Mascalzone Latino Audi Team beats TEAMORIGIN. Supplied image.
by Lorenza Priamo
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team beats the British Team Origin with a convincing 35-second lead. The schedule for tomorrow calls for the last Round Robin race against Emirates Team New Zealand, headed by Grant Dalton. The entire fleet is now waiting to hear from the Principal Race Officer in order to know what modifications will be made during the following days so that the initial schedule is met and the event winner is crowned on Sunday, June 6th.
Today’s match was against the British Team Origin, a team helmed by superstar Ben Anslie (four Olympic medals) and with Iain Percy calling tactics, a sailor that has only two Olympic medals, both gold. Gavin Brady and his “Latin Rascals” don’t have a brilliant start but they manage to hold on to the right. Both yachts opted for pin end of the starting line and Mascalzone being on the starboard hip of Team Origin is the first to benefit from the right-hand windshift, rounding the weather mark with a 10-second lead. In the downwind duel, Team Origin can’t roll over Mascalzone but at the approach to the leeward gate they are threatening the Italian lead; a sloppy spinnaker drop will cost Team Origin precious meters.
We will later know that the trimmer Mike Motti was hurt during the difficult moments of the maneuver and as a result the British team was affected in the second part of the race. After today’s victory, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team now has 5 points and grabs one of the top spots of the leaderboard, trailing only Artemis that holds the first place with 6 points.
“Today was a tough day – points out tactician Morgan Larson – a day about the crew, the grinders, the bowmen, not so much the afterguard. A day in which we had a bad timing at the start but we were also helped by a bit of luck because the British are one of the strongest teams around and it’s always difficult to beat them”.
Flavio Favini echoes his view: “A good day, one more point, we are happy with the way sailed in a strong breeze and against an adversary particularly strong under such conditions”.
Mascalzone Latino Audi Team
Louis Vuitton Trophy
