Alinghi and Damiani Italia Challenge on the run. Image copyright Stefano Gattini/Damiani Italia Challenge.
by Daphne Morgan-Barnicoat
Alinghi vs. Damiani Italia Challenge
Gold Fleet, Match 2
Alinghi: port entry
Alinghi drew NZL84
Forecast: NE 15knots
Waitangi Day in New Zealand and Day 2 of the LVPS Round Robin 2 saw Alinghi meet Vasco Vascotto’s Damiani Italia Challenge for Match 1 of the day. Racing finally got underway at 11:35 after an aborted first start due to race committee error and Alinghi came in from the pin end – the two circled down deep into the box, turned up towards the line. Alinghi to leeward of Damiani Italia built speed and tacked onto starboard to take the right-hand side in the last few seconds to the gun.
Damiani took the first cross just a few metres ahead, but further up the beat all was to change: Damiani dialled Alinghi in an aggressive port starboard, pushed it a little too far tacking on the Swiss without giving them sufficient room, and took an immediate penalty. The Swiss snatched the lead and rounded the 1st windward mark 20seconds ahead. Downwind they extended to a 33second lead through the gate; top mark 2 saw a 1 second gain to 34 and by the finish Alinghi crossed 43seconds ahead.
Quote from the race boat – Dean Phipps, strategist, gives some insight
Q: Can you talk us through today’s pre-start?
DP: “For the second one we didn’t quite get the start that we wanted, we should probably have tacked over a little bit earlier and gone to the right when Damiani was setting himself up; with about 30 or 40 seconds to go we should have tacked and taken his stern and then set up to the right of him. That would have been preferable to starting on port and just sneaking around the committee boat, but we still got the right-hand side and made it difficult for them.”
Q: Can you explain what happened on the first beat – we saw a dial down and then a penalty on Damiani?
DP: “We thought they should have got 2 penalties actually; the first part being that just as we went into a tack, they started to dialled down so we went to 90degrees which is what we had to do to avoid, they went below 90 and just kept coming at us and then they turned up into a tack and we took their stern and then luffed them. They were unable to keep clear of us and took the penalty there. So they basically went below 90 to start with, so that should have been a penalty and so they definitely deserved the second one as we could potentially have hit them if we hadn’t pulled off. The jury decided that they had put themselves in a vulnerable position and that they had gained out of the manoeuvre and red-flagged them, an instant penalty.
“Our strategy from there was to be conservative, it was a windy day and we wanted to just try and keep things nice and smooth which I think the team does a good job of under pressure. We have sailed a lot together by now and things just click nicely together.”
Q: You must be getting used to sailing NZL84?
DP: “We’re still coming to terms with the boat, it doesn’t accelerate as nicely as 92 or as 100, but we’re slowly working it out!”
Q: And finally a word on Waitangi day...?
DP: “Waitangi day celebrates the day that our founding document was signed in 1840 between the Crown and the Maori chiefs to unite the country. It’s New Zealand’s day today. Matt Mitchell and I both have Maori ancestry and obviously I feel proud of that and we do our bit and fly the flag. Today we flew our Maori sovereignty flag on the Alinghi boat which is the one the Maori flew on Waitangi day many years ago.”
Other news of the day:
Jackson Tmaariki - Campbell from Ngati Whatua sailed as 18th man today onboard Alinghi. He is a young Maori water man and an accomplished waka sailor, who hails from the tribe in whose waters the LVPS is sailing.
Results
Emirates team new Zealand vs Luna Rossa: 26second win to ETNZ
Team China vs Greek Challenge: 2minutes 58second win to Team China
BMW Oracle Racing vs TeamOrigin: 0 points to BOR and less .5 of a point to TeamOrigin (collision)
Pataugas K-Challenge vs Team Shosholoza: K-Challenge win by 20seconds
Alinghi
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