Friday, 4 June 2010
LVT: Decisive Match Thursday for ALL4ONE To Top the Leaderboard in La Maddalena
ALL4ONE vs Aleph. Image copyright Frank Socha/www.franksocha.com
by Stephanie Nadin
ALL4ONE wins its match against Aleph today in La Maddalena.
Racing started late in the day, as the race committee had to wait that the wind would finally go down to launch the matches.
The French-German team still competes for the semi-finals, and also for the first place of the Round Robin.
The final answer will come out tomorrow morning with the two last races to finish the Round Robin: Mascalzone Latino vs Emirates Team New Zealand, and ALL4ONE vs Artemis.
The match of the day:
With 17-18 knots of wind, ALL4ONE had a good start by taking the advantage on the right of the race course. ALL4ONE extended its lead on the first upwind leg, and protected the right hand side thanks to good tactics and a good boat handling. The French-German team rounded the first mark 14 seconds ahead, and kept the same advantage until the downwind mark. Then ALL4ONE extended even more on the second upwind beat to round the third and last mark 27 seconds ahead, and crossed the finish line first to win the point.
Image copyright Frank Socha/www.franksocha.com
Philippe Mourniac, Navigator: " It was a tough race as there was a lot of wind. The key point is that we managed to take control from the start, and then to keep it. But these are never easy races, as anything can happen in these strong winds, like a technical problem or a bad manoeuvre, so we had to remain very concentrated on board. We are now very motivated for tomorrow and our last Round Robin race against Artemis."
John Cutler, Tactician: "Sebastien did a nice job getting the side of the course we wanted, and we were pleased that the right hand side was the correct choice. It was also a matter of not having too many damages or problems in the strong wind today. Generally it was nice to get that point. Tomorrow is now a big day for us."
Last match to race tomorrow morning for ALL4ONE against Artemis to conclude the Round Robin!
Results Day 12 - Round Robin
Race 1 : Mascalzone Latino wins by 35 sec over TeamOrigin
Race 2 : ALL4ONE wins by 15 sec over Aleph
Round Robin provisional results to date
Artemis 6
ALL4ONE 5
Emirates Team New Zealand 5
Mascalzone Latino 5
Synergy 5
Azzurra 4
TeamOrigin 4
Luna Rossa 3
BMW Oracle Racing 3
Aleph -2
ALL4ONE
Louis Vuitton Trophy