TEAMORIGIN racing in Auckland. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
by Leslie Greenhalgh
TEAMORIGIN scored an important point on the score board today by beating the French Aleph Team. The pre-start action was dramatic with a hard contact collision between the boats as Aleph illegally altered course in the tight pre-start manoeuvring and was awarded a penalty by the on-the-water umpires.
In the other races today, Emirates Team New Zealand added to their undefeated record with a win over ALL4ONE; and Azzurra took victory from Artemis after an unforced error saw the leading Swedish yacht’s spinnaker pole break during a complicated hoist causing them to retire. In the final race of the day Mascalzone Latino beat the Russian Synergy in a close race.
TEAMORIGIN’s race, the second start of the day got underway just before midday in a 17 knot Southerly wind. Bright sunshine also greeted the legendary AC historian and scribe, Bob Fisher on board the British boat as 18th man and what a day he had.
Aleph chase TEAMORIGIN downwind. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
TEAMORIGIN entered from the unfavoured port end and was unable to cross ahead of the French opponent, which resulted in the standard dial-up. The pair hung head to wind for more than a minute and ended up sailing slowly backwards with Aleph on the right. The lateral separation was enough for skipper Ben Ainslie to let the British boat fall onto port tack and with a backed jib and completely eased mainsail bare away sharply to swing inside the French boat and pass behind. But as the British boat was three quarters of the way through its manoeuvre the French crew started to get underway again on port tack from stopped, a consequence of which was the stern of the French boat to started to swing towards the bow of the British boat. Skipper Ainslie was compromised and without being given any opportunity to keep clear the British boat clipped the stern of the French boat. The Umpires ruled against the French team awarding them a penalty, and later a one point deduction from their regatta scoreboard.
The penalty on the opponent caused TEAMORIGIN to switch to a more conservative strategy for the race knowing they just had to stay close and avoid trouble to take the win and the point. TEAMORIGIN won the start and opened up a nice lead on the first beat to round the first mark with a 30 second lead, a lead on the water they succeeded in maintaining in the constantly building breeze to the finish.
Ian Moore, TEAMORIGIN Navigator, gave his thoughts on the pre-start ‘heart-in-mouth’ action, “Both boats entered a pretty standard dial-up with Aleph to windward, both boats head to wind, a small gap appeared and TEAMORIGIN took the opportunity to bear away behind the stern of Aleph. The Aleph team then pulled their transom up to close the gap and gave us no room to escape and a collision ensued. The umpires gave an immediate decision giving a penalty to Aleph and deducting 1 point from them. We then went on to sail a conservative race, always keeping a small lead and taking an important race win.”
The French team flew a red protest flag. This resulted in a request for redress to the International Jury. Following a short hearing at the end of racing, where video evidence from both teams and the Louis Vuitton Trophy TV production team was shown, the Jury felt sufficiently confident to deny the request.
Aleph chase TEAMORIGIN downwind. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
Race results Saturday:
Race 1: ETNZ (NZL) beat ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) – 26s
Race 2 : TEAMORIGIN (GBR) beat Aleph (FRA) – 2m11s
Race 3: Azzurra (ITA) beat Artemis (SWE) – Artemis retired due to equipment damage
Race 4: Mascalzone Latino (ITA) beat Synergy (RUS) – 19s
Race wins/losses/points after day 4 of racing:
ETNZ 4 wins/0 losses 4
Azzurra 3 wins/1 loss 3
TEAMORIGIN 2 wins/2 losses 2
All4One 2 wins/2 losses 2
Artemis 2 wins/2 losses 2
Mascalzone 2 win/2 losses 2
Aleph* 0 wins/4 losses 0
(*docked 1 point today for collision)
Synergy 0 wins/4 losses 0
Race schedule for Sunday 14th March, is as follows:
Race 1: All4One (FRA) vs Aleph (FRA)
Race 2 : Azzurra (ITA) vs ETNZ (NZL)
Race 3: Synergy (RUS) vs TEAMORIGIN (GBR)
Race 4: Artemis (SWE) vs Mascalzone (ITA)
TEAMORIGIN
Louis Vuitton Trophy
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