LVT: Victory for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team vs. Synergy. Image copyright Mascalzone Latino Audi Team.

by Guiliano Luzzatto

It was a clear win for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team in the fourth flight of the Louis Vuitton Trophy of Auckland. Russian team Synergy was hungry for points, their scoreboard indicating 0, making skipper Karol Joblonski even more formidable.

But Gavin Brady has proved he is not a man to be intimidated by anyone.

Entering on port, for the fourth time, Brady knew how to disengage and he dominated almost all of the exciting prestart, characterized by calls for the intervention of the umpires from both teams. At the start, Synergy was faster and on the right, obtaining an initial advantage that faded away thanks to Morgan Larson's tactics and the Russian's failure to cover the right side: in short the Rascals reversed the situation and put Synergy in their dirty air, pushing them over the lay line. At the windward mark Mascalzone had a two boat length advantage, equal to 18 seconds. Downwind the advantage increased, until Synergy started a gybing duel that allowed them to get a little closer. Mascalzone appeared to maintain a comfortable lead, but races are the realm of uncertainty, and they soon had a problem dropping their kite: the retriever which helps to quickly perform the maneuver did not work properly. Many races have been lost for this, but the crew of the Latin Rascals did well to not give up, and performed a miracle, recovering the enormous sail without losing concentration. If the lead disappeared, the tactic decisions on the right of the course helped by a second error by the Russians, allowed the Rascals to regain a margin that increased until the finish, earning Mascalzone Latino Audi Team a 19 second win.

"We are getting to know each other better, because these races are the first for the new group - stated Cameron Dunn, strategist - but we are not sailing at the level that we would like. Today we made some errors, the most obvious was when we dropped the spinnaker. We knew how to recover, but in the first upwind leg we were surprised Synergy let us have the right without covering us."

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team is on even points with the British of Team Origin, the Swedish of Artemis and the French-German of All4One. In front are only Azzurra, with one loss out of four races, and the unbeaten kiwis of Emirates Team New Zealand.

Sunday, March 14th, Mascalzone will race against Artemis, led by Paul Cayard.

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team
Louis Vuitton Trophy