (Monday 2 February) according to schedule. If time and weather conditions allow they will make up the race against Luna Rossa after all racing for the day is over.
Team Shosholoza
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