LVT: Two Wins for TeamOrigin in Nice

TeamOrigin leads ALL4ONE downwind. Image copyright Ian Roman.

by Leslie Ryan

TEAMORIGIN’s score sheet gained another two points today with wins in both scheduled races at the Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice regatta.

Having not raced since Saturday when TEAMORIGIN opened the Louis Vuitton Trophy with a win against the Russian Synergy team, the British team were eager to get back out and into the competition against their first of two opponents scheduled for Tuesday the Team French Spirt-Pages Jaunes skippered by America’s Cup veteran Bertrand Pacé. On board TEAMORIGIN as 18th man guest was Formula One personality Eddie Jordan, himself no stranger to competition at the highest level.

The British crew were up against a master of match racing and they enjoyed playing the pre-start game in stable mediums winds managing to position themselves to take up the left hand side of the course off the line. The French opponent took the right hand side and a third of the way up the first leg Pacé held a small advantage.

The timing of TEAMORIGIN’s return across the course to attack the opponent was masterful. Knowing that they were at a slight disadvantage on the left Iain Percy called for a tack to cross the course and engage the other boat. Some tight lee bow tacks close to the French boat in the final part of the first weather leg showed who was tacking fastest and the British boat pulled into a position to round the first mark with a two boat length advantage. From then on the British team pulled ahead and managed to stay in control of what was ultimately a close race, crossing the finish line with a 30 second advantage.


The afterguard on board TeamOrigin. Image copyright Ian Roman.

Team Director Mike Sanderson commented shortly after finishing: “The nice thing about today was that we had 12/13 knots of breeze on the race course, the most we have seen since we have been in Nice. We have had relatively little practice in those conditions - and so every minute on the boat is really valuable for us. We had an even start, went to the left and they [TFS-Pages Jaune] went right and got slightly ahead half way up the first beat. But we played the shifts well towards the end of first beat and got ahead and then stayed in control to the finish".

Eddie Jordan, no newcomer to sailing, really enjoyed the race, “That was really impressive and a smooth sail. The manouveres were a bit like a Formula One pit stop, everybody knew exactly what to do and they moved quietly and efficiently about their business. I was really surprised how quiet it was. Very smooth, really efficient.”

In the team’s second match of the day TEAMORIGIN dominated their opponents, the Franco-German ALL4ONE, in the pre-start and managed to lead off the start line by two lengths. The British team’s afterguard chose the left initially and managed to pick the moment to swap sides and take up the all important right hand side of the course for the final approach to the first mark.

The beat was extremely close, the pair never being more than a couple of lengths apart with TEAMORIGIN rounding the first mark seven seconds ahead. With the ALL4ONE team breathing down their necks the run was just as close with plenty of opportunities to lose control of the match but the team stayed calm, sailed smartly and managed to round the first leeward gate with a further 2 second advantage. The second beat and run were not a lot easier with a strong defensive policy being put in place. Control was maintained and the lead was 14 seconds at the finish.

Navigator Ian Moore, loved the day and made these comments on getting back ashore: "Two great results for us today at TEAMORIGIN. It was really good to get stuck into a couple of proper races in decent breeze against good competitors. The second race in particular was a really close match race and it felt good to win that one. The guys remained really cool and collected in some heated situations. A really enjoyable day's sailing."

TEAMORIGIN will race two matches tomorrow, the first match against BMW ORACLE Racing, the second against the Swedish Artemis.

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice Cote d’Azur
Round Robin One - Current Standings
Competing teams - Country - Skipper - Record (W-L)
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) - Dean Barker, 4-0
TEAMORIGIN (GBR) - Ben Ainslie, 3-0
Artemis (SWE) - Paul Cayard, 2-2
Azzurra (ITA) - Francesco Bruni, 2-1
BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) - Gavin Brady, 2-1
ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) - Jochen Schuemann, 1-3
Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) - Karol Jablonski, 0-3
Team French Spirit (FRA) - Bertrand Pacé, 0-4

Louis Vuitton Trophy Nice
Round Robin One – Schedule of racing for 11th November
Flight10
Match 1 Artemis (93) vs Emirates Team New Zealand (75)
Match 2 ALL4ONE (99) vs TFS - Pages Jaunes (90)
Flight 11
Match 1 Azzurra (93) vs Synergy (75)
Match 2 BMW ORACLE Racing (90) vs TEAMORIGIN (99)
Flight 12
Match 1 ALL4ONE (93) vs Synergy (75)
Match 2 Azzurra (90) vs TFS - Pages Jaunes (99)
Flight 13
Match 1 Emirates Team New Zealand (75) vs BMW ORACLE Racing (93)
Match 2 Artemis (90) vs TEAMORIGIN (99)

TeamOrigin
Louis Vuitton Trophy