A loss for TEAMORIGIN in today’s race against Azzurra means tomorrow’s race is a must-win for the team against Mascalzone Latino to remain in control of their destiny in this competition as the scoreboard becomes intensely close
Azzurra vs TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
by Leslie Greenhalgh
Tuesday’s race was TEAMORIGIN’s second last race of the Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in La Maddalena, Sardinia. The opponent was the Italian Azzurra team. The wind had been fresh in the middle of the afternoon, too fresh to race and the match had been delayed for more than 90 minutes by the time both boats were allowed to hoist their mainsails and start to warm up.
Over the course of the day the race committee had been forced to move the race course area twice as the wind shifted first to the right and then later increased dramatically to over 25 knots. By the time of the Azzurra vs TEAMORIGIN match got underway the course was tucked up against the shore on the left hand side of the course area in the Gulf of Arzachena.
Azzurra leads TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
Skipper Ben Ainslie had the favoured starboard entry for the pre-start and came roaring in at high speed to block the early advances of the Italian team along the start line. The pair engaged in several minutes of tight circling in the fresh conditions before the British team took up the left hand position believing that the left side of the course would pay dividends.
When the gun went the pair were separated laterally by almost the full length of the line, leaving too large a gap to be able to sail around the front of the opponent before the layline without a significant wind shift, a shift that didn’t come. With the short courses of the Louis Vuitton Trophy the opportunities are already limited, when that course is set close to the shore they become even more so. Before long TEAMORIGIN found itself over the port tack layline, pinned below the local boat and unable to cross ahead, and with the rocky Sardinian shoreline fast approaching. A call for sea room caused the Italians to finally tack for the mark and leisurely open up the gap between the two to about two lengths at the first weather mark.
High speed sailing downwind in the strong winds again leaves little tactical opportunity to pass and barring boathandling errors on the leader TEAMORIGIN’s only opportunity to make inroads was to take the unfavoured gate mark at the bottom of the run in an effort to split away from Azzurra at the bottom of the second beat with some lateral separation. Quickly the gap opened up further and the chance of making any impact on the Italian’s lead unraveled more as they tacked to cover from a safe position to weather and ahead.
TEAMORIGIN tacked back to starboard half way up the second beat trying to lure the Italian into a tacking duel but instead Azzurra’s afterguard let the British boat swap sides for a while. On trying to instigate the same again coming from the left the Italian team again let TEAMORIGIN swap sides ultimately requiring the British team to make two more tacks than their opponent to round the last mark. At the turn the lead was big and all the Italian had to do was keep the boat on track to take the win.
Azzurra leads TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.
“On short courses it’s essential to get the right start and we gave the Italians too much room and were punished for it,” said Sir Keith Mills, Team Principal and riding on board as 18th man today.
TEAMORIGIN has one race remaining, against another Italian team Mascalzone Latino. A win here will see the Brits advance to the Semi-Final stage. A loss may require the results of other teams to come into play to avoid elimination.
Race Results, Tues 1st June 2010, Round Robin One
Flight 19 : BMWO beat Mascalzone, 27s
Flight 20 : Mascalzone beat Aleph, 7s
Flight 14 : Luna Rossa beat Aleph
Flight 13 : BMWO beat Azzurra, 30s
Flight 19 : Azzurra beat TEAMORIGIN, 48s
Flight 3 : Artemis beat ETNZ
Results to date (after Tues 1st June)
1 - Artemis: 6 wins, 2 losses
2 - ETNZ : 5 wins, 3 losses
2 - Synergy : 5 wins, 4 losses
4 - Mascalzone latino : 5 wins*, 2 losses = 4 points (docked 1 pt)
4 - TEAMORIGIN : 4 wins, 4 losses
4 - ALL4ONE : 4 wins, 3 losses
4 - Azzurra : 4 wins, 5 losses
8 - Luna Rossa : 3 wins, 6 losses
9 - BMW ORACLE Racing : 3 wins, 6 losses – now eliminated
10 - Aleph : 2 wins*, 4 losses = -2 points – now eliminateg
Racing for Wed 2nd June
Flight 12 – Mascalzone v TEAMORIGIN
Flight 22 – ALL4ONE v Aleph
Flight 18 – ETNZ v Mascalzone
Flight 15 – Artemis v ALL4ONE
QF1
QF1
TEAMORIGIN
Louis Vuitton Trophy
