LVT: Field Closes Up at Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena

Louis Vuitton Trophy, La Maddalena, Italy, May 22nd-June 6th 2010. Race Day 8, © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Just one point separates the top five boats at the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena after an eventful programme of five races sailed today in fresh breezes


Louis Vuitton Trophy, La Maddalena, Italy, May 22nd-June 6th 2010. Race Day 8. Azzurra (ITA) vs Synergy (RUS), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

by Peter Rusch

Russia’s SYNERGY Racing Team and the Swedish team Artemis share the top of the point’s table, each with five points. Emirates Team New Zealand, Britain’s TEAMORIGIN and the French/German team All4One are all equal third on four points.


Race Day 8. Synergy (RUS) vs Artemis (SWE), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

With two days’ competition remaining in the round robin, the pressure began to tell in strong winds this afternoon as Sweden’s Artemis broke a gennaker pole and shredded a gennaker, and a jib began to self-destruct on Emirates Team New Zealand. Both top teams lost their respective races.


Race Day 8. Synergy (RUS) vs Artemis (SWE): The Artemis gennaker pole goes overboard during the takedown, breaks and drags the gennaker under the boat, © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

The Artemis breakdown was self-inflicted. The Swedish boat skippered by Paul Cayard was pushing to overtake the Russian boat when the pole went overboard, triggering a sequence that saw it trip and explode into pieces before dragging the sail under the boat. Artemis retired. On the Team New Zealand boat, racing All4One, the hapless Kiwis could only watch as the head of their jib began to split in 20 knot winds.


Race Day 8. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) vs ALL4ONE (FRA), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

The Kiwis had more success off the water, at least temporarily when the Race Committee gave them a reprieve by ordering a resail of their race yesterday against BMW Oracle Racing. In another twist, the Jury tonight will hear an appeal by Oracle against the resail decision.


Race Day 8. Azzurra (ITA) vs Artemis (SWE), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

The dispute hinges on a safety order issued yesterday telling teams to maintain tension on forestays during spinnaker runs. After an umpires’ protest and a jury decision denied Team New Zealand any chance of a win in their match against Oracle, the organizers relented today, withdrew the safety order and ordered the resail.


Race Day 8. Luna Rossa (ITA) vs TEAMORIGIN (GBR), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Flight Seventeen, Race Two: TEAMORIGIN def. Luna Rossa, 00:37
They started at speed on starboard with Britain’s TEAMORIGIN bow-out in the leeward berth. Ed Baird steering Luna Rossa was forced away early on port as Ben Ainslie on ORIGIN sailed into more pressure and continued to pull ahead.


Race Day 8. Luna Rossa (ITA) vs TEAMORIGIN (GBR), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Flight Six, Race Two: Azzurra def. SYNERGY Russian Sailing Team, 00:15
Italy’s Francesco Bruni pulled off a breathtakingly close port cross on the first leg to defeat SYNERGY Russian Sailing Team. On the second beat there were 17 punishing tacks up the 1.2-mile leg but Synergy skipper Karol Jablonski, on the right, could never gain enough ground to get past Bruni.


Race Day 8. Azzurra (ITA) vs Artemis (SWE), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Flight Twentythree, Race One: Artemis def. Azzurra, 00:15
Saddled with a penalty in the pre-start Francesco Bruni and his Italian Azzurra team stayed on the attack and took the fight to the Swedish team Artemis around all four legs as the lead changed multiple times. However the Italians were trailing Terry Hutchinson and Artemis by 100 metres at the finish and they were still carrying the penalty.


Race Day 8. The Artemis gennaker pole goes overboard during the takedown, breaks and drags the gennaker under the boat, © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Flight Eighteen, Race One: SYNERGY Russian Sailing Team def. Artemis, retired
A spinnaker pole overboard at the end of the second run dragged Artemis to oblivion, breaking the pole and shredding the Swedish boat’s spinnaker.


Race Day 8. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) vs ALL4ONE (FRA), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Flight Twenty, Race Two: All4One def. Emirates Team New Zealand, 00:21
The French/German boat started ahead in the middle of the line on starboard, just ahead of the Kiwis on their weather hip. All4One helmsman Sébastien Col gradually inched ahead and his lead increased as the jib on ETNZ began to self-destruct.


Race Day 8. Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Provisional win-loss leaderboard after Saturday racing:

=1. Synergy Russian Sailing Team, 5-4, 5 points
=1. Artemis, 5-2, 5 points
=3. Emirates Team New Zealand, 4-2, 4 points

=3. TEAMORIGIN, 4-3, 4 points
=3. All4One, 4-3, 4 points

=6. Azzurra, 3-4, 3 points

=6. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, 4-1, 3 points *

=8. Luna Rossa, 2-6, 2 points
=9. BMW Oracle Racing Team, 1-5, 1 point
=10. ALEPH Sailing Team, 2-4, -2 points *

* Penalties deducted by Jury/Umpires


Race Day 8. Synergy (RUS) vs Artemis (SWE), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.


Race Day 8. Azzurra (ITA) vs Synergy (RUS), © Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Louis Vuitton Trophy

LVT: Broken Gear Leads to Loss for Emirates Team New Zealand

by Warren Douglas

A horizontal split near the top of the jib and a failed lock at the top of the mast cost Emirates Team New Zealand any chance of winning its race against All4One at La Maddalena today.

The split started as they crossed the start line in the match against the French-German All4One.

Skipper Dean Barker said: “We got the start we wanted to the right of All4One but as we came off the line the jib failed compromising our speed build. We had to tack away from a strong position and started losing distance.

All4One took advantage of the opportunity presented to them and as Emirates Team New Zealand nursed the failing jib, All4One started to build a lead.

On board Emirates Team New Zealand the job was to keep the sail together as much as possible and minimise the losses while preparing for an attacking opportunity on the downwind leg.

The opportunity didn’t come on the run as crew worked to ready another jib for the second beat At the hoist, the team got the second shock of the race: one of the locks at the top of the rig failed and they could not set the sail properly.

Dean Barker: “Again our up-wind speed was compromised. We had to keep the game as close as we could and try to bustle ALL4One into error. But they sailed well and did exactly what we would have done had the situation been reversed.

“When you’re racing borrowed boats and supplied equipment you make the best of what you’re given. We’re not alone in that.”
The final delta was 21s.

Saturday’s results:
TeamOrigin b Luna Rossa by 37s
Azzurra b Synergy by 18s
Artemis b Azzurra by 15s
Synergy beat Artemis (DNF)
All4One beat Emirates Team New Zealand by 21s

Leaderboard after Day 8
Synergy won 5 – lost 4. 5 points
Artemis 3-2, 5 points
Emirates Team New Zealand 4-2, 4 points
TeamOrigin 4-3, 4 points
All4One 4-3, 4 points
Mascalzone Latino 4-1. 3 points
Azzurra 3-4, 2points
Luna Rossa 2-6. 2 points
BMW Oracle 1-5, 1 point
Aleph 2-4, -2 points
Mascalzone Latino have been penalised by the jury.

Tomorrow:
Emirates Team New Zealand is matched against BMW Oracle and Artemis. First two races of the day.

Emirates Team New Zealand
Louis Vuitton Trophy

LVT: Important Win for ALL4ONE Against Emirates Team New Zealand

ALL4ONE wins against Emirates Team New Zealand. Image copyright Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

by Stephanie Nadin

Very nice win today for team ALL4ONE on the Louis Vuitton Trophy-La Maddalena, as the French-German team defeated Emirates Team New Zealand. It is also an important point for ALL4ONE and the general ranking of the Round Robin at this stage of the competition.

The match of the day:

Good start from the French-German team, which started ahead in the middle of the line on starboard, just ahead of the Kiwis on their weather hip. ALL4ONE helmsman Sebastien Col gradually inched ahead and his lead increased as a problem with the jib occurred on ETNZ. The Kiwis used an alternate jib on the second weather leg but failed to make any gains, and ALL4ONE kept control of the race.

Sebastien Col, Helmsman: "We have sailed a nice race today, first with a good start, then rounding the mark ahead and controlling our lead until the finish line. This nice victory today means for us that we will have a good finish in the Round Robin, where we still have two more matches to race to fine tune some details for the rest of the competition."

Jochen Schümann, Skipper and Strategist: "We are very happy to win this point. It was a kind of a "bonus" point for us, as we have been a bit lucky because the Kiwis had a problem with their sail and couldn't really sail fully trimmed on after the start, so that helped us a little bit to defend our position after the start, (where we had a good position and a little lead), but we probably couldn't have crossed in front of them if they had been sailing full speed. So we took the advantage and were leading on the top mark. We defended well from there, and no doubt that we could win this point."

ALL4ONE has two more matches to race in the Round Robin, against Artemis and Aleph.


ALL4ONE wins against Emirates Team New Zealand. Image copyright Paul Todd/outsideimages.co.nz/Louis Vuitton Trophy.

Results Day 8 - Round Robin
Race 1 : TeamOrigin wins by 37 sec over Luna Rossa
Race 2 : Azzurra wins by 15 sec over Synergy
Race 3 : Artemis wins by 15 sec over Azzurra
Race 4 : SYNERGY Russian Sailing Team def. Artemis, retired
Race 5 : ALL4ONE wins by 21 sec over Emirates Team New Zealand

Round Robin provisional results to date
Synergy 5
Artemis 5
Emirates Team New Zealand 4
TeamOrigin 4
ALL4ONE 4
Mascalzone Latino 3
Azzurra 3
Luna Rossa 2
BMW Oracle Racing 1
Aleph -2

ALL4ONE
Louis Vuitton Trophy

LVT: No Racing again today for Mascalzone Latino Audi Team

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Mascalzone Latino Audi Team.

by Lorenza Priamo

After yesterday’s forced stop, the crew of Mascalzone Latino Audi Team haven’t been able to race their scheduled match for the second consecutive day. Given the impossibility to race on the two yachts provided by BMW Oracle after their collision, the match has been necessarily rescheduled.

The necessity to alternate crews on a single pair of yachts combined with the capricious winds has inevitably delayed the program. Today, the “Latin Rascals” were scheduled to race in the sixth and last match but at around 7:30pm, Race Director, Peter Luigi Reggio, sent the crews back to port due to a technical problem on one of the yachts.

Tomorrow, Mascalzone Latino Audi Team will race, weather allowing, against the French of Aleph in the fourth flight.

Mascalzone Latino Audi Team
Louis Vuitton Trophy

LVT: Win One, Lose One for Artemis

by Paul Cayard

It’s all on here in La Maddalena. Six matches were scheduled for today, two of which included ARTEMIS.

First we were up against the Italians onboard AZZURRA, in their home waters, immediately followed by SYNERGY. The Russian team has shown remarkable improvement since Auckland and as of last night was tied for first.

Just as we entered in the starting sequence against AZZURRA, the wind shifted considerably. Terry Hutchinson controlled the pre-start well for us, but with only 20 seconds to go, PRO Peter Reggio abandoned the race and reset the course.

Without much of a delay, we were underway again and this time managed to get a penalty on AZZURRA and a good start. We stayed close to the Italians on the first upwind leg and rounded the mark first, but Francesco Bruni was able to roll us on the run as we both gybed to starboard. We rounded the right mark of the gate, just behind AZZURRA, and rolled into a tack immediately. We sailed out to the right a bit and when we came back to AZZURRA, they could not cross. We kept "bouncing" them out to the left. We had a near collision at the top of the beat as the Italians made a huge bear away to get behind us. We sailed a good race and by the end of it, were 100m ahead of the Italians who still had a penalty owing.

This left us feeling pretty positive for our race against SYNERGY that got underway just after 1700. The pre-start was intense and Karol Jablonski managed to start on port at the pin end of the line while we were to leeward. We decided to keep it close rather than start a tacking duel from behind. The Russians led us by two boat lengths at the top mark and down the run. As we went to drop the spinnaker, our pole went in the water and the kite followed soon there after. It took us a while to clear up the mess and the Russians won easily. As more racing was scheduled for the day, we retired from the race to give the shore team as much time as possible to prepare the boat for the next race between ETNZ and ALL4ONE.

It’s was a very valuable win for SYNERGY who will now be tied with us for first overall. Tonight, there is another protest hearing (BMW Oracle vs ETNZ) and the shore crew are going to be busy– especially the sailmakers in the sail loft.

In the other matches of the day, TEAMORIGIN defeated Luna Rossa and AZZURRA beat SYNERGY.

We are headed back to the hotel for a team debrief with our coach ‘Dog’ who captures it all on video.

Tomorrow we race Emirates Team New Zealand and ALL4ONE. A Mistral is heading our way so sometime Sunday or Monday racing will surely be suspended for at least 24 hours.

Artemis
Louis Vuitton Trophy

LVT: Confident Win for TEAMORIGIN

TEAMORIGIN vs. Luna Rossa. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.

by Leslie Greenhalgh

TEAMORIGIN was back on the water today and took on the world class Italian team of Luna Rossa with Ed Baird on the helm, Torben Grael as tactician and Robert Scheidt as strategist. Marcus Hutchinson, TEAMORIGIN, was 18th man today and was linked up to the live commentary throughout the race – an added bonus for the fans following the race action live.

Marcus Hutchinson's race report:

With a relatively stable breeze of 12 knots, Ben Ainslie brought TEAMORIGIN into the start box from the port end in the team’s only match today. The first of the three remaining matches the British team has to sail in the Round Robin stage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddelena regatta was against Luna Rossa, the first time the pair have met on the water in over a year.

It was never clear over the course of the next four minutes which side of the beat would be dominant and so after a fairly long dial-up Ainslie chose to make a tight to leeward start and try and benefit from a slight line bias at the buoy end.


TEAMORIGIN vs. Luna Rossa. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.

Within 30 seconds of the start gun firing it became clear that the British team had started better and were pushing into a dominant position to leeward of Luna Rossa. This quickly resulted in the Italian boat being forced to tack away. TEAMORIGIN matched the tack and from a position to windward and slightly ahead benefitted from sailing into an increase in wind pressure from the left, and started to pull ahead. Half way up the beat Luna Rossa came back at the British boat and crossed behind by nearly three lengths. This allowed TEAMORIGIN to take up the right hand side and dominate the tactics for the rest of the beat.

Several tacks later TEAMORIGIN had got into a position to force Luna Rossa to make two extra tacks in the final approach to the top mark, resulting in a lead of 35 seconds at the turn.

With a stable breeze, a short course and a healthy first mark lead, all that was required to take the race win was consistent good crew work and boat handling and smart defensive tactics. All of these elements were delivered by the British team, and the final winning margin was 37 seconds.


TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.

TEAMORIGIN quotes:
Chris Salthouse (Curly), Mainsheet for TEAMORIGIN, “A good start today, there was no obvious ‘must win’ side so we selected as best we could and started well to leeward, got a nice shift, from then on did a really nice job controlling them for the rest of the race. For us in this stage of the competition, every race is a must win and we are simply focusing on one race at a time.”

Julian Cressant, Mast man for TEAMORIGIN, “The guys at the back did a great job getting a good clean start, it was hard today tactically to chose one side or another, but we got away cleanly and quickly managed to have a 5 boat length lead, that made matters a lot easier at the front of the boat, calm and confident and really clear communication on board today.”


TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.

Race Results Day Eight, Sat 29th May 2010, Round Robin One
Flight 17 : TEAMORIGIN beat Luna Rossa, 37s
Flight 6 : Azzurra beat Synergy, 15s
Currently underway:
Flight 23 : Azzurra v Artemis
Flight 18 : Synergy v Artemis
Flight 20: Emirates TNZ v ALL4ONE
Flight 19 : Mascalzone Latino v BMW ORACLE Racing


TEAMORIGIN. Image copyright Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN.

Results to date (after race 2 of Sat 29th May)
ETNZ : 4 wins, 1 loss (1 re-sail to be done v BMWO)
Artemis: 4 wins, 1 loss
TEAMORIGIN : 4 wins, 3 losses
Synergy : 4 wins, 4 losses
Mascalzone latino : 4 wins*, 1 loss = 3 points (docked 1 pt)
ALL4ONE : 3 wins, 3 losses
Azzurra : 3 wins, 3 losses
Luna Rossa : 2 wins, 6 losses
BMW ORACLE Racing : 1 win, 5 losses (1 re-sail to be done v ETNZ)
Aleph : 2 wins*, 4 losses = -2 points

TEAMORIGIN
Louis Vuitton Trophy

Black Swan Racing Training for The Spring Cup in Sweden

by Keith Swinton

Black Swan Racing have just completed two days of training prior to our first European regatta The Spring Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden. On Thursday we sailed in the 5 man DS37 yachts which we will race during this weekends Spring Cup. Today we sailed the smaller Elliot 6m against some of Sweden's women match racers who are campaigning towards London 2010 in the match racing discipline.

Keith Swinton, helmsan: "It has been nice to get back out on the water and participate in some solid training before our first event of the year. The Spring Cup is an important event as it can qualify us for Match Cup Sweden later in the year. It has been a little difficult having some new crew on the team for this event but we feel positive now."

The Spring Cup begins Saturday and concludes on Sunday.

Black Swan Racing would like to thank our following supporters: South of Perth Yacht Club, Kerman Contracting, Abbotts PTY LTD Chartered Accountants, McNally Group PTY LTD, Musto Australia & Sweden.

Black Swan Racing