ALL4ONE racing off Nice. Image copyright Frank Socha.
by Stephanie Nadin
First of all ALL4ONE won its 3rd match against Swedish team Artemis (27 seconds ahead), after having raced against them twice since the beginning of this Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice. Scoreboard status was one point for each team, but for the "battle royale" in the final phases today, the French-German team finally won the last point.
Then ALL4ONE won its second match of the day against BMW Oracle Racing and took the 5th place of the general ranking (1 minute 23 seconds ahead).
ALL4ONE has advanced to the match for 5th and 6th place against BMW Oracle Racing after beating Artemis in their one race sail-off. ALL4ONE started on port tack at the boat end of the start line and took the right side of the racecourse. The two yachts slammed through the big seaway as they beat upwind on starboard tack, separated by a few lengths. ALL4ONE was to windward, however, and led by 7 seconds at the first mark. The French-German team extended that lead to 30 seconds at the leeward gate and then applied covering tactics on the rough conditions for the well-earned win.
On the second race of the day for ALL4ONE, after a tight first leg, BMW Oracle Racing made a mistake after the first mark rounding coming too close to the French-German team. They got penalized by a red flag when they were already sailing downwind (they had to do it immediately). This manoeuver was time consuming for them. Once they sailed in front, ALL4ONE controlled the rest of the match easily and took the 5th place of the final general ranking in front of BMW Oracle Racing.
The crew on board off Nice. Image copyright Frank Socha.
They have said:
Stephane Kandler, ALL4ONE's CEO: "those two wins were a really good thing for the team. We have been waiting for that for almost ten days. Today we won the matches that we had to win. They were knock out matches, against two great teams that are strong, so it is a big satisfaction, and it proves that we are on the right way."
Sebastien Col, Helmsman: "we have had great conditions today in Nice. We were feeling strong in the breeze today with the team, and we were really looking forward to it for two weeks. On the first race against Artemis, the right side of the race course was the good choice after a good start, and we managed to sail ahead early in the race, and we kept the lead until the end.
"Then against BMW Oracle Racing, it was a bit harder as we also wanted the right, and we managed to get it, even if the start was not so good. We kept the starboard advantage, but they took the lead just before the upwind mark. BMW Oracle Racing made a mistake at the mark, tacking just in front of us. We took the opportunity to give them a penalty, which was judged to be executed straight away. This allowed us to take control of the race.
"These are two nice victories for ALL4ONE to finish this event in Nice. It is great to finish like this, with a 5th place, even if we would have wanted to be in the group of 4 in the semi-finals. The team managed to come back to win these last matches against other big teams which are not easy to beat."
Jochen Schümann, ALL4ONE's Skipper: "Conditions were simply great today: 14-17 knots with surfs downwind on the waves, so we really enjoyed these races that were very intense. We have showed that we were at the same level as the top teams sailing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice by winning against Artemis and BMW Oracle Racing today. We are very happy, even if we end up 5th where we expected to reach the semi-finals. See you in Auckland for the next Louis Vuitton Trophy!"
The semi-finals continue Saturday in Nice. The final will take place on Sunday.
Results of the day
Emirates Team New Zealand beat Synergy Russian Sailing Team by 26''
BMW Oracle Racing beat TFS-PagesJaunes by 1'06
Team Origin beat Azzurra by 2'26''
ALL4ONE beat Artemis by 27''
Synergy Russian Sailing Team beat Emirates Team New Zealand by 50''
ALL4ONE beat BMW Oracle Racing by 1'23''
ALL4ONE
Louis Vuitton Trophy
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