Thursday 27 May 2010

LVT: ALL4ONE Still in the Top Group at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena




ALL4ONE vs. TEAMORIGIN in the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena. Image copyright Frank Socha/www.franksocha.com

by Stephanie Nadin

The competition continues on the Louis Vuitton Trophy - La Maddalena, where the wind was back for good today. Unfortunately, only one pair of boats is still operational for the moment, as the two BMW Oracle Racing's boats were damaged in a collision between Aleph and Azzurra before they started their match. The boats are now being repaired in order to get the second pair back on the water as quickly as possible.
Until that, the racing programme will be adapted in order to get the teams to continue sailing their matches on the Mascalzone Latino's boats.

ALL4ONE's race of the day:

ALL4ONE led to the line with a clean start, followed by TeamOrigin on his hip. Ben Ainslie steering the British boat quickly tacked away and Sebastien Col soon followed as the French-German axis eked out a 20-metre lead on a long port tack. When Ben Ainslie tacked onto starboard, Seb Col responded with a lee-bow tack. TeamOrigin was able to survive on ALL4ONE's hip and tacked again to lead into the mark overlapped before carrying their opponent far above the upwind mark.

TeamOrigin sailed out to a 150 metre lead which ALL4ONE managed to reduce down to 37 metres on the final run as the breeze freshened, but it was unfortunately not enough and ALL4ONE crossed the line only 5 seconds behind TeamOrigin.


ALL4ONE vs. TEAMORIGIN in the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena. Image copyright Frank Socha/www.franksocha.com

Sebastien Col, Helmsman: "The first match against TeamOrigin today was the best one we sailed since the competition started, even if we don't take this point on the final score board. The team really worked well together, and we made a mistake that made us lose this point. I actually didn't take enough risk when we reached the first mark, leaving too much space between the two boats to avoid any penalty, and we paid for this mistake straight away on the first downwind leg. The race has been really close, and we really are on the right way as a team as we improve everyday. ALL4ONE has really moved another step up, which is good for the rest of the competition."

John Cutler, Tactician: « Today we started very well against TeamOrigin, and we were quite competitive. Unfortunately it was one of those races where you feel you sail quite well and everything worked out reasonably well, and we didn't win. So we sort of feel pleased, but also a little frustrated that things didn't go our way and we end up with no point from our efforts. »

Results Day 4 - Round Robin
Race 1: Synergy wins by 15 sec over Luna Rossa
Race 2: Artemis wins by 14 sec over BMW Oracle Racing
Race 3: TeamOrigin wins by 5 sec over ALL4ONE
Race 4: Luna Rossa wins by 13 sec over Emirates Team New Zealand

Team Wins/Losses
Artemis 3-0
Synergy 2-0
ALL4ONE 2-2
Azzurra 2-2
TeamOrigin 2-3
Mascalzone Latino 1-1
Aleph 1-2
Emirates Team New Zealand 1-1
Luna Rossa 1-3
BMW Oracle Racing 0-3

ALL4ONE Challenge
Louis Vuitton Trophy