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Sail-World.com : Fisher's View: All over
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Bob Fisher
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Never mind the finesse, go for the throat. That seemed to be at the back of Dean Barker’s mind as he entered the start box against Karol Jablonski.
The Polish helmsman of the Spanish boat had stood in Barker’s way for long enough and in their seventh race, the Kiwi skipper the semi-final of the Louis Vuitton Cup should come to a close. Never mind the finesse, go for the throat.
Barker has been under fire for his performance in the starting box in earlier races, but today he was totally dominant and took very little time to get on top of proceedings and drive the Spanish boat way out to the right of the Committee boat end of the line and trap Jablonski there.
One felt a trifle sorry for Jablonski and his crew, but there was nothing that he could do to wriggle out of Barker’s stranglehold. As Barker tacked to starboard to reach for the line, Jablonski tacked after him and followed two boat’s lengths behind.
Emirates Team New Zealand was 14 seconds late at the start, but in a match race, that counts for nothing. Desafio Espanol followed 14 seconds later, and that is the measure that counts in match-racing. To come back from that in the 16-18-knot breeze was next door to impossible.
Jablonski had been hammered and his team stuffed – like a parrot with Polyfilla – a real stitch up by the Kiwis. Barker was a different man behind the wheel today – shoulders back and caring little for the flying spray in the 1.5-metre swell and choppy seas.
Had he been able to look into the Spanish boat, he would have seen an all-too-familiar sight, that of men with blue buckets getting rid of the excess water in the cockpit. Shades of Team New Zealand in the first race in 2003.
The lead extended to almost 200 metres by the windward mark and Emirates Team New Zealand rounded the buoy with a lead of 38 seconds. There was a slight delay to the hoisting of the spinnaker as the two men on the bow had been washed aft with the pole as they were setting it.
It didn’t matter. They soon recovered and, using a symmetrical spinnaker began to draw further away from the Spanish, taking two gybes less than them to reach the bottom gate. Both rounded the right hand buoy, but the Kiwis’
lead had grown to 50 seconds.
The second round was a repeat of the first and the writing was all over the wall for the Spanish. Emirates Team New Zealand finished one minute and 18 seconds in front – it could have been a week.
Maybe it should have been two races ago, had Barker shown the pre-start fire he did today and had two fluffed gybes not ruined the New Zealand chances in the sixth race. It’s all water under the bridge now, but in just over a week, on June 1st, the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup will take place to decide the challenger for the America’s Cup.
Emirates Team New Zealand versus Luna Rossa promises to be a stunning competition. While most would expect the Kiwis to triumph, on past form, it is too early to write-off the Italians. Their performance, in beating the might of BMW Oracle, would point to a much improved team.
It has James ‘Spitfire’ Spithill behind the wheels and that is a young man in a hurry – a hurry to succeed. He will not be denied easily and this match could go all the way. What it will do is provide a Louis Vuitton Cup winner that is well prepared to take on the defender, Alinghi, in the America’s Cup.
ENDS
by Bob Fisher
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http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?nid=33966
6:29 PM Wed 23 May 2007 GMT
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